Human Rights Watch LA’s Film Club Committee to Host Screening, Live Panel

By ELSA O’DONNELL | Intern 

The Los Angeles Film Club Committee of the Human Rights Watch organization is hosting a screening on Sunday, June 26, at 4 p.m. at New Roads School at the Herb Alpert Educational Village in Santa Monica.

The organization will be showing Jeffery Robinson’s “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.” The event will culminate with a panel discussion about the film, and an outdoor reception with tacos and drinks.

“In ‘Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,’ Jeffery Robinson’s groundbreaking Town Hall on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism is interwoven with historical and present-day archival footage, Robinson’s personal story, and interview footage capturing meetings with Black change-makers and eyewitnesses of history,” according to a synopsis of the film.

The panel discussion—moderated by William Nix, producer and CEO of Creative Projects Group—will feature producer and writer of “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” Jeffery Robinson, researcher and advocate in Human Rights Watch’s U.S. Program Dreisen Heath, and President of the African Ancestral Society Chief Egunwale Amusan.

Palisadian and Co-Head of the LA Film Club Committee Adam Wolman said the panels are engaging and offer viewers insight that they can’t get from simply watching the film.

“[Human rights] is something I’ve always wanted to be helpful with,” Wolman, who joined HRW in 2017, said. “I got involved with the Film Club because I produce and consult on documentaries, and I wanted to be a part of a group that showed thought-provoking films for a wider audience.”

Wolman works with fellow Palisadian and the other Co-Head of the Film Club Committee Ramyne Spire, who joined HRW around 2009.

“The intention of the Film Club is to bring people together in an amicable setting,” Spire said. “For me, it’s an opportunity to just go deeper into the topics that HRW selects. We try to be very timely and diverse with the important issues of the day for the film we show.”

Many Palisadians work with HRW, and the organization has 500 other employees from around the world.

“The main goal of the organization is to bring global abuses to light and prevent them,” Director of the HRW Southern California Division Perrine Vaillant explained. “HRW’s methodology is to investigate, expose and change … We have advocates in the biggest capitals of the world, where they demand accountability, and push for change at the highest level of power.”

Twenty-one committees, including the Los Angeles Film Club Committee, assist the organization with fundraising and spreading human rights awareness.

“With the Film Club, we are trying to get people plugged in and personally connected to some of the work that HRW is doing around the world by highlighting the issues through a screening and a panel,” Wolman said. “The idea of the panel is to take the film to another level.”

Tickets for the screening can be purchased by visiting hrw.org/lafilmclub.