Pressure Cooker Screens November 24 @ 7pm

Pressure Cooker Screens November 24 @ 7pm

Location: SOHO Coffee, corner of 20^th Avenue South and Yesler Way, Seattle's Central District

There's a force-of-nature behind the door to Room 325 at Frankford High School in Philadelphia. Her name is Wilma Stephenson and she teaches Culinary Arts. Infamously blunt, Mrs. Stephenson runs a "boot camp" at Frankford, disciplining her students into capable chefs and responsible students. Behind her tough-talking exterior is a teacher, who cares passionately about getting the best out of her students and making sure they receive the opportunities – including scholarships to top programs – that will help them escape the meager minimum-wage job opportunities of Northeast Philly.

Wilma Stephenson has taught at Frankford for 40 years, long before Culinary Arts became part of the school's curriculum. She can be cantankerous, and she knows it, but she will do anything for the students who get with the program and show true promise and the hunger to succeed. Those who fall short of her discipline will not be missed; many will drop out before the first week is over.

The documentary documents Mrs. Stephenson and those students committed enough to surrender themselves to her enlightened despotism through both semesters in Culinary Arts. By the end of the school year, 13 of her students will have made it through the gauntlet. These seniors aspire to scholarships that can enable them to escape the status quo of Northeast Philly and move on to a future of more opportunities. Mrs. Stephenson spells it out on the first day of school by telling the newcomers that 11 members of last year's class earned over $750,000 in scholarships, a staggering amount. At a school where over 40% of students don't even make it to their senior year, Ms. Stephenson's class stands in stark contrast. She offers these kids her version of the American Dream: You choose a realistic goal. You work hard. You work the system. You get out of Northeast Philly.

At the end of their school year, there is a one-day scholarship competition, where top Philadelphia chefs judge the students' skills and talent. But, in the end, the scholarships are even more dependent on the kids' capacity for sustained drive throughout their senior year. Can they endure the stressful challenges wrought by their home lives – having to hold minimum-wage jobs after school, and acting as surrogate parents to their siblings –
while still finding the motivation to wake up at 6AM to get to Mrs. Stephenson's class early enough to master their crepes and tournee potatoes…

Underground Railroad Film Series:ANOTHER AMERICA by Michael Cho

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival Underground Railroad Film Series presents ANOTHER AMERICA by Michael Cho. Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. - $5.oo suggested donation at the door (no advance ticket sales). Event location: Theater Off Jackson, 409 7th Avenue S., Seattle,in the heart of the International District. LHAFF Info Line: tel. (206)326-1088.

Filmmaker Michael Cho investigates his own family history and tragedy as he explores the Black/Korean conflict in the inner city as illuminated by the Los Angeles uprisings of 1992.

The murder of his uncle in Detroit forces Cho to take a close look at his family’s own experiences as Korean American merchants. In L.A., he captures the stories of everyday Korean and African Americans as they shop in the mall. Returning to his hometown of Detroit, Cho lets local community members and relatives tell their own stories about race relations -- a Detroit poet, an Amerasian brother and sister, and the daughter of the slain uncle. ANOTHER AMERICA is revealed, one where dreams have fallen short and where this country’s racism and violence continue unchecked.

In the article News at Eleven in the Big City[1], published in the film journal Wide Angle, Cho wrote:

"In Another America, a documentary that I produced about the relationship between Korean American merchants and African Americans in the inner city, I looked at the murder of one of my uncles, an immigrant from Korea, during a robbery at his store in downtown Detroit. When he was murdered, my father, also a downtown merchant, called the local television news stations to have them cover my uncle's death. He wanted to tell them a larger story about how the city had fallen apart under the weight of its abandonment and how this was connected to my uncle's murder. Instead, the TV news programs told a tragic story of a family victimized by a random crime. The emotions were there in their report, but little context. Their coverage undoubtedly moved many who watched the news that night. But did it inform them?

Everyday, we witness other people's tragedies on television. Sometimes, their stories have an impact. Most other times, they are swallowed by anonymity and apathy and buried amongst the thousands of other tragedies broadcast everyday across the television spectrum. Then, one day I see my own family on television. Their grief shouts out to the viewers to wake up and see what's happening in their city. But in three minutes, it's over. There was little follow-up to my family's story. Soon other tragedies would displace ours.

As an independent filmmaker, I took on the job of pushing beyond what was covered by the local news. Like my father, I also wanted to tell a story of cities and the people who live in them. Behind my uncle's death, there was another story not told on television news. Behind the much televised conflict between Korean Americans and African Americans, there was another story. In Another America, I related how the deterioration of the inner city affects both groups. I looked at some of their history in this country. I explored the common economic and social issues that concern both communities. I examined how crime does not occur in a vacuum. TV news presents fear in the guise of delivering information. I wanted to promote understanding by telling the stories behind the story. I wanted the viewer to get to know a part of their city that they may never visit and to understand its peoples."

The Underground Railroad, a project of the annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, is a fall - through -winter film and discussion series. Using the metaphor of a series of strategically located “Safe Houses” in Seattle neighborhoods, the Underground Railroad is a series of intimate screenings designed to build community across the aisle and across neighborhoods. Each Safe House along the trail brings forth a different provocative work about African American life, leading to ‘freedom at the annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival in April. Join us at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 – 17^th Avenue South, April 12-20, 2008 for the annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival!

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[1] Wide Angle - Volume 20, Number 3, July 1998, pp. 145-149.