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This month, our discussion in Anti-Racist Film Club dwelled on the topic of intersectional “representation” in the film Rustin (2023). Not many of us were familiar with Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin before screening this film. A few had heard the name in school… but couldn’t remember any details about his life or work. Certainly none of us realized the significance of event organizers who worked behind the scenes to create the marvelous scope of events like the 1963 Mar

This month, the Anti-Racist Film Club screened the classic children’s film, My Neighbor Totoro (1988) from the legendary Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki. While not our first exposure to the works of Studio Ghibli, I was told our audience appreciated the cozy adventure into softer themes than we normally discuss in this club. There were no racist stereotypes, lynchings, horrifying statistics, or harrowing struggles of immigration. Instead, immersed in the beautiful Japanes

The film Passing (2021) is an adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen and unpacks the delicate themes of race, class, and belonging through a tense, psychological examination of 20th century social politics. We follow two childhood friends: Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who’ve fallen out of touch. After a chance encounter as adults, Irene discovers that Clare has been purposefully living under the guise of a white woman in order to cross the color-lin

Languages are tricky to preserve. Last month, we discussed the cultural genocide that targeted Indigenous languages of North America. Boarding Schools mandated that children use English (or another language of the colonizing nation) and strictly enforced a ban of the local culture, customs, and language. Through violence, hundreds of languages were stolen from native peoples and, still today, there are over 3000 languages from around the globe considered to be “endangered” a

In the last few months, the Anti-Racist Film Club has been covering films on the lighter side of our tonal programming. This was not the case in January. Sugarcane (2024) is a documentary directed by Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie—two investigative journalists who follow one First Nations investigation into an Indigenous Boarding School in British Columbia. Through interviews with the remaining survivors of St Joseph’s Mission School, this documentary is an intimate

Rather than a true Christmas movie (like we’ve screened in the past), this year the Anti-Racist Film Club watched Sister Act (1992) as our final feature for 2025. Since we’ve already covered many holiday films starring and made by People of Color, this December we chose a nostalgic, family-appropriate comedy to bring our community together in the dark of Winter. Of course, the lighter material wasn’t devoid of an important lesson. As we rapidly approach Christmas Eve in jus

One of the hardest lessons we learn on the path of anti-racism is how to recognize the countless times we fail. Whether we’re corrected in the moment or reflecting on a moment from years past, it’s impossible to walk through life having never made an “innocent racist mistake.” This month in ARFC, we discussed two episodes of the sensational Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience: “Army Spoon” and “The Help.” Both episodes focus on the process of owning up to saying something that

In middle and high school, I sang in my youth group’s praise band. The middle school band was just as awkward as you can imagine – middle...