The Beyond Boundaries Screening & Discussion Series is an annual, six-part film series organized around categories of diversity including, but not limited to race, gender, class, sexuality, and abilities, with an emphasis on intersectionality.
Screenings create an opportunity for open dialogue on social justice issues among college students, staff, faculty and members of the greater Western New York community.
All screenings are held in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Tower Auditorium beginning at 7:00 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
Fall 2024 Schedule
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022)
February 15
Directors: Sam Pollard, Geeta Gandbhir
We begin on February 15 with the news and documentary Emmy award-winning film, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Sam Pollard & Geeta Gandbhir, 2022). The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented not the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of a new, crucial chapter. Nowhere was this next battle better epitomized than in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished town with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a town that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. Through first-person accounts and searing archival footage, the documentary tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023)
March 14
Directors: Brewster, Michèle Stephenson
We welcome Sundance Grand Jury prize winner Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson, 2023). The film pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators. The film reckons with the inevitable passing of time through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings, and visually innovative treatments of Giovanni’s poetry.
Esther Newton Made Me Gay (2022)
NEW DATE: Thursday, April 25, 2024
NEW LOCATION: Upton Hall 230
Reception at 6:00 p.m.; Film at 7:00 p.m.; Followed by a discussion with Esther Newton and Jean Carlomusto.
Director: Jean Carlomusto
We welcome pioneering cultural anthropologist Esther Newton and filmmaker Jean Carlomusto to join us in person to screen Esther Newton Made Me Gay, 2022. The film tells the story of Newton's career, awakening to gay life in the 1950’s, the women’s liberation movement and lesbian-feminism, drag culture, and forging a butch identity, which for her is now in conversation with trans-masculinity. Keenly attuned to the cultural and societal forces that shaped her life, Esther guides us through an anthropology of herself that includes her love of dogs and the sport of competitive dog agility.
Previously Screened
Fall 2023
Spring 2023
Fall 2022
Spring 2022
- The Neutral Ground: A Film about Sore Losers
- No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics
- Not Going Quietly
Fall 2021
Spring 2021
Fall 2020
Spring 2020
Fall 2019
Spring 2019
Fall 2018
Spring 2018
- I am Not Your Negro
- Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
- This is Gay Propaganda: LGBT Rights & The War in Ukraine
Fall 2017
Spring 2017
Fall 2016
Spring 2016
Fall 2015
Spring 2015
- The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
- Far From Home
- It Happened Here
- Anita
Fall 2014
- The Homestretch
- BiPolarized
- 15 to Life: Kenneth's Story