Dr. King's Legacy of Non-Violence Kept Alive

As we approach one of the saddest and most tragic anniversaries of our time, the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. forty years ago this week, we are honored to play a small part in preserving his great legacy in Dare Not Walk Alone, one of the few films we know of that documents in detail the practical genius of Dr. King's non-violence principles..

In the film we see exactly how Dr. King focused world attention on the injustices of the Jim Crow laws of the segregated South. Because he persuaded supporters to remain peaceful on marches, sit-ins, beach bus-ins, and boycotts, despite increasingly hysterical violence and provocation from those who opposed desegregation, the world was treated to image after image of white Americans, police with dogs, youths with clubs and chains, assaulting innocent black people.

The contrast proved too much for Washington politicians in the summer of 1964. The motel owner, James Brock (shown speaking with Dr. King in this rarely seen archive footage from the film) whose segregated establishment had been picketed for many months, finally snapped and used acid to get black and white bathers out of his "Whites Only" swimming pool.

Within days of that incident the first civil rights act was passed. For it showed the world how futile segregation was when some black and white Americans were prepared to link arms and stand united to put their lives on the line for freedom and justice for all. May we strive to honor Dr. King's legacy by continuing to stand together to achieve that goal.

Obama and DNWA: The dialogue starts here

When Senator Barack Obama gave his recent speech titled "A More Perfect Union" he referred to the gap "between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time." Anyone who has seen Dare Not Walk Alone will know what that gap looks like and that it still exists today.

Here's a link to the text and video of the speech and here's the passage that describes what Dare Not Walk Alone has so effectively documented:

"...words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time."

Those words capture the spirit of the struggles that played out on the streets of St. Augustine in 1964, where ordinary people, black and white, Christian and Jewish--and doubtless other faiths and philosophies as well--put their lives on the line to pass legislation that would finally dismantle the Jim Crow laws and move America closer to "a more perfect Union."

But Jim Crow laws rose up after slavery was struck down, and more subtle forms of discrimination took hold after the civil rights acts struck down Jim Crow. The gap was narrowed but not closed. And when the film turns its cameras on the present we clearly see "that legacy of defeat" which Senator Obama refers to as being "passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future."

Yet the film also shows how meaningful steps can be taken toward healing divisions that still exists more than forty years after the heroic struggles of 1964. And surely now is the time to face up to the challenge, not by glossing over grim realities, not by absolving individuals of responsibility for their own actions, but by extending the hand of friendship, finding a kind word, accepting good will at face value, and having some faith in our fellow citizens, angry and hurt though they may be.

As Senator Obama put it: "the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races." The goal of Dare Not Walk Alone has always been to expand our understanding, close that chasm, narrow the gap, help the dialogue begin and take hold.
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New Dare Not Walk Alone Trailer

[Update April 21: Over 1,500 people have watched the trailer on YouTube!]

P.S. For the geeks out there, here is code to embed the trailer from YouTube:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s9lh4dGMHjo&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s9lh4dGMHjo&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

A Powerhouse of a Picture: Latest review of Dare Not Walk Alone

The upcoming screening of Dare Not Walk Alone in Portland this next Saturday led to a review in the Willamette Week which is Portland's Pulitzer-winning alternative newspaper. Here are some memorable quotes:

"A POWERHOUSE OF A PICTURE"

"MINUTELY ATTUNED TO DISPARITIES OF CLASS AND RACE"

"A TRIUMPH OF OUTRAGE AND EMPATHY"

Needless to say, we think the reviewer really 'got' what Dare Not Walk Alone is all about. You can read the full review online on this page, just scroll down the movie list.

And just a reminder, there will be a free screening of Dare Not Walk Alone on Saturday, February 23 at 4:00 p.m. at the New Columbia Community Education Center (4625 N. Trenton Street, Portland, 97203). Bring your family, bring your friends.
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Free Screening of Dare Not Walk Alone, Portland, OR, Feb 23

Thanks to Film Action Oregon and The New Columbia Community Education Center there will be a free screening of Dare Not Walk Alone on Saturday, February 23 at 4:00 p.m. in Portland, Oregon. This is the film's first showing in Oregon so were are asking all our friends and supporters to tell everyone they know in Oregon about this event.

This screening is part of The New Columbia Film Series, featuring films from around the world that address important issues such as race, ethnicity and cultural traditions. The film will be shown at the New Columbia Community Education Center (4625 N. Trenton Street, Portland, 97203). To find out more and help publicize this event, which includes other films, you can download the flyer here.
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DNWA Civil Rights Film Comes to Texas: DFW at SMU on Jan 24

Greetings Texas! The award-winning indie documentary Dare Not Walk Alone will be showing on Thursday, January 24 at 7 p.m. in Hughes-Trigg Theatre on the campus of Southern Methodist University as part of the schoool's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Week. Please tell as many people as you can about this event. (Location is 3140 Dyer Street, Dallas, TX 75205)

Dare Not Walk Alone tells the story of the 1964 "war of ideas" in St. Augustine, Florida, that led to the passage of the first civil rights bill on July 2 of that year; events never before documented in this fashion; events that speak to the heart of the current political debate over race in America and the role of Dr. King, who was jailed in St. Augustine, versus that of President Johnson (tapes from the LBJ White House are heard in opening scene of the film).

Described as the "most gritty version of civil rights history" put on film, Dare Not Walk Alone has been acclaimed by film festival audiences across the country. It offers a rare look at Dr. King's non-violent campaign tactics in action and shows the tremendous courage and heroism required of those who put them into practice to break a political stalemate and give America a landmark law, desegregating hotels, restaurants, swimming pools and other public places, as well as establishing the federal entity that has probably done more than any other to bring equality to working Americans, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

If you can encourage people to attend, and to vote at IMDB, you will be helping this important film obtain wider release. Thank you!

Vote for Change! Vote for DNWA at IMDB?

Most people who watch Dare Not Walk Alone agree that it is a great agent for positive change and many ask what they can do to help the film reach a wider audience. Some have asked if it would help to vote for the film on IMDB, the Internet Movie DataBase. The answer is: Maybe.

If you have seen the film, then please vote. A good score at IMDB generally helps a film get more exposure, which is what Dare Not Walk Alone needs if it is to fulfil its role as an agent of change.

But you should NOT vote for a film at IMDB unless you have seen it, and you should NOT vote more than once, even if you own several different email addresses. You should also avoid voting with a new email account from yahoo or gmail. If you violate these rules and guidelines then your vote might actually lower the score that IMDB lists for the film. That's because IMDB, which is owned by Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, goes to a lot of trouble to detect and deter vote stuffing (and also movie bashing).

If IMDB didn't do this, their rating system would be meaningless and so the technology behind the scoring is very sophisticated. For example, suppose someone wanted to hurt a movie. They might create a bunch of free email addresses at Yahoo then cast a bunch of low votes. But IMDB can detect foul play like that and will give less weight to those votes.

Of course, the most powerful vote you can cast is the one in November, at the ballot box. So please be sure to register to vote now!

Dare Not Walk Alone Puts Clinton King and LBJ Remarks in Perspective

Could America use some perspective on the heated exchanges that followed former first lady Hillary Clinton's LBJ/MLK remarks on the presidential campaign trail last week? Probably.

A good step forward would be to watch Dare Not Walk Alone, the civil rights documentary that shows what really went down on America's streets to force LBJ to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Here's what Mrs. Clinton said:

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.”

Some African-American residents of St. Johns County, Florida, might disagree that it took a president to get it done. They marched for months, were harassed and beaten back for months, and in some cases spent months in jail, to make the point that a civil rights act, languishing in congress, was truly needed.

Words alone cannot evoke the feelings that were in the air at that time, feelings that come rushing back when you watch black bathers attacked with bats and chains by angry whites on the segregated Florida beaches. Where was the president then? And when the owner of a local motel poured acid into his swimming pool to force out "integrated bathers," here's what LBJ said:

"Foreign policy and everything could go to hell over this."

Those remarks, from White House tapes, never got much air play. The swimming pool incident was widely-reported, but the events leading up to it were not. And the media has never revisited the scene of these events in any depth. We made Dare Not Walk Alone to change that.

This blog is not the place to pass judgment on presidential candidates. But the coverage of this topic in the press has made it clear that too few people in America know what was really going on in 1964. It is our hope that Dare Not Walk Alone will change that.
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Happy New Year & Thank You DNWA Supporters!

Here's wishing everyone a great 2008! We appreciated all of your support during 2007 and hope to see some of you on the cinema circuit when Dare Not Walk Alone enters limited theatrical release in 2008 (watch this space for dates and places).

And we hope you see the progress you are looking for in this New Year. May it be a year of great change for the better for everyone.

The DNWA Team

Season's Greetings

Things have been quiet here on the blog, partly because we are into the holiday season. Film festivals are thinner on the ground at this time of year and we have been busy with all the nitty gritty work that goes into preparing a film for theatrical release.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that your plans for the upcoming holidays are going well.

The DNWA Team