Virginia Film Festival

On October 22, 1963, more than 200,000 students boycotted Chicago Public Schools in a demonstration to protest racial segregation. Activists called for the resignation of the superintendent who placed trailers at overcrowded black schools rather than allow them to enroll in nearby white schools. Director Gordon Quinn blends 16mm footage of the march with participants’ reflections today in ’63 Boycott.

Lonnie Holley: The Truth of the Dirt, from director Marco Williams, is an intimate portrait of a self-taught African American visual artist and musical performer from Birmingham, Alabama. Everything that Lonnie encounters is imbued with creative possibility. Lonnie uses anything that has been discarded, thrown away, or left behind as the materials for his creations. Discussion with directors Gordon Quinn (’63 Boycott) and Marco Williams (Lonnie Holley), moderated by Justin Reid (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities)