SF Teachers for Social Justice promote Granito de Arena on Mexican Teachers' Movement 5/27

SF's Teachers for Social Justice are holding their major fundraiser this Saturday to raise funds for their annual Teaching for Social Justice conference for Bay Area teachers, parents and communities in October.

Besides checking out the music of SF Mission District's own Los Mocosos, you can also see the powerful film Granito de Arena which documents the Mexican teachers movement and other social movements for a democratic Mexico. When I met filmmaker Jill Freidberg at the National Coalition of Education Activists conference in Philadelphia in 2004, she had just finished the rough cut of the film which she previewed to the NCEA activists. When she notified me that she was coming out to SF in early January, I worked with the leadership of United Educators of SF, T4SJ and local activists to make sure that we could use the film to bring social justice educators and parents together in SF. Please join us and support Jill and her work.

Award-winning Seattle filmmaker, Jill Freidberg (This is What Democracy Looks Like, 2000), spent two years in southern Mexico documenting the efforts of over 100,000 teachers, parents, and students fighting to defend the country’s public education system from the devastating impacts of economic globalization. Freidberg combines footage of strikes and direct actions with 25 years worth of never-before-seen archival images to deliver a compelling and unsettling story of resistance, repression, commitment, and solidarity.

Fundraiser for Teachers 4 Social Justice and Afterparty with Los Mocosos (free!)
Bay Area Screening of Granito de Arena*
Saturday, May 27th, 2006, 4pm at Roxie Theater, SF
3117 16th Street between Valencia and Guerrero ($8Adult, $4 Senior)
For tickets visit http://www.roxie.com/ or buy at the door*
Granito de Arena is a story of resistance – the storyvof hundreds of thousands of publicschool teachers whose grassroots, non-violent movementtook Mexico by surprise, and who have endured brutalrepression in their 25-year struggle for social andeconomic justice in Mexico's public schools.
Join us afterwards for refrescos and dancing with LosMocosos Live! at New College Cultural Theater – 766Valencia.
This event is free of charge!
This event will benefit Teachers 4 Social Justice and New College Scholarship Program for Bilingual Students. For more information visit http://www.t4sj.org/ or call415-516-0338.

"Exciting, inspiring. An extraordinary account of ordinary people organizing, protesting, resisting, against enormous odds." - Howard Zinn

"Stunning... inspiring... unparalleled. The film calls for a globalization of solidarity,
and for the radicalization of the teaching profession. Granito de Arena will undoubtedly nurture this solidarity." - Rethinking Schools

See the excellent review from NACLA as well.