How did the police become the force they are now? How did we get here? Join Yance Ford for this intensely relevant film and talk.

In the United States, police have been granted extraordinary power over our individual lives. The police determine who is suspicious and who ‘fits the description.’ They define the threats and decide how to respond. They demand obedience and carry the constant threat of violence. Thousands of these interactions play out in our cities and towns every day, according to real and perceived ideas of criminality and threats to social order—as decided by the police. Police make the abstract power of the state real.

Power (2024, 87 min) traces the accumulation of money, the consolidation of political power, and the nearly unrestricted bipartisan support that has created the institution of policing as we know it. The film offers a visceral and immersive journey to demonstrate how we’ve arrived at this moment in history, from the slave patrols of the 1700’s and the first publicly funded police departments of the 1800’s to the uprisings of the 1960’s and 2020’s. A Sundance selection.

Join us for this gripping film, and hear from director Yance Ford, award-winning creator of Strong Island and other films.

Sept 4th at 6 PM, Shepard Hall 259 Convent Avenue Room 291 at the City College of NY. (NE Corner of 140th Street and Convent Avenue)

#1 to 137th st., ABCD to 145th Street (Shuttle buses to campus), or M101 to the Amsterdam Ave/W 140th Street stop. The building is accessible with an elevator to the second floor and ASL and CART provided for the talk. Light refreshments before the film screening.

RSVP to: bit.ly/3WGc77X

Presented by the Documentary Forum at CCNY. and Third World Newsreel

"Power channels its rage into a calm, collected, and persuasive argument." John Serba, Decider.com

"[Power] delivers a searing, searching survey of the history of American policing and the pervasive issues that have allowed countless officers across the nation to intimidate and brutalize citizens under a banner of “law and order.” Dan Einev, Financial Times

"..a strong introduction to a topic that seems freshly relevant every day." NY Times

Trailer: https://youtu.be/BNfYuUKyXBU

Content advisory: violence, themes of abuse