"Resistance & Joy" Screening Tour with Filmmakers at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center

Join us for a joyful film screening at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center in Crown Heights. We’re excited to invite you to a special screening of “Resistance & Joy,” a curated collection of powerful short documentaries. These films explore urgent themes like identity, resistance, and collective healing—and we’re thrilled to bring them to our community for one meaningful event. This is more than a screening—it’s a space to gather, reflect, and connect through stories that inspire dialogue and solidarity. Filmmakers will be present and light refreshments will be served. RSVP here.
Event Details:
🗓 Date: June 20, 6:30 PM EST
📍 Location: Brooklyn Community Pride Center Crown Heights, 1561 Bedford Avenue, Suite Ground A, Brooklyn, NY, 11225
🎟 Free & open to the public
Guest Speakers: Chithra Jeyaram, Janet Chen (Ma), Marcellus Armstrong and India Martin
Moderator: Joohee Oh
RSVP here
Films:
AMMA'S PRIDE Directed by Shiva Krish
ASIAN BITCHES SPEAK Directed by Janet Chen
OUT OF FOCUS Directed by India Martin
HANDS PERFORMANCE Directed by Rashaad Newsome
KA ʻĀʻUMEʻUME: NAVIGATING HOME Directed by M. Kaleipumehana Cabral
TALKING WALLS Directed by Marcellus Armstrong
Guest Speakers:

Chithra Jeyaram (she/her) is a physical therapist turned filmmaker who identifies as Tamil. Her films reveal the extraordinary in the everyday, honoring the unique wisdom, resilience, and love that define both biological and chosen families. In her films—from initial idea to completion—she handles every phase of production: directing, producing, filming, and editing. She also regularly collaborates with other creators on coproductions or contributes her directing, producing, and editing expertise to their creative work. Chithra is an adjunct faculty member at NYU. She is an alumna of prestigious programs, including Visions du Réel’s RoughCut Lab, the Chicken & (Egg)celerator Lab, the BGDM Artist Fellowship, the Gotham Documentary Fellowship, and the Jerome Foundation grant. Her films have been showcased by platforms and festivals such as 2M, PBS, CBSN, Apple TV, BlackStar, SXSW, and DOC NYC. Food is her first love, and she is an avid runner who has completed 15 marathons. She calls Chennai and New York City home and is writing her first screenplay, THE LONGEST SUMMER.

Janet Chen (Ma) (she/her) is an award-winning film and multimedia director, producer, and educator. Her work often explores stories of representation, resistance and resilience through a multigenerational lens. Her latest short film ASIAN BITCHES SPEAK was honored with a Special Jury Award for Documentary Short from the 2024 40th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Visual Communications, and a Best Director Award for Short Film from the 31st QFilms Long Beach LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The film is touring around the U.S. as part of the 2025 Color Congress Elev8Docs Distribution initiative. She has also produced and managed Emmy-nominated and Webby-nominated film and multimedia projects. Janet holds a BA in Film and Media Studies from UCI, and a MFA in Film & Digital Media: Social Documentation from UCSC. She has taught filmmaking at the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications and is currently teaching at UC Irvine Film and Media Studies. She was the founding manager and steering committee member of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc), and she is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM).

Marcellus Armstrong (he/him) is an artist, filmmaker, media programmer and educator. His work focuses on archival and material notions of Blackness and queerness. Since 2019, Marcellus has been collecting oral histories as part of an ongoing archival project, Talking Walls, nominated for Best Short Documentary by DOXA Film Festival 2025. In 2018, he created "The 48203 Dance Show", a community-based dance show project centered around the archive of WGPR-TV33, located in Detroit, Michigan. He continues to be rooted within participatory community media, working with Scribe Video Center, Detroit Sound Conservancy, and as a film professor at Temple University. He received his MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017. Originally from the suburbs of Baltimore, Marcellus currently resides in Philadelphia.

India Martin (she/they) is a visual artist and filmmaker. Through art and cultural projects, she creates transformative experiences that challenge dominant narratives—crafting serene visual landscapes and capturing tender, defiant moments of connection. Her current work reimagines visibility by centering memory, preservation, and the creation of still and moving images that honor Black queer families and chosen families in moments of joy and ease. Rooted in liberation, India’s purpose is to confront erasure and help shape a future where queer people of color are unapologetically seen, and their stories are recognized as vital to our collective imagination.
Moderator

Joohee Oh (she/her) is a film programmer dedicated to supporting artists and creating community-centered spaces. In 2021, she co-founded PrideFull, a New York-based film festival by and for Queer and Trans People of Color. Joohee leads the annual festival programming with the mission to shed light on innovative QTBIPOC-centered films. She holds an M.S. in Media Management from The New School and has previously served at Creatively Speaking, the Seoul Independent Film Festival, and the Film Festival for Women’s Rights.
Host / Co-Sponsor
Third World Newsreel advances movement storytelling and media arts for cultural and social justice since 1968. We champion the self-representation of historically marginalized communities—including Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, Mixed/Multiracial, People with Disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Black Public Media, a non-profit organization that supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future.
Co-Presenters
PrideFull is a New York-based film festival by and for Queer and Trans People of Color. PrideFull curates and screens innovative films that center LGBTQIA2S+ people of color and their stories.
Brooklyn Community Pride Center uplifts and empowers LGBTQ+ Brooklyn through socially conscious and culturally responsive programs, partnerships, and advocacy.
Elev8Docs is a Color Congress learning initiative supporting research for over two dozen nonfiction films by directors of color, all nominated by our member organizations.

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