After sold-out screenings across the country and multiple festival awards, the documentary Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round will screen at Columbus’ Gateway Film Center on Sunday, February 15. The latest film by Emmy-award winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Mariachi High, Black in Latin America, etc.) recounts a watershed moment in American history: the first time Black student activists were joined by an organized white community to protest segregation. Together, they demonstrated against Washington, D.C.’s whites-only Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960, provoking the first counter protests by the American Nazi Party, luring civil rights giants A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Adam Clayton Powell to the picket line, and addressing the U.S. Supreme Court.
Screening during Black History Month, the film’s portrayal of unsung Black, Quaker and Jewish heroes has achieved rare sell out success among mainstream, Black, and Jewish film festivals simultaneously. Awards include Best Documentary Feature (DC Black Film Festival & San Antonio International Black Film Festival,) the Audience Award (Boston Jewish Film Festival,) Women In Film Award (St. Louis International Film Festival,) Building Bridges Award (Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.) Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round features newly discovered archival footage and narration by Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Dominique Thorne, Lee Grant, Bob Balaban and others.
The film has screened in more than thirty-five film festivals, and in thirty states. Filmmaker Ilana Trachtman states, “As some would ban the telling of the Civil Rights Movement altogether, I’m honored to restore a lost chapter with Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round. It’s astounding, but this unknown sixty-five year old protest offers a playbook for triumph over attacks on democracy and human rights.”
More information, and a two-minute teaser, at aintnoback.com.
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND
Synopsis: When five Black college students sat on a segregated Maryland carousel in 1960, their arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the protest, a history-making interracial demonstration was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together led to partying together, union organizers mentored student activists, and ten 1961 Freedom Riders emerged, including Stokely Carmichael. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Featuring the voices of Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner, and Tracie Thoms.
Producer/ Director Ilana Trachtman
Ilana Trachtman has made Emmy award-winning nonfiction programs for thirty years. She has explored worlds for PBS, HBO Family, ABC-TV, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery, A&E, and the Sundance Channel; pursuing stories such as the legacy of slavery in Latin America, social activism among Gulf coast shrimpers, the first LGBTQ activists, glassblowing with disenfranchised youth, and elderly prima ballerinas. Favorite PBS prime-time credits include directing the independent feature Mariachi High; the series Black in Latin America hosted by Henry Louis Gates; and Texas Ranch House; as well as producing for History Detectives and Reading Rainbow. Ilana’s feature Praying with Lior in over 60 cities, winning 6 Audience Awards for Best Documentary and critical acclaim from the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer. Her current film Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round was a 10 year labor of love, and is now premiering in festivals around the country.
Gateway Film Center, 1550 North Street, Columbus, OH 43201
Ticket Link: https://gatewayfilmcenter.org/purchase/4647878/
