Down a Dark Stairwell Town Hall
Event Information
About this Event
Join the live event here: https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/aossc
Please join a Town Hall featuring selections from the documentary film Down a Dark Stairwell just days before the national PBS premiere on Independent Lens
In a time of escalating violence against Asian Americans, our hope is to raise consciousness, forge partnerships and engage people across the country in civic dialogue. The roundtable conversation among national community leaders will explore the themes of the film and the broader cultural and historical context of today's tragic headlines.
The roundtable will be moderated by celebrated author Jeff Chang and will feature panelists Cynthia Choi (Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action), Robeson Taj Frazier (Associate Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg), Hua Hsu (Staff Writer, The New Yorker and Associate Professor of English, Vassar College), Bo Thao-Urabe (Executive Director, Coalition of Asian American Leaders), and Down a Dark Stairwell filmmaker Ursula Liang.
About the film
On a fall day in 2014, Peter Liang, a Chinese American police officer, shot and killed an innocent, unarmed black man named Akai Gurley. Unfolding in the dark stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, the shooting inflamed the residents of New York City and thrust two marginalized communities into the uneven criminal justice system together.
In the wake of Gurley’s death, cries of police brutality rang out to join a chorus protesting the recent police killings of two other unarmed black men in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri. Liang, 28, had joined a high-decibel national conversation about race and the justice system, one that got louder and angrier just days later when an officer in Cleveland, Ohio, shot and killed a 12-year-old African American boy playing with a toy gun. In this raging, anguished debate, a rallying point was the pronounced pattern of police officers, mostly white, avoiding criminal prosecution. Liang, however, was hit with a charge of manslaughter and, triggering a fresh wave of debate, became the first NYPD officer in over a decade to hear a guilty verdict in such a case.
ASL interpreters will be present at this event.
Down a Dark Stairwell will premiere on Independent Lens on April 12th on your local PBS station, and on PBS Passport. The film will be made available, subtitled in Chinese.
Learn more about Down a Dark Stairwell on the Independent Lens website. Check local listings.
JOIN THE TOWN HALL IN A BOX SCREENING
The screening will occur on the OVEE website. Once you register we will automatically send you a link to access the streaming. This link will be sent a couple of days prior the event.
What device can I use to watch the live stream?
A computer or large screen device that you use to watch movies is ideal. As long as your device is able to stream video from the internet you are all set. A tablet or phone that can stream video will also work.
Screening Partners:
