Saratoga Jewish Community Arts co-sponsors a screening of the film, Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round
Saratoga Jewish Community Arts, supported by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and the sponsorship of Temple Sinai, is joining with the Albany Institute of History & Art to present a screening and discussion of the award-winning documentary Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, part of SJCA’s Social Justice series. The screening and discussion of the film, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman, takes place Thursday, October 15, from 6 pm to 8:30 pm, at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 125 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12210.
Lead support for the program is generously provided by The Richer Team at Hanna Commercial Realtors. Additional program support is provided by the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial for the reception, the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York for accommodations, Rick D’Avino for travel, and Phyllis Wang, Saratoga Jewish Community Arts for communications.
An Untold Civil Rights Story
Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round tells the untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When five Howard University students sat down on a carousel at Maryland’s Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960, their arrests made headlines. When the white community near the park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary, history-making partnership was born.
The pickets attracted Nazis, a congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over a sweltering summer led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists. Ten of the 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in a case that reached the Supreme Court.
With never-before-seen footage and immersive storytelling by director Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit), four living protesters help rescue this forgotten history, revealing the price — and the power — of heeding the impulse to activism.
The film features voiceover performances by Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner, and Tracie Thoms.
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