Andrea Weiss, The CCNY professor and The Documentary Forum Founder, co-directed and co-produced the film "The Five Demands." It makes its New York debut July 13 at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.
The documentary film “The Five Demands” premieres in New York on Thursday, July 13 at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem followed by a one-week run at the Firehouse Cinema in Chinatown, beginning Friday, July 14. The CCNY professor and The Documentary Forum Founder Andrea Weiss and The CCNY alumni Greta Schiller co-directed and co-produced the film about the 1969 shutdown, takeover, and occupation of The City College of New York by a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students.
During the 1969 furor, classes were canceled, students arrested, and the college president resigned. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, “The Five Demands” film follows the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from public universities.
The making of the film by Weiss and Schiller’s Jezebel Productions was a CCNY collaboration. The CCNY alumni involved included Cinematographer Octavio Warnock-Graham, Executive Producer Stanley Nelson, Production Manager Felicia Bradford, Sound Recordists Bhima Aryateja and Susan Mei, Graphics Designer Joann Huang, and others. Faculty involved in the film included Development Producer Linda Villarosa and Sound Recordist J.T. Takagi.
The film had its world premiere at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles in February where the film was given a standing ovation.
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu