Name: Documentary Screening and Benefit
Start: 2024-01-12T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-01-12T21:00:00-05:00
Location: Waller's Coffee Shop

Documentary Screening and Benefit

Find out more about our work at hjacobscreative.com

Hal Jacobs

Come watch our new short doc "Just Another Bombing?" and help raise travel/hotel funds so the woman profiled can attend the Florida premiere

Waller's Coffee Shop

We invite you to be among the first to watch our new short documentary about a mother and son, Iona Godfrey King and Donal Godfrey, who survived a 1964 Civil Rights-era bombing in Jacksonville, Fla.The 60th anniversary of the incident is February 16, 2024, and we are raising funds so that Iona King can travel from Washington, D.C., to Jacksonville for three days of screenings and talkbacks.All the proceeds from this benefit screening go to Ms. King.Producer/director Hal Jacobs will answer questions about the film afterwards and present outtakes from his interviews. FILM SYNOPSIS "Just Another Bombing?: This is Donal and Iona's Story" takes audiences on a poignant journey through a little known incident of the 1960s Civil Rights era. Iona Godfrey King and her son Donal Godfrey share their deeply moving account of surviving the Klan bombing of their home with three other family members on February 16, 1964, in Jacksonville, Fla. The reason for the bombing? Six-year-old Donal was the first Black student to enroll in the neighborhood Lackawanna Elementary School. The documentary (25 min.) relies on interviews with King and Godfrey, archival footage, FBI and court documents to explore moments leading up to and after the domestic terror attack. Ms. King was a 24-year-old domestic worker at the time. She acted on her own to send her son to the whites-only school believing he would be safe. She knew nothing of a NAACP plan in the works to systematically integrate Jacksonville's schools. To the media, it was just another bombing of another Black family. “It was expected,” says Ms. King. The silence from city and school officials was deafening. No one talked about it. The incident is seldom included among historical accounts of school desegregation in Jacksonville. Filmmaker Hal Jacobs, the same age as Donal, lived a few streets over in the segregated white section of the neighborhood. He only learned about the incident a few years ago from an online article by Jacksonville author Tim Gilmore (https://jaxpsychogeo.com/west/lackawanna-elementary-school/). But the story doesn't end with a bombing. Over the course of 10 years, Ms. King began taking college classes at Edward Waters College and became a director of Head Start centers. After receiving a bachelors degree in elementary education, she taught at Florida Junior College (now Florida State College at Jacksonville) for 25 years. Donal joined the military after high school and later worked for the U.S. State Department in the area of information systems security. In 2022 he retired and moved permanently to Ghana. "Just Another Bombing?" is not only a tribute to the strength of the human spirit but a powerful call to remember the struggles and injustices faced by marginalized communities during the Civil Rights Movement. The documentary challenges viewers to confront the past and understand the legacy of white supremacy and racial injustice still with us today. The film is scheduled for Jacksonville screenings before it becomes available to film festivals and PBS stations. It will be available online in 2025. UPCOMING SCREENINGS Friday, January 12, 7 p.m. - Waller's Coffee Shop Benefit Screening ($15 tickets here)Tuesday, Feb. 20 - 1:45 p.m. - The Justice Sessions, University of North Florida https://english.domains.unf.edu/justicesessions/ Wednesday, Feb. 21 - 7:00 p.m. - Sun-Ray Cinema, 1028 Park St., Jacksonville, FL 32204 https://www.sunraycinema.com/our-locations/x091n-sun-ray-cinema-5-points/ Thursday, Feb. 22 - time tbd - Murray Hill Library, Jacksonville Public Library Screening Room Series https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/locations/murray-hill-branch ABOUT THE FILMMAKER Hal Jacobs is an Atlanta-based director and producer whose films focus on the environment, arts and social justice in the South. https://www.hjacobscreative.com/read-me ADDITIONAL INFORMATION https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donal_Godfrey https://www.hjacobscreative.com/blog/2023/10/21/the-house-bombing

Photo (L-R): Alicia Macbeth Jacobs (Executive Producer), Hal Jacobs (Producer/Director), Iona Godfrey King, Donal Godfrey, Tim Gilmore (Author, Consultant)

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Documentary Screening and Benefit

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