The Homestretch, part of the Beyond Boundaries: Dare to be Diverse Film Series

Kasey, Anthony and Roque are smart, ambitious Chicago teens. Like many their age, they struggle to keep their grades up so they can graduate from high school. What sets them apart from other teens is that after the school day ends they don’t go home. Instead, they spend their nights looking for a warm, safe place to sleep. They’re among the 19,000 homeless students in Chicago public schools, and like so many, they’ve fallen victim to issues of juvenile justice, immigration, foster care and LGBTQIA discrimination. This powerful documentary follows their stories, and those of the heroes and heroines who support them, as they work to overcome the trauma of abandonment at a very young age. They face overwhelming odds, but the courage and conviction of these three teens defies stereotypes in this story of struggle and triumph.

More info: www.kartemquin.com/films/the-homestretch

Fall at the Burchfield Penney sees the start of Ideas Prime, a series of screenings, lectures and conversations which create a forum for an exchange of ideas designed to understand how the local and global issues are interrelated. Through a series of screenings, conversations, and programs, the Burchfield Penney hosts diverse ideas focused on a variety of views. Programs are free with galley admission.

 SUNY Buffalo State’s Office of Equity and Campus Diversity, Communication Department, the Office of Student Life and Burchfield Penney Art Center are partnering to create Beyond Boundaries: Dare to be Diverse, a dynamic, year-long program designed to initiate and promote continuing dialogue about issues of diversity on campus. The series is curated by Professors Meg Knowles and Ruth Goldman from the Communication Department and Jason Parker from the Office of Equity and Campus Diversity.  The program, held at Buffalo State over the course of the 2014/2015 school year, will center around a screening series of six films, including panels of  respondents from the community at four screenings, and two special guest speakers, who will also hold workshops outside the screenings. 

The series will feature 3 films each semester: one each month in September, October, November, February, March and April.  Each screening will focus on a different category of diversity, including  race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and abilities, and will be scheduled to match months with a national focus on these groups. 

Each evening will feature and opening talk, the screening of the film, and an audience and speaker Q&A after the film.  Community respondents will include representatives of particular communities addressed in the films, local officials or directors of organizations working with the targeted community. The panelists will also open their discussions to include the audience after the film. 

This program of films will be open to students, faculty and staff at Buffalo State, as well as those interested in the Buffalo community.