NLG Summer Film Series presents: Committing Poetry in Times of War

NLG Summer Film Series presents
Committing Poetry in Times of War

When: August 11, 2008, 7pm

What: Outdoor Film Showing, and poetry reading

Film: Committing Poetry In Times of War

Special Appearances: Filmmaker Eric Sirotkin to introduce film, and Q&A; Poet Shahid Buttar will perform to kick off the event

Where: El Rio, 3158 Mission Street, San Francisco, 94110.

Entry Price: $8-$20 sliding scale donation, no one turned away for lack of costs.

Drink specials: $1 Pabst, $2 well drinks all night.

Contact: Raul Aguilar at 415-285-5067
The National Lawyers Guild-San Francisco presents a summer film series & benefit at El Rio's outdoor patio. Join us and Executive Producer Eric Sirotkin, for a presentation of the award winning Independent Film Committing Poetry in Times of War, a Dogone Picture, recognized as the 2007 Poetry Film of the Year. Poet Shahid Buttar will be kicking off the event with a performance.

The central story in Committing Poetry shows the Albuquerque, NM community's response to seven local high school teachers losing their jobs for refusing to censor their students' anti-war Slam Poetry and artwork. Poets and musicians joined together to support these teachers and youth in freedom of speech, organizing peaceful anti-war protests that were quickly broken up by local police using tear gas and forcing the people into "Free Speech Zones," a practice that soon became a national policy.

Out of this fire arose a diverse community of artists, poets, lawyers & musicians whose courageous words would not be silenced, as documented in the film. They came together in a series of unifying events across the country, from New York, to New Orleans and San Francisco, defying the fear based suppression of the times. This movement was called Poetic Justice.

Committing Poetry in Times of War was a winner of the New Mexico State Film Office's New Vision Award and the Telluride Talking Gourd Poetry Festival's Tellus Poetry Film of the Year Award. Please visit http://www.committingpoetry.com and http://www.myspace.com/committingpoetrymovie for updated information.

For more information on Shahid Buttar, please visit: http://www.shahidbuttar.com
Proceeds from the event will benefit the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. Dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system, the NLG is an association seeking to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America, to function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. Find out more at http://www.nlgsf.org

Event is wheelchair accessible.