The Ghosts Of March 21 (Documentary Screening About Lovelle Mixon)

Description: This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovelle Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Closely following the day’s events, this documentary examination of the encounter’s underlying contradictions challenges the mainstream narrative of the confrontation and in so doing, it sheds new light on the nature and reproduction of racism in the contemporary United States.

To date, the dominant narrative of the shoot-out, propagated by the Oakland Police Department, state officials and the media, has been that Lovelle Mixon was a monster and a rapist and the slain officers were angels and heroes. This perspective, viewed through a liberal lens and reliant on misleading labels, pretends the shoot-out occurred in a vacuum devoid of history and sociopolitical factors; producing an illusion that has re-enforced the status quo, suppressed critical thought, and ultimately, attempts to delegitimize the Black experience in America by rejecting the validity of the systemic factors at its root.


Additional Screenings:

MARCH 20, 12:30- 2 PM
Pre-screening and DIscussion
Merritt College
Hosted by the Black Student Union.
More info to follow.

MARCH 20, 7-10pm
Panel Discussion and Screening
La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA

MARCH 21, 7pm
Screening and Q and A
Qilombo
2313 San Pablo Ave
Oakland CA 94612

MARCH 22, 1-3 PM
Screening and Panel DIscussion
Koret Auditorium, SF Main Library
100 Larkin St. , San Francisco Main Library

MARCH 23, 4-6
Screening and Q and A
Arlene Francis Center
99 6th St., Santa Rosa