From pacifica, this is democracy now this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Officials have now disclosed a second chemical was part of the spill that contaminated the states water supply last week. Some 300,000 people had to go without tap water for days after an agent used in coal extraction leaked into the elk river. On wednesday, the company line the spill, freedom industries, told authorities the chemical leak assad included ppc, which includes dangerous glycol that theres. Friedman industries had never reported it in its filings with the state. West virginias water has been declared safe to drink in all areas since the weekend, except for pregnant women, but has are still ongoing. The first day of the peace conference ended with deep divisions between all sides. Syrias foreign minister described rubble groups as terrorists while an Opposition Leader called the regime of Bashar Alassad a disease that should be finished. The unitedasid or to nations criticized the u. N. For bowing to the u. S. Led call for withdrawing irans invitation. Todayhad 40 countries in a way preselected that most of them would be antisyrian delegations, meaning governmentsng from who do have hostile policies toward the syrian government. But at the same time, coincidentally, the secretarygeneral excluded iran. So we have 10 new countries and same time. N at the speaking after the talks concluded, secretary of state john kerry renewed his backing of the departure of Bashar Alassad and said the u. S. Is prepared to increase support for the rubble opposition. There is no one who has done more to make syria a magnet for terrorists them Bashar Alassad. He is the single greatest magnet for terrorism that there is in the region. And he has long since, because of his choice of weapons, because of what he has done, lost any legitimacy. I will say to you, lots of different avenues will be pursued, including continued support to the opposition and augmented support to the opposition. The u. N. Will attempt to mediate the first direct talks between the regime and the opposition friday in geneva. The negotiations could last up to 10 days if theyre able to get off the ground. Special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said both sides are prepared to discuss confidence building measures, including humanitarian access and the release of prisoners. We have some fairly clear indications the parties are willing to discuss issues of needy people, liberation of prisoners, and ceasefires. It is a very rare commodity in our business. Opposition leaders and ukraine have issued a 24hour ultimatum for the government to respond to their demands for political change. Speakers told a crowd of tens of thousands packed into key of kievs independent square that they plan to go on the attack unless the president makes concessions. Clashes have escalated this week. The president has faced a number of domains including forging closer ties with the European Union instead of russia and calling early elections. Hundreds of people marched in cairo on wednesday in a show of protest against the military regime. The rally came days before the anniversary of the launch of the 2011 uprising that ousted mubarak. The head of the egyptian anitary is expected to run Upcoming Elections after ousting Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in july. Mexicans executed a National Despite objections from the state department, the mexican government, and the world court. He was convicted of killing a Houston Police officer after a robbery in 1994. But the world court later ruled he was entitled have his case reviewed because he was never informed of his right to diplomatic assistance from the mexican consulate. In killing him, texas ignored pleas from the u. S. State department that the killing would violate international law. A Texas Department of criminal justice spokesperson announced the execution. Tamayo was executed for the january 1994 murder of Houston Police officer guy gattis. Pistol while in the back of a Police Cruiser and fired multiple rounds and killing officer gattis. When asked if he wanted to make a last statement, tamayo said he did not. He was pronounced deceased at 9 32 p. M. , 17 minutes after the lethal dose began. Is the thirdyo Mexican National to be executed in texas whose case was part of the world court order. Defense attorneys had also argued he was ineligible for the Death Penalty because of his mental disability. The American Psychological association has rejected a complaint against a psychologist involved in the torture of prisoners ike guantanamo. Part in theo took interrogation of mohammed khatami, whose terror charges were later dropped because of the brutality he endured. Speaking to democracy now in 2011, dr. Stephen reisner said leso helped design the harsh techniques applied during the interrogation. Increasingly harsh techniques included isolation, sleep cold,ation, extreme sexual and religious humiliation whole gamut of techniques used individually and together. And the interrogation lasted for about a month and a half. A federal Appeals Court has ruled potential jurors cannot be rejected based on their sexual orientation. The decision will force the retrial of a case decided after a gay juror was left out. It could also bolster challenges against laws that discriminate against lgbt people. Thousands of antichoice activists braved freezing temperatures on wednesday to march against abortion rights and washington, d. C. The socalled march for life is held every year on the anniversary of roe v wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. There are no setbacks for antichoice measures at the state level. Last week, a federal judge struck down a North Carolina law forcing doctors to perform ultrasounds on women seeking an abortion. The Supreme Court also declined to overturn a ruling striking down arizonas ban on abortions after 20 weeks. Over the past three years, states have passed on 200 restrictions on abortion, more than the entire previous decade. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Yes, we are broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in park city, utah. The coalition of immokalee workers won a victory last week when walmart come the Worlds Largest retailer, signed onto an agreement to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers in its supply chain. About 30,000 workers will directly benefit from walmarts decision to join its fair food program. 11 other companies have joined the program, including mcdonalds and whole foods. Today we turn to a new documentary focusing on the nations best known farmworkers organizer, cesar chavez. In 1962, he founded the National Farm workers association, which would later become the united farm workers of america. He led the union for the next three decades and organized a series of historic strikes and boycotts. Here at the Sundance Film Festival, new documentary has just premiered hold caesars last fast. It features never before footage of his 36day fast to bring attention to the dangers of pesticides in the fields. The film is directed by Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee. This is an excerpt. He was in so much pain. Toward the end, he could not talk for an much. I remember people would come to comfort him. He ended up comforting them and they felt much better. Did he have to carry the burden of his own fast, padilla to comfort but he had to comfort others as well. Director Richard Ray Perez joins us here in park city. His father was a farmworker labored and lived in the conditions cesar chavez fought to improve. When perez was four years old, he and his family joined the grape boycott and marched in the to pressure growers to sign labor contracts are guaranteed the humane treatment of californias great grape pickers. What a documentary. Yet, we have been getting a wonderful response here at sundance. It is such an honor to bring it to this platform. And introduce and reintroduce caesars story to a new generation of americans and ultimately, a new generation of global citizens. Tell us the story of caesars last fast. And the88, cesar was 61 united farm workers had been struggling to regain the victories they had in the 1960s and 1970s. They launched a third great boycott because the laws that were set up by jerry brown in california to protect farmworkers and give them the right to collectively bargain were being forced and they were struggling to stay successful. At the same time, cancer clusters emerged in Central California and Central Valley. Farmworkers women were reporting unexplained miscarriages. Their children were being borne with severe deformities and cancer. There were very high cancer rates. All of the evidence pointed to the use of pesticides, which at the time were loosely regulated. Fastr decided to go on a to recommit himself to this boycott and particularly around the unregulated use of pesticides in the fields and on farmworkers. He told nobody in the first two days. After a few days, his wife figured out what was going on. At that point, people started to slowly rally around him. The ufw workers in a few cosupporters came to where he fasting at the compound. Describe what happened over those 36 days. At the time, press secretary was Lorena Parlee into his close to cesar and a been working with him for a number of years and should begin videotaping as much as she could of all of the activity around his fast. She had unprecedented access and intimate access to him and his chamber and the interactions he had with the ufw staffers, with family, with doctors. What she captured was some raw material that showed visible decline in his Health Every Day as the fast progressed. When i got the footage and started looking at it, he became very clear that there was a story around this fast where cesar is getting weaker and weaker day by day. The family is getting more concerned. They come and try to talk them into breaking the fast and it doesnt work. Doctors come in a few days later and try to reason with them. He doesnt he decides to keep fasting. Ultimately, jesse jackson, who had just finished a president ial campaign, came in around day 34 and proposed to cesar this plan that he and the other supporters around him would take on the fast, and they would fast for three days and pass it along. Fast couldsars continue among his supporters and he couldnt eat again and hopefully, spare his health. And so describe those last days in the footage that you have in this documentary. Weak that he is sort of slipping in and out of consciousness. You are moments when there are moments when he looks like he very well could have passed away. In those moments, you sort of realize how dedicated he is to this cause and essentially his willingness to die for the cause, and heres a man that had led this Historic Movement and you start to wonder, could he have recklessly decided to give his life for this cause . And at the same time, threaten the efficacy of his movement at that time because of what could be seen as recklessness. Fortunately, he breaks his fast. On day 36, he is so weak, his sons have to carry him into a mass. Thousands came to the mass where cesar was to break his fast. They sit him next to his 96yearold mother who is in tears. On the other side of him is at the kennedy who has come to help him break the fast. Her husband Robert Kennedy was that cesars side when cesar broke his first fast. Priest bringss, a a piece of bread to ethyl kennedy. She gives him his first food in 36 days. His mother cries and the crowd goes wild. It is a heavily symbolic moment. Will, of the host, if you for this incredible act of sacrifice. And you talk about the access this film gives all of us, the access that well, in a sense, your codirector of the film. She died in 2006. Why she had it . , myorena Lorena Parlee codirector, was a filmmaker herself. She had volunteered for the ufw became cesars press secretary in exchange for some they been allowed to make a film about cesar. She had it in her mind she saw the opportunity to record this historic footage. I think she sought after he progressed. She started recording around day 23. She recruited a cameraman named jim, who later connected with and shot a lot of our interviews with. This opportunity had never existed before. Cesar was a very, very private man, although he had a very public life. It was phenomenal in this sort of setting that she was first, courageous enough to turn on the cameras, and at the same time, respectful enough to not invade the intensely personal act. In that process, she captured phenomenal footage that when i started looking at it, i inherited the footage in 2007, i cannot believe my eyes. I thought, my god, is this what i think it is . How did you get involved . As you mentioned when you introduced the show, my father had been a farmworker. When i was a kid, my family was active in supporting the farmworker movement. Years later when i became a documentary filmmaker, i was interested in doing the. Ocumentary about cesar chavez at one point, my mentor talked about it and we could never sort of workout our schedule and it did not happen. One day i got a call from a woman who said, hi, i am, i heard youre interested in doing a documentary. Im already working on a project. Thinking oft i was just letting it go. She tells me her history. Pressd been cesars secretary and have been working on a project for 10 hours and had amassed 85 hours of footage, including the footage that had never been seen before of the fast. She had this very intimate footage of cesar plus familys private Burial Service and cesar lying in state in the grandchildren helping cover the coffin with dirt and cesars brother building his coffin. It is incredible trove of footage. She said shed been struggling to finish the film and was looking for a collaborator. She asked me if i was available to help her out as a producer. I said i would love to help her. On tohad just signed direct the series and i was unavailable for six months. I said, in six months, i will jump on the project and we will get it going. She said, i need somebody tell me now because im being treated for Breast Cancer. I could only work on a project for two weeks out of the month. Clearly, i was startled and moved. During our conversation there was a role sense of trust and bonding. I told her in six months, if you have not found someone, let me know. You dont need to pay me. I am committed to this cause. Six months passes and i did not hear from her and i assumed she found someone else. Nine months later i get a phone call from an elderly gentleman and he says, hi, i am Lorena Parlees stepfather. She died last month of Breast Cancer and that her name left your name in her notes to contact you to see if you would finish her film. At that point it became a terminus responsibility it became a tremendous responsibility. She was a wonderful human being. She had dedicated her life to this cause. I wanted to ensure the completion of the film. You tell the story not only of the last fast of cesar chavez, but of cesar chavez through his life. I want to turn to a moment to cesar chavez and his own words, speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in november 1984, a few months after he launched the third and longest great boycott. Today, thousands of farm workers lived under savage conditions beneath trees and amid garbage and human excrement in tomato fields in san diego county. Tomato fields which use the most modern from technology. Vicious rats not them as they sleep. They walked miles to buy food at inflated prices and carry and water from irrigation ditches. Child labor is still common in many farm areas. As much as 30 of northern californias girl at harvesters harvesters are underaged children. Kids as young as six years old in Union Elections is the qualified as workers. Drivenlife i have been by one dream, one goal, one overthrow of farm labor system in this nation that treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings. Farm workers are not agricultural implements. Theyre not beasts of burden to be used and discarded. Was 1984. Our guest is Richard Ray Perez was just produced a documentary cesars last fast. Cesar chavez has come all my life ive been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision. And us about cesar chavez how he came to cofound the united farmworkers. In his formative years when cesar was a child, who is forced to work in the fields of california after his family lost their plot of land. He knew from direct experience of what it was like to live and work as a migrant farm worker. Expenses edged in his soul. Those experiences fueled his work for his entire life. I think he was incredibly empathetic person. Those memories could not escape him and rather than being angry or selfdestructive, they fueled him to try to change something. You ultimately Learned Community organizing in urban areas, but that farmworker condition never left him. So he applied the Community Organizing skills to communities or in communities in the Central Valley to organized farmworkers. Talk about what was unique about his organizing model. In some ways, his organizing model was based on the organizing model that was passed ross cesars mentor fred and fred trained not only cesar, but dolores puerta. Once you embrace the model, he really brought in the cultural components of it. Nothought to organize just the workers, but their families. His organizing often involved faith and prayer. The filipinos and mexicanamerican farmworkers were catholics, primarily. He had a deep faith that was passed along to him by his grandmother and his mother. He used faith to fuel the inspiration the former proceeded to keep going, to believe they could make a difference. You learned about the great boycott when you were four years old. Start in my in head hometown in california. At that time, it was a wonderfully politically active time. There were students from what has been san fernando state Valley College would come and volunteer at this head store. It was a community movement. One day we were sitting around having our lunch was part of the program and the desert is this fruit cocktail, which is bits of fruit swimming in heavy syrup that no child should eat. I was sitting down with my preschool classmates and across from the is one of the college volunteers. I notice when the candy eating the fruit cocktail, he started plucking the grapes out of the fruit cocktail. I was curious. I said, how come youre doing that . He points at the grapes and said, the people that own the great fields treated people who pick the grapes terribly. They pay them little money and make them live in shacks and humiliate them. If people complain, they fire them. I remember looking at my grapes and it became very ugly. I could not eat them. So i started plucking them out of my fruit cocktail. I noticed all of the other preschoolers at the table were listening and they look out at the grapes and they were pretty disgusted, too. Pretty soon, all of the preschoolers and eventually the whole class could not eat those grapes. Or the rest of the year, we could not eat those grades. For the rest of the year, we cannot eat those grapes because of what it meant to the people who are picking those grapes. In your documentary, you are critical of cesar chavez and organizing the united farmworkers and strategies. In 1975, there was a huge victory in california around a historic law called california Agricultural Labor relations act that cesar and the union had negotiated with governor jerry brown. After that period, there was a real challenge for how to lead the union in victory. A lot of very talented Union Members had strong ideas. Aroundas some infighting turning the union into a more traditional labor union with locals and professionalizing the union. At that point, all Union Members and staffers were volunteers. Cesar wanted to maintain a sort of more sense of community and Community Around sacrifice and building even a residential community. That caused a big rift in the union. I would call it a power struggle. I think cesar had difficulty managing and leading the union and that victory period and the infighting became very destructive and a lot of animosity emerged between the talented Union Organizers who have built the union and cesar. Alternately, it cost the union its effectiveness and its ability to lead in the past as eventually,n Union Membership began to decline. Richard perez, it is a therkable documentary and footage you have of that last fast come everybody should see. Director of cesars last fast. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. When we come back, we cover another movement, the civil rights movement. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in park city, utah. Hundreds of people marched and had his birth, mississippi wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of freedom day. I generate 22nd, 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil rights activist marched around the Forest County courthouse in support of black outing writes. A march was the beginning of an historic year in mississippi. Months later, civil Rights Groups launched freedom summer. Thousands travel to mississippi to help register voters and set up freedom schools. Out of freedom summer grew the formation ofthe the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that challenged the legitimacy of the white only Mississippi Democratic already. Even sir being held across mississippi in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of this historic moment. Here at the Sundance Film Festival, a documentary entitled freedom summer goes quote directed by Stanley Nelson has just premiered. This is a trailer. Lifetime him during my to control the making of the law controls me. To control the government in which i live. I dont think people understand how violent mississippi was. If black people try and vote, they can get hurt or killed. If youre not a registered voter, youre not a citizen. There was a come youre right, boy, we should be registered to vote. You arewould say, right, boy, we should be registered to vote. We hope to send in a mississippi the summer upwards of 1000 students from all around the country who will engage in freedom schools, Voter Registration activity, and open up mississippi to the country. Extinctionabsolute of all we hold dear. We must be Strong Enough to crush the enemy. Three civil rights workers have disappeared in mississippi last sunday night have not been heard from. It was always in the back of everybodys mind that i enjoyed what happened. That bad things would happen. But if you cared about this country and cared about democracy, you had to go down there. That is an excerpt of freedom summer. The director joins us here in park city, utah. Theast films include murder of emmett till. It is great to have you with us. We sat here in park city and riders. Bout freedom writer in the summer of 1964, it was decided to send 1000 young people, mostly White College students, down to mississippi to help people to vote, have freedom schools, and challenge the democratic already in Atlantic City. Democratic already in Atlantic City. You cant go to mississippi. You have to challenge it from the outside. A was a move made by snic in couple of other organizations to say, no, we can work in mississippi and we will do it in the summer of 1964. I want to turn to another clip that begins with civil rights activist bob moses and julian bond discussing the plan for mississippi summer. What is really important is that they get down and just melt away into the black population. If we could just get everybody through the entry point and into the community, the black community, we will house them and also [indiscernible] the genius of the freedom summer is that these volunteers were spread all over the state. The freedom summer workers are everywhere. There in almost every little big town, almost every place where you can go from a they are there. Yesterday the first two hundred civil rights workers arrived in mississippi and fanned out over the state. Another 800 will follow. The students were assigned in quarters and negro homes. When charles can buy the house and told us they needed homes are the civil rights workers, i said, i dont have that much room, but we would be happy to do it. And i told my husband and he said, yeah, they can stay here. I felt the time had come to help naked change help make a change. I had three sons and i did not want them to go through what i had gone through and what i had seen. I was determined to help make a change. The boys would have to double up. They were happy to know someone was coming. That is an excerpt from the new documentary freedom summer that is just premiered here at sundance will stop heard from a local mississippi resident at the end of the clip named daisy harris. Stanley nelson, talk more about the role of bob moses, julian bond and daisy harris. Bob moses went to mississippi in 1961 when everybody was saying, you cant go to mississippi. He went down there pretty much by himself. He is knocking on doors trying to register people to vote. He is very unsuccessful in getting people to he get some people down of the courthouse, but when they get there, very few are registered. He is joined by more snic workers and activists and they do the same thing, but they are not very successful. They come up with this plan to draw attention to mississippi by bringing the 1000 students down there in the summer of 1964. One of the big things, important things that happened was the white kids to go down the mississippi, there is no way for them to stay. They have to stay in the black community. They had to get local residents of mississippi to volunteer to house these people. It was such an incredibly rave thing to do because not only did they have to take the brunt of the violence that came with freedom summer, but they had to stay after. People like daisy harris, which amazingly brave and what they did. Talk about the summer, the murder of the three civil rights activists. We talk about three, but there were many murders. There had been many murders a mississippi. The first day of freedom summers actually, before the first day. All of the volunteers went to a Training Program in oxford, ohio. They were being trained and there was news a church had them bond in mississippi. Three of the workers go down there a day early to check on the bombing and immediately disappear. That cast a shadow over the whole framework because for most of the summer, they were missing. Nobody knew what had happened. Snice in the movement workers and people in the movement said they knew immediately when they disappeared they would never be found alive. And they were right. We have a clip from freedom summer beginning with dave dennis who led the congress of racial equality operations in mississippi, speaking at james chaneys funeral. I want to talk about what we really grieve about. I dont grieve for chaney for ae fact i feel that he lived fuller life than many of us will ever live. I feel that he has got his freedom and was still fighting for it. His speech was a turning point in the summer because everybody wanted him to say the usual things that you would say at a funeral, and dave dennis just could not do it. He challenged the people at the memorial and challenged the whole movement. You see, i know what is going to happen. I feel it deep in my heart. All of the deep emotions, things weve been going through the leading up to this particular moment begin to come out. And then looking out there and seeing ben chaney, james chaneys little brother. I lost it. I totally just lost it. Dont bow down anymore. Hold your heads up. We want our freedom now. I dont want to have to go to another memorial. Im tired of the funerals. Im tired of it got to stand up. The funeral of james chaney. 4eir bodies were found august in mississippi, philadelphia and mississippi. Controversial so many years later when president reagan, then running for president , launched his president ial campaign speaking there in philadelphia, but not addressing that issue. Right. That was a slap in the face to many who understood the civil rights movement. Why do it there . What is he saying by doing that . It was very strange. Summer, 2, 1964, of the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Lets turn to Fannie Lou Hamer speaking at that convention in Atlantic City. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] being threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings in america. Inthat was Fannie Lou Hamer 1960 four, Democratic Convention. Talk about the mississippi freedom democratic hearty, Fannie Lou Hamer. One of the things that was done in freedom summer was to register people in this new party. The thing about that was, all you did do was sign your name on a piece of paper. You did not have to go down to the courthouse or expose yourself to this violence, these repercussions that could happen from actually going to the courthouse to register. They formed this new political 60,000hat would register to 80,000 people. One of the things that was said, black people did not want to vote. That is why people could not vote, because they did not want to vote. One thing we have to understand about mississippi that made it unique, africanamericans were 50 of the population in mississippi. But only 6. 7 were registered to vote. To Atlantic City or up to Atlantic City to challenge the Democratic Party and say, we should be seated us with a delegation from mississippi because we are integrated. There are black people and white people in our party. The allwhite delegation for mississippi has not let any black people become part of the delegation. So seat as instead. Incredibleis passionate plea to be seated and they had Martin Luther king who ke, british warner spoke Rita Schwerner spoke. The final speaker, the big speaker was Fannie Lou Hamer. That is a little of her speech is all there. You did freedom riders and youre steeped in the civil rights history. What surprised you most . Lyndon johnson and his reaction to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Theres an interview we do with taylor branchs says, Lyndon Johnson has kind of a mini nervous breakdowns because he was so scared the mississippi freedom democratic already would disrupt the convention. Johnson really thought that Bobby Kennedy had this whole plan if the convention was disrupted, Bobby Kennedy was gone a step in and take the nomination from him. This is a year after that even a year after the assassination of john kennedy. Anyone around at that time knows that is preposterous. Lyndon johnson was the hero at this point because he took over the presidency but he really felt that would happen. So he is behind the scenes trying to destroy the party. Even more amazingly, he has taperecorded all of his phone calls when he talks about this stuff. Candidly and openly about how he is going to maneuver and dont put my name in, dont let them know im doing it. His role in that is something that is hard to be believed. Gives the speech when Fannie Lou Hamer gives her speech, and the press will cover him. I saidcorrection, president reagan. This speech he gave august 3 almost the same day years later that the bodies of schwerner, cheney, and goodman were found, was right after the Republican Convention in 1980 when he was nominated, launching his run for the presidency as the republican candidate. Summer,with freedom where do you plan to go with this . This will be broadcast as part of the American Experience series . Yes. That will be a big deal. We are going to go everywhere we possibly can. This is the 50th anniversary of freedom summer, so there are all of these events happening. One thing we did was go wherever we can do show the film. We want to show it to young people. It is important people understand how hard people fought for the right to vote and some of those rights are being taking away from us today, and some people just dont vote. We really want to get this film out to young people and get it wherever we can. Stanley nelson, thank you for being with us, Award Winning director of the new documentary which will air, on pbss American Experience on june 24. His other films include, emmett till the murder of emmett till. Stay with us. [music break] the images you saw during the break or you can watch on democracynow. Org are from the film and project we will discuss in our next segment. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. From parkadcasting city tv in park city, utah. We ended today show with a new film that explores how africanamerican communities have used the medium of photography to shape how they are represented. In a minute, we will be joined by the director, Thomas Allen Harris, who shares his own familys history and the film. First, this is a trailer which he narrates. Their secrets in every family there are secrets in every family. Sometimes they are buried deeply. And sometimes theyre right out there in the open. Willfully unseen. All the one place secrets reside in the family photo album. In what it chooses to represent hidden. Hat is absent, as a child at the age of six, i realized that i am black and i did not want to be black. Every day were basically told, you aint it. You dont look right. Cowards. Stupid. Neverending barrage of negative representations wield a certain type of political force, even though they are fiction. Was commit is, a photograph used in the battle between two legacies . Selfaffirmation. And negation. House ovation as a people, as onsalving theds wounds of this war, a war of images within the American Family album. That is the trailer for, through the lens darkly black photographers and the emergence of people. Which had its World Premiere here at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed and produced by Thomas Allen Harris was also the created of the related project for both inspired other reflections in black, history of black photographers 1840 to the president by Deborah Willis who also produced the film. Thomas allen harris, great to have you here at park city tv in the studios. Talk about the framing of the family, the framing of the image of the Community Come of a whole population and what has happened in the africanamerican community. Photography began in 1840. When it began, slavery was still legal in the country. The representation of African Americans could be used either to support slavery so that there were africanamericans depicted as less than human, but the abolitionists were also concerned with affirming the humanity of the enslaved people. From the beginning, photography was used as a weapon either for or against the enslavement of African Americans. I continued with each decade to the present day. I think africanamericans are very much aware of the way in which our image frames us and how the images we take and have in our homes and families are very different that we see in Popular Culture about as. What the film does is it traces this kind of lineage, the development of stereotypes versus the activism within the families come in to take pictures of themselves affirming our humanity. I want to go to another clip that includes a quote by Frederick Douglass from 1861. He is the africanamerican abolitionist, writer, activist was enslaved himself. We hear first from the historian richard j powell. You have individuals like Frederick Douglass who understands not only the larger political battle for abolishing slavery, forgetting black people to vote, but he knows the visual shoretel of it as well. At the very best type of european [indiscernible] demands the very best type of negro should be taken. The imports of this reduces the may not be apparent to all but the black man it is very apparent. That is an excerpt from through the lens darkly black photographers and the emergence of people. Our guest is Thomas Allen Harris , director of this documentary that has premiered at sundance. Truthw the name sojourner , Frederick Douglass, but in the context of photography, Sojourner Truth . Sojourner truth was the first black woman to use like photography as a tool for her liberation, but also economically. She sold images of herself to supportof herself. The film traces the ways in which africanamerican leaders use this medium of photography, which is very much similar to the medium of the internet now. Before then, you had to be wealthy to have your portrait painted. Now you could make a picture of yourself and circulated and use it as part of the economy to make money, to also affirm your humanity. So each generation of africanamericans actually had to deal with the issue of the stereotype. When i was growing up, my grandfather took photographs of us ritually. You had to sit down and wait for five or 10 minutes for him to get the perfect picture. I did not realize as a child that it was almost an activist kind of ritual because it affirmed we were important. Everyone in this country is looking at each other through a lens. The lens in america is one that is riddled with stereotypes. You can have Trayvon Martin, people looking at Trayvon Martin immediately as a thug. That is why this film is so important in terms of a neville to understand the way in which we see ourselves and see other people. Its also the reason i started the roadshow. Explain that. Is aimed at helping people see the value of their photographs, both historical value and the value of education. It is a roadshow that travels across multiple cities. People come in and share their family photographs, get them scanned, and understand how their images are a part of the public record. It is a cross between antiques roadshow and storycorps. People are not necessarily aware the value of their family photographs outside their home, so people come into the roadshow and present their family photographs to strangers. The strangers become family. It really affirms the fact that we have more in common than separates us. Who takes the picture and who doesnt . Who gets included and who doesnt. Who is the photographer. Exactly. And in terms of people in color, in terms of women, how we are a part of the American Family album is something that is being restructured. People can upload their family photographs to our website. Were going to have a link on democracynow. Org. Thomas allen harris, director of producer of, through the lens darkly black photographers and the emergence of people. That does it for the show. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] im an american, ive been brought up on american films, story and narrative. Call it classical, traditional or old fashioned, im drawn to those forms, try to stick them. Get back home is a basic action. Youve seen it before, its called ulysses. And if you dont think it works there, its really terrific when its e. T