AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS

Directed by Grace Lee

Asian American Panorama / USA / 2013 / documentary / 82 mins / English / HD

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Watch Trailer

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY

Digiplex Mission Valley
November 8, 2013 7:15 pm

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY (encore)

Digiplex Mission Valley
November 13, 2013 9:00 pm

Description

Audience Award, 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival

We would all be so lucky to know a Grace Lee Boggs: activist, feminist, author, speaker, and philosopher. As of this writing she is still socially active at age 98. Grandmotherly in appearance but fierce and outspoken – sometimes to the point of making people cry during arguments – she embodies the spirit of the words she once spoke: “You don’t choose the times you live in, but you do choose who you want to be.”

In her previous The Grace Lee Project (SDAFF ’05), filmmaker Grace Lee (no relation to Boggs) created diverse portraits of people who share her name. Grace Lee Boggs though, warranted a film all of her own. The Chinese American Boggs has long been an advocate for the rights of African Americans, who have in turn embraced her and her husband, auto worker and fellow activist James Boggs.

Shot over a decade in Boggs’ home city of Detroit, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY offers a reverential but also critical overview of her ideas and accomplishments, deeply influenced by Marx and Hegel. It also takes a sobering, though optimistic, look at the city’s history. Able to adapt her methods and ideas to a changing environment, Grace Lee Boggs has become a symbol of sustainable activism. –Wilda Wong

Co-presented by: NAPAWF-SD, Women’s International Center, Japanese American Citizens League, UCSD Cross-Cultural Center, USD Social Justice LLC, The Lawyers Club of San Diego

Preceded By

Speaking Out

Steve Nagano / USA / 2013 / 6 mins
In this incredible footage from 1981 government hearings, Japanese American internment survivors refuse to be silenced.
Precedes: AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS