UA-Produced Documentary on Black Panther Party to be Screened in Harlem

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The documentary film “Lowndes County Freedom Party,” produced by the Center for Public Television and Radio at The University of Alabama, will be screened Saturday, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem.

The film, directed by Dwight Cammeron, documentary television program director for CPT&R, recalls the efforts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to mobilize the African American majority of “Bloody Lowndes” to exercise their political voice by forming a local political party in the face of repression. He traces the roots of the Black Panther Party’s philosophy of self-determination and self defense to rural Lowndes County in Alabama by way of Harlem, New York.

Following the film screening, David White and Sam Anderson, founding members of the original Black Panther Party started in the summer of 1966 in Harlem, will discuss how their experiences working with SNCC in Lowndes inspired the formation of the NYBPP, reasons for the organization’s short life and its influences on the BPP in California.

The Maysles Cinema, the only movie theater in northern Manhattan dedicated to documentary film, serves as a site for community based, low-cost popular education and entertainment. Their documentaries are selected in collaboration with engaged viewers, independent curators, educators, filmmakers and in alliance with the city’s informal and well-established community and cultural groups.

The Center for Public Television and Radio is a service department of the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences. It has been producing programming for broadcast on Alabama Public Television since 1955. Students gain valuable experience by working alongside staff professionals on a variety of projects.