Better Cities Film Festival: Birmingham Edition

1821 2nd Avenue North,Birmingham AL 35203

05 February, 2023

Description

The future of Birmingham is ours to choose and to make. Through film, we can understand our current situation and learn from other cities. But this ain't no ordinary screening. The Kickback will curate the soundscape. There will be a custom drink menu waiting for you at the bar. And we'll have creative activations that allow you to leave your mark.So join us for movies, discussion, music, and much more as we begin to decide what Birmingham will be.Schedule2:00pm - Short Film Block3:00pm - Intermission3:30pm - Feature Film BlockRaised/Razed is a documentary feature film about the lasting effects of the federally-backed and locally-executed Urban Renewal program, through the lens of Vinegar Hill, a large African American neighborhood in the heart of Charlottesville, Virginia, that for 100 years thrived as the center of business, education, religious, and cultural life, until it — like hundreds of Black communities across America — was destroyed.The film closely unpacks exactly how urban renewal operated, and the racist legacies it left behind by highlighting the program's broad stroke of displacing African Americans in small towns and large cities across America. Raised/Razed draws the connection between Charlottesville’s Vinegar Hill neighborhood and Durham, North Carolina’s Hayti neighborhood, which was also destroyed, to show how Urban Renewal generationally transformed the lives of people across the country. Raised/Razed leaves us with the question of repair and what can be done to reckon with this painful history.4:30pm - Panel DiscussionCarmen Mays, MPA - ModeratorChristopher Tyler Burks, MPA - Panelist*other panelists will be announced soon