JCC Cinematters: NY Social Justice Film Festival

Where can you experience the emotional highs and lows of great documentaries and dramas without the expense of heading to Park City? New York City offers an intimate alternative. Cinematters: NY Social Justice Film Festival happens January 16-20, offering a banquet of impactful films sure to get you thinking (and feeling). On the program? Clean water, transgender rights, #BlackLivesMatter, gerrymandering, and criminal justice reform.

We’re proud that our grantee WE ARE THE RADICAL MONARCHS is one of the featured films, and if you haven’t seen Kasi Lemmons’ HARRIET starring Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman, it’s the closing film of the festival.

Cinematters offers more than movies. Special events and conversations go deeper on the issues, getting the audience to think about what matters to them, and to find like-minded individuals to collectively take action and make change.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the last day of the festival, you’ll have a chance to get out of the theater and into action. You’ll hang out at the Activism Café, where you can decide whether you’ll help get some good books together for people currently incarcerated, do voter registration, blanket elected officials with postcards, buy from socially responsible vendors, or pursue other activities to give you ideas that will long outlast the holiday.

The activist in you can participate in workshops that will teach you how to be an effective organizer, put you to work cooking for homeless people, and tell stories about the overlooked and underrepresented (responsibly).

This Awesome Without Borders grant will help get the word out and the volunteers fed.

See the full lineup of films and get your tickets here.