A Place of Rage
Pratibha Parmar
»To see this boy that I idolised, who belonged to us, in the sense of our block and all of us, disfigured by these strangers who came in with all that force and licensed to use that force, was really terrifying, you know? And also it hardened me, I would say, early on, in a kind of place of rage.« Captured on film by Pratibha Parmar, the poet June Jordan describes her shock after a boy from her neighbourhood was brutally attacked by white police officers. A Place of Rage exposes not only the brutality and glaring injustice of institutionalised racism, it also shows how the African-American community was able to mobilise forces and act collectively. In interviews with the director, June Jordan, Angela Davis and other contemporaries analyse the protests of the 1960s, in which they themselves played pivotal roles. They describe their own politicisation and pay tribute to the life achievements of the women who came before them, such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer. They highlighted the connection between the different forms of discrimination early on and advocated the need to unite the political struggles of lesbians, gays, blacks, women and workers. With contributions from Alice Walker, Trịnh Thị Minh Hà and others, the film paints a richly nuanced picture of the black US civil rights movement, its ideals, anger, losses and victories.
Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and author whose fiction and documentary films have been screened at international film festivals since the mid-1980s. An advocate of LGBTQ+ rights and visibility, she has received several lifetime achievement awards for her contribution to feminist and queer filmmaking. She succeeds in bringing complex political issues about race, feminism, sexuality and LGBTQ+ into mainstream media. Pratibha Parmar is currently also directing TV series, and in 2022, she shot an episode for Law & Order.
Films by Pratibha Parmar
My Name is Andrea 2022 | Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit 2022 | Alice Walker Beauty in Truth 2013 | Nina’s Heavenly Delights 2006 | Wavelength 1997 | Jodie: An Icon 1996 | Warrior Marks 1993 | Khush 1991 | Sari Red 1988