Check This Out
Revolution #043, April 16, 2006, posted at revcom.us
From time to time, Revolution will run tips from our correspondents and readers on movies, art exhibits, books, plays, and other cultural events that readers should know about. No endorsement implied, but worth checking out.
From a correspondent: In 1968, Chicano students from East L.A. organized powerful high school “blowouts”—walkouts to protest racist and oppressive conditions in their schools, including academic prejudice, beatings for speaking Spanish, and impoverished school facilities. This historic movement of Chicano youth has been captured in the HBO film Walkout. The film premiered in March, and it's being shown on various days through April (check HBO online for schedule). The movie depicts how the students, with the aid of a progressive and popular young teacher, Sal Castro, take a determined stand in the face of fierce repression by the police, backward teachers, and sometimes their parents. This movie is extremely timely today, when tens of thousands of students around the country are walking out as part of the huge upsurge of protest against fascistic attacks on immigrants. Directed and produced by Edward James Olmos, Walkout is really worth checking out and discussing, in relationship to what is happening in the world today and the lessons from history, and grappling with what's the problem and what's the solution.