Community Cinema presents "The Revolutionary Optimists"

Mon, 05/27/2013 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Child activists working with Amlan, marching through the streets of Calcutta using megaphones to spread health messages

ITVS (Independent Television Service)

Join us for a free screening of a film that spotlights a group of children who are saving lives in the slums of Calcutta.

WXXI's Community Cinema series is pleased to presesnt The Revolutionary Optimists on Monday, May 27, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at the Little Theatre. Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become activists and educators, with powerful results. Directed by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, The Revolutionary Optimists follows Ganguly as he attempts to replicate his work in the brick fields outside the city, where children live and work in unimaginable conditions.

Using street theater, puppetry, and dance as their weapons, the children in Calcutta's slums have cut their neighborhoods' malaria and diarrhea rates in half, and turned former garbage dumps into playing fields. Now, pushing at the limits of optimism, Amlan is attempting to take his work into the brickfields outside Calcutta, where they spend their days making and carrying bricks using methods unchanged by centuries.

The Revolutionary Optimists proposes a workable solution to intractable problems associated with poverty, including preventable diseases and ineffectual governance. Ganguly's story suggests that education and child empowerment are crucial keys to lifting entire societies out of hopelessness.

Please note: Due to the fact that this film is being shown on a holiday, we will not host a group discussion after the film.

WXXI's Community Cinema series features films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens. The screenings, held at the Little Theatre (240 East Avenue, Rochester, NY), will be followed by lively panel discussions to encourage dialogue and action around important and timely social issues. These events are free, open to the public, and reservations are not required.

Community Cinema is presented by ITVS and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Watch the film trailer here: