Rooftop Films and the Fledgling Fund Present TO BE HEARD: Free Film Screenings & More

Rooftop Films brings the power of poetry to the streets of New York with three free events based around this award winning documentary about lives and language on The Edge: three teens from the Bronx tell their stories and show how a radical poetry class can ignite change. Rooftop Films will co-host screenings in East Harlem, Chelsea and the South Bronx. Each event will be a celebration of the power of writing, with a poetry workshop for teenagers, a performance slam, and a screening of the award-winning documentary To Be Heard. Presented in partnership with El Museo del Barrio, The Lexington Academy, The High Line, Joyce Kilmer Park, Mainland Media.

WHEN: Saturday, August 13
@ The Lexington Academy (131 East 104th St on Lexington Ave., East Harlem, Manhattan)
5:00pm-7:00pm - Power Writing workshop at El Museo del Barrio (131 East 104th St. on 5th Ave.)
8:00pm-9:00pm - Poetry slam and music at The Lexington Academy
9:00pm-10:30pm - To Be Heard screening
10:30-10:45pm - Q&A with filmmakers and documentary subjects
In the event of rain the screening will be held indoors at El Museo del Barrio.
More information at: http://rooftopfilms.com/2011/schedule/to-be-heard-east-harlem/

Tuesday, August 16
@ The High Line Lot (29th St. between 10th and 11th Ave., Chelsea, Manhattan)
4:00pm-6:00pm - Power Writing workshop (on the High Line under the tunnel at 14th St.)
7:00pm-8:00pm - Poetry slam and music
8:15-9:45pm - To Be Heard screening
9:45-10:00pm - Q&A with filmmakers and documentary subjects
In the event of rain the screening will be rescheduled for Tuesday, August 23.
More information at: http://rooftopfilms.com/2011/schedule/to-be-heard-chelsea/

**For young people interested in attending any or all of the free "power writing" workshops with the stars of the film, and/or interested in reading their work at the poetry slam, please email info@tobeheard.org.**

To Be Heard transcends the confines of an advocacy film, but it's hard to come away from it with anything other than absolute encouragement for the arts in schools. The filmmakers are developing a social media campaign designed to empower and give voIce To the unheard in our city via text message. At Rooftop we work in New York City public schools and we've seen firsthand how artistic expression can open up possibilities for students who never thought they had them. Early in the film, Pearl reveals a list of her good and bad traits, which she keeps on her bedroom wall, and it's heartbreaking to read that her bad traits include "big," "black" and "ghetto." But the Power Writers program has a motto: If you don't learn to write your own life story, someone else is going to write it for you. It's through the process of writing down these feelings that Pearl and the others begin to overcome these insecurities to see their own potential.

This is not to say that To Be Heard has some happy Hollywood ending. The students continue to live in neighborhoods where a $6/hour job at McDonald's doesn't compare to the money you make hustling dime bags on the corner. These teens are still raised by single mothers and they "step over dead bodies like it's just another day." One of their teachers, Joe, tells them that he can't teach them what he knows, only how he knows, and each of these students takes away life lessons that will carry them through whatever it is they face in the future. The opening shot of the film, with all its overbearing New York noise, frames what these teens are up against, and by the end of the film, their voices have definitely been heard.