** Following the screening will be a Q&A session with MIPoPS staff and participating institutions’ representatives **

Join Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound for another installment of our archival screening night! This edition of Moving History will explore the endless varieties of activism present in local archives! Before the screening, there will be an introduction presented by Seattle Municipal Archives. Following the screening, we’ll hold a Q&A session with MIPoPS staff and participating institution representatives.

In our current political climate, providing access to historic records is key to assisting the public in the quest for self-education and unbiased understanding of important events and policies. Protests, public speaking, community centered programs, art and performances, social justice, advocating for public spaces, giving a voice to the stories of marginalized groups, documenting histories of injustice, and promoting more environmentally sustainable and humane futures are just some examples of activism preserved in the audiovisual record. “Public archives…are making a strong effort to reach out to groups and collect materials whose provenance reflects the fullest possible range of social interests and actors. At the same time, social activists and public interest groups are recognizing the value of archiving their own materials, voices and stories for the sake of future generations.” (archivalactivism.wordpress.com)

In recognition of the 20th Anniversary of the WTO Protests, this screening will include footage of activists in action from the Independent Media Center collection (recently digitized at MIPoPS). This material is from the 400 hours of video collected by the Seattle Independent Media Center during the 1999 WTO protests. In her article “Another Network is Possible,” April Glaser describes the birth of the Independent Media Center:

“[On] November 30, 1999… demonstrators had taken over the city, confining the world leaders from over 150 governments who had arrived in Seattle to participate in the round of global trade negotiations to their hotel lobbies. At one point, the action moved to a street downtown where a group of activist-journalists had set up a newsroom in a donated storefront. They called it the Seattle Independent Media Center (IMC). As smoke thickened the autumn air, protesters poured inside to seek refuge from the tear gas that made it nearly impossible to see and even harder to breathe. The cops tried to follow them in, but those inside quickly locked the doors. Their cameras were rolling, filming the police the whole time.” (Logic, Issue 8, 08/03/2019)

Additional featured archival content includes:

• Oral histories with local activists from the Donald Schmechel Collection (Seattle Public Library & MOHAI)
• An interpretive dance performance from the Seattle Mime Theatre, created as a reaction to political events from the 1970s
• Excerpts of an interview with activist Donnie Chin from the Kong Yick Oral History Project (Wing Luke Museum)
• The owners of a Bainbridge Island newspaper describe their efforts to continue reporting during WWII (Bainbridge Island Historical Museum)
• Yesler-Atlantic residents testify to save their homes and businesses from an Urban Renewal project in the 1960s
• Plus selections from Scarecrow Video, the Vi Hilbert Collection (UW Ethnomusicology Archives), and the UW Libraries, Special Collections

Find out more about MIPoPS at mipops.org
Watch past screenings on their YouTube Channel
Browse hundreds of videos they’ve digitized on their Internet Archive collection

Connect with MIPoPS on social media:
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