Black history film series kicks off in Flint this weekend - MLive.com

FLINT, MI — The New McCree Theater will continue its annual Black History documentary film series, starting with its first film this weekend.

The film series was started in 2018 with four films. This year, the series will feature three films.

“With the absence of Black history in any shape or form in our public school system, we have to create other avenues to share our history with the world,” said Charles Winfrey, the theater’s executive director. “We have to be the ones to tell it, otherwise it will go back to distortion, half-truths and other lies. We need to know our history. Otherwise, like the old saying goes, we would be doomed to repeat it.”

Winfrey said the film series aims to touch on various topics and subjects throughout historical African American life and experiences in this country, helping provide a deeper look and to build greater conversations for the community.

This year’s films include:

• Slavery By Another Name, which will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13.

• The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, which will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22.

• The Murder of Fred Hampton, which will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2.

Each film will be shown at the New McCree Theater, located at 4601 Clio Road in Flint, and have free admission to the public.

The first film, Winfrey said, will focus in on a post-slavery America in the 1800s, where many former slaves were forced into labor through peonage.

“Industrialists and farms were left without a free form of labor, so peonage was created in its wake. African Americans who didn’t have any form of employment or stood on the street too long were sent to prison or jail, and forced to provide labor for these industrial entities,” Winfrey said. “In addition, a lot of them went into share cropping and, again, were forced to work the plantations for food and shelter, which was just an elevated form of slavery.”

Winfrey said the New McCree Theater is open to the public and encourages all members of the community to attend the film series.

The New McCree Theater is funded in whole or in part by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment millage.

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