Section C & D

Join Reel Sisters and While We Are Still Here for Starring Harlem, a daylong film festival, on October 28 from 1pm -8 pm at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. The afternoon will include film and music celberating the Harlem’s rich film and arts heritage.

Section C – 4:30 p.m.-6:05 p.m. EDT
The Five Demands 

Directors: Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss

Documentary, 75 min.

Directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, The Five Demands (2023) revisits the untold story of the explosive student takeover and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities.

Moderator: Karen D. Taylor is a writer, curator, and multi-genre artist who has lived in Harlem for over thirty years. She is the founder and executive director of While We Are Still Here, a Harlem-based, heritage-preservation non-profit. Inspired by the national discussion on “gentrification,” Karen is moved to steward the creation of programming that wraps the arts and humanities in a package that is a gift to the future.

Section D – 6:20 p.m.-8:00 p.m. EDT
Sundays at the Triple Nickel 

(13 minutes)

Written by Jess Colquhoun and directed by Colquhoun and Adam Rachlitz, Sundays at the Triple Nickel(2020) is a documentary short that features Marjorie Eliot, a woman who is making sure her apartment building’s iconic jazz legacy lives on in the iconic neighborhood of Sugar Hill, Harlem. Marjorie and her son have been hosting jazz concerts in her apartment every Sunday for the past twenty-six years—a pursuit of overcoming grief through music. This film tells the story of the woman behind the piano, and how Marjorie’s generous vision came to be.

Mary Lou Williams: Lady Who Swings the Band

(70 minutes)

Directed by Carol Bash, Mary Lou Williams: Lady Who Swings the Band (2015) features the life and legacy of jazz pianist, Mary Lou Williams, a genius ahead of her time. From child prodigy to “Boogie-Woogie Queen” to groundbreaking composer to mentoring some of the greatest musicians of all time, she never ceased to astound those who heard her play. But for a Black woman in the early 1900s, life as a star did not come easy.