About this film

Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in this documentary spanning Oakland’s Fruitvale to the American South. Long before George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Oscar Grant’s 2009 fateful encounter with law enforcement on a BART platform seeded public awareness and cultural consciousness of systemic racism and its discontents. Paying forward lessons learned and advocating against anti-Black violence in memory of her son, Oscar, Wanda Johnson holds space for Angela Williams, whose teen son, Ulysses, survives a police encounter in Troy, Alabama, living to tell his story. Radical empathy fuels this timely exposé.

WHEN + WHERE

7:30 p.m. Fri., April 28, Michigan Science Center (Toyota Engineering)

FILM CREDITS

Director:
Débora Souza Silva

Producers:
Débora Souza Silva, David Felix Sutcliffe, Adina Luo

Writer:
Débora Souza Silva

Composer:
Tangelene Bolton

Cinematographers:
Débora Souza Silva, David Felix Sutcliffe, Contessa Gayles

Editors:
Sara Maamouri

Year:
2022

Running time:
1 hour 42 minutes

Country of origin:
United States

Festival highlights:
San Francisco International Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival

Awards:
Breakthrough Award (Athena Film Festival), Best Feature Documentary (Denton Black Film Festival), Best Black Lens Award (Sidewalk Film Festival)

Film website