"Stonebreakers" Film Screening

About This Event

Join us for a thought-provoking afternoon featuring a screening of Stonebreakers by Valerio Ciriaci. This compelling documentary delves into the aftermath of the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election, exploring the contested memories tied to monuments and ancestral lands in the U.S. Stonebreakers reveals the deep connections between history, political action, and the reshaping of America’s collective imagination as the nation wrestles with its triumphalist myths.

Following the screening, a dynamic discussion will explore the progress and challenges of reparative memory struggles at local, national, and global levels. Experts and community members will share insights on strategies and obstacles to transforming how the past is remembered.

The discussion will feature Curtis Caesar John, producer of Stonebreakers and a New York-based curator and organizer; Angelica Pesarini, Assistant Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto and a scholar-activist in Italy’s anti-racist movement; Katrina Phillips, a proud citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and Associate Professor of History at Macalester College specializing in Native history; and Leesa Kelly, a local activist, writer, public speaker, and executive director of “Memorialize the Movement,” a living archive dedicated to preserving and activating the plywood protest murals created during and after the Minneapolis uprising of 2020.

This event is presented in collaboration with the Black Europe Film Festival of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, a showcase of Black cinema in Europe debuting on January 30th. For more information, visit www.beffmsp.org or follow BEFF MSP on Instagram at @blackeuropefilmfestival.