For Immediate Release: September 24, 2010

Films Uncover Worldwide Influence of Black Panthers, at Oakland Public Library
Black Panther Party International Film Festival

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Main Library – West Auditorium, 125 14 th Street
Saturday, October 23, 2010, 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

(Oakland) – October is Black Panther Party History Month, and the Oakland Public Library’s programming to mark the occasion will culminate with the Black Panther Party International Film Festival. While the history of the Black Panther Party is obviously of local significance, having been founded in Oakland in the mid-1960s, this year’s films cast an outward look – on the spread of the party to other parts of the world, with proponents and chapters in far flung places such as New Zealand, Tanzania, and Israel. Admission to the festival is free.

From Street to Sky (2007; produced for Maori Television; 60 minutes) relates the story of a New Zealand musician and former Polynesian Panther, Tigilau Ness. This personal account shows how a humble man of Nuiean descent has helped shape the relationship between Maori and peoples of the Pacific – through his music and through his physical actions on the ‘street’.

The Black Panthers (in Israel) Speak (2003; Israel; 53 min.) documents how the Black Panther movement took the Mizrahi/class struggle out of its local and nationalist Jewish framework, linking it to the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, Third World Marxism, and, for the first time, to the Palestinian struggle in Israel.

A Panther in Africa (2004; USA; 70 minutes) is about Pete O’Neal, who as a young Black Panther in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested for transporting a gun across state lines. O’Neal fled the charge, and has lived in exile in Tanzania for 30 years. Today, this community organizer confronts very different challenges and finds himself living between two worlds – America and Africa, his radical past and his uncertain future.

For more information, please call the Library at 238-3841 or visit www.oaklandlibrary.org. Photos are available. The Oakland Public Library is a department of the City of Oakland.

###