Riverside film screening promotes advocacy, health for Black communities

< img decoding =" async" class="lazyautosizes lazyload" src ="/ wp-content/uploads/2023/ 03/RPE-L-SCREENING -0330 -01. The movie explores the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and how Black citizens combated for equality in a rural, impoverished location of Alabama. (Courtesy image).
Mt. Rubidoux Seventh-day Adventist Church will host a complimentary watching of a new Peacock documentary, "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power," on Saturday, April 1. The film explores Black homeowners' defend the right to vote in the county, a backwoods of Alabama with a history of hardship and racism, during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

Through first-person accounts and archival footage, it informs how, after passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Black trainee activists fought for the right to vote in a county "that was 80 percent Black, however had no Black citizens," occasion organizers said in a news release, "and laws were simply paper without power.".

Directed by Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir, the documentary was a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival selection and Critics Choice Awards candidate.

" The Lowndes County movement is a powerful demonstration of what local communities are able to accomplish when they are empowered," Alfonzo Greene III, the church's senior pastor, said. "We believe that, as a faith community, the fight for human rights and self-respect still continues. We wanted to combine other companies and people who are strained to see health parity come true in Riverside.".

Greene will moderate the panel discussion, where officials will talk about civic engagement and social activism in communities of color. The event will also highlight Riverside County's "Black Lives, Blue Zones" initiative, which intends to address health disparities, promote durability and a much healthier, more active lifestyle for locals in underserved communities.

" The blue zones initiative promotes healthy living by engaging policy makers, neighborhood leaders and city homeowners in developing environments that make it simpler for individuals to make healthy options," Greene said. "This is in addition to policies that need to be dealt with to make access to healthcare a truth for the Black neighborhood.".

The church has been active in Riverside, participating in grassroots tasks and efforts to bring more resources to Black communities.

A similar screening took place previously this year at the Philadelphian SDA Church in Long Beach, where participants talked about how the Black vote movement in Lowndes County can influence coalition structure and activism.

Greene stated he hopes individuals will leave the event "inspired to be the change," and learn from those students who fought for "Black Power" during the Civil Rights Movement.

The 7:30 p.m. occasion is at the church, 5320 Victoria Ave., Riverside.

For tickets and details, click here.