Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Show all posts

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute at the 2016 Coronado Island Film Festival

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

I received Press access from the Board to the Coronado Island Film Festival staff and venues to facilitate writing this sponsored post. 

The Coronado Island Film Festival: 85 Movies. 6 Spectacular Parties. 5 Live Performances. 4 Panels of Industry Pros.

I've lived in San Diego for a long time and one of my favorite places to go when I want to be a tourist in my own city is Coronado. The island is beautiful and filled with history. I didn't realize how much of a connection to old Hollywood and the film industry the island has. 

Dozens of movies have been filmed on the grounds of the world famous Hotel Del Coronado, Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum lived in a home on Star Park Circle, and there is an IMDb page filled with movies and TV shows filmed on location around the island. 

It makes sense that Coronado would be prime location for a film fest. And now it's here! The first annual Coronado Island Film Festival starts this week on Friday, January 15th and runs through Monday the 18th.


Coronado Film Fest 2016 Martin Luther King tribute

The festival is packed with appearances by industry leaders:
  • Leonard Maltin - film critic and author
  • Lisa Bruce - Producer of The Theory of Everything
  • Emmanuel Lubeski - Cinematographer for recent Golden Globe winning film The Revenant
  • Chris Lemmon - Writer and son of actor Jack Lemmon who will be receiving the inaugural Hollywood Legacy Award during the festival
  • Jonas Rivera - Producer for the recent Golden Globe winning film Inside Out
To honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Coronado Film Festival is hosting a free tribute event on Monday the 18th from 3:00 - 4:30pm. The reception happens following a special Noon screening of Laurens Grant's documentary Freedom Riders. Grant won a Peabody award and three primetime Emmy's for her 2010 Civil Rights film. 





Grant's other documentaries, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Jessie Owens are also screening at the Festival. Freedom Riders will screen at Noon at the Village Theatre and the reception, with Grant as the special guest, is at the Glorietta Bay Inn. Light hors d'oeuvres and wine will be served. 


Laurens Grant documentaries Coronado Film Fest 2016

To plan your weekend of Festival activities, read the full Coronado Island Film Festival program online. 

Other film festival reads:

For a listing of other free events during the Festival, read this post by Danielle Simmons of Simm Works Family

Suzzette Valle, Coronado resident and author of 101 Movies to See Before You Grow Up, has a full Festival rundown on her site. You can buy a signed copy of her book at the Hospitality Tent. 

Kate Hammernik of Highlights Along the Way shares details on the animation panel and opening night screening of the new Disney movie The Finest Hours.

Rob, AKA Downtown Rob has a list of the parties and special events. 

To stay up-to-date with the Festival news and schedule, Like the CIFF Facebook page, follow the CIFF on Twitter and through the #CIFF and #CoronadoFilmFest hashtags. 



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Honor and Remember

Monday, January 17, 2011

This is an excerpt of a speech Dr. King gave on April 10, 1957 in St. Louis Missouri.

A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations 
I bring you greetings from Montgomery, Alabama, a city that has been known over the years as the Cradle of the Confederacy. But I bring you special greetings from the fifty-thousand Negroes of that city who came to see a little more than a year ago that it is ultimately more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation. 

I bring you greetings from fifty-thousand people who decided one day to substitute tired feet for tired souls and walk the streets of Montgomery until the sagging walls of segregation were finally crushed by the battering rams of surging justice. I bring you greetings from a humble people who heard the words of Jesus and decided to follow him, even if it meant going to Calvary. A people who decided that love is a basic principle of the universe.

But I didn't come here this evening to talk only about Montgomery. I want to try to grapple with a question that continually comes to me. And it is a question on the lips of men and women all over this nation. People all over are wondering about the question of progress in race relations. And they are asking, "Are we really making any progress?" I want to try to answer that question. And if I would use a subject for what I plan to say this evening, I would use a rather lengthy subject: A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations.

There are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations. And the first attitude that can be taken is that of extreme optimism. Now the extreme optimist would argue that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations. He would point proudly to the marvelous strides that have been made in the area of civil rights over the last few decades. From this he would conclude that the problem is just about solved, and that we can sit comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.

The second attitude that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations is that of extreme pessimism. The extreme pessimist would argue that we have made only minor strides in the area of race relations. He would argue that the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent that we hear from the Southland today is indicative of the fact that we have created more problems than we have solved. 

He would say that we are retrogressing instead of progressing. He might even turn to the realms of an orthodox theology and argue that hovering over every man is the tragic taint of original sin and that at bottom human nature can not be changed. He might even turn to the realms of modern psychology and seek to show the determinative effects of habit structures and the inflexibility of certain attitudes that once become molded in one's being. From all of this he would conclude that there can be no progress in the area of race relations.

Now you will notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common: they both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations. The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible. But there is a third position that is another attitude that can be taken, and it is what I would like to call the realistic position. 

The realist in the area of race relations seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both. So the realist would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way. But, he would go on to balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go. And it is this basic theme that I would like to set forth this evening. We have come a long, long way but we have a long, long way to go. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1964 (source: Library of Congress)photo © 2006 Mike Licht | more info (via: Wylio)
So, where do I stand? Which attitude do I have? I'd say I'm a realistic pessimist with optimistic leanings. I can't ignore how far we've come because that would be disrespectful to all the people who have helped get us here. But I also see how far we need to go.

I see it on the news and in the TV shows I watch. I read it in the newspaper, on Twitter and in blog posts. I hear it in casual comments.

Fifty four years after this speech, we're still saying we have a long way to go. I wonder if, in my lifetime, we'll ever be able to say, "we've come a long way," and have that be the end of the sentence.

Read Dr. King's speech in its entirety here.
 
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