Journey’s End Refugee Services closes their 3rd Annual WNY Refugee Festival on a high note (and low ones, too!) with The Music of Strangers! This Grammy-nominated documentary follows members of the world renowned Silk Road Ensemble, founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution.
Blending performance footage, personal interviews, and archival film, Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) focuses on the personal journeys of a small group of Silk Road Ensemble mainstays — Kinan Azmeh (Syria), Kayhan Kalhor (Iran), Yo-Yo Ma (France/United States), Wu Man (China), and Cristina Pato (Spain) — to chronicle their passion, talent, and sacrifice. Through these moving individual stories, the filmmakers paint a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind. And, oh yeah, lots of fantastic music, too!
- Official Site: The Music Of Strangers
- Director: Morgan Neville
- Running Time: 96 min.
- Languages: English, Arabic
- Subtitles: English
- Country: Various
- Production/Distribution Company: Participant
For your safety and comfort, Journey’s End Refugee Services is screening the 2021 WNY Refugee Film Festival for FREE! But please consider making a donation to support the vital services and programs provided by Journey’s End to our refugee community. (Suggested donation: $25.)
The fourth season of WNYRFF is coming in February 2022 and will also be virtual and FREE! Stay tuned to wnyrff.org for the exciting line-up of films curated with you in mind!
7-9 pm Monday, December 20, 2021
El Buen Amigo, 114 Elmwood Ave.
Music and refreshments welcome!
LASC is the Latin America Solidarity Committee,
a taskforce of the Western New York Peace Center.
Communities across the U.S. and across the world have been devastated by military occupation, war, and state-sanctioned police violence. The U.S. military is also the single largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world and has served as the enforcer of the occupation of Indigenous sovereign lands while upholding violent resource extraction across the world. Addressing climate change requires ending the military-industrial complex. At the same time, increasingly militarized police forces perpetrate harm in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander communities, poor, and marginalized people, and violence against women, and gender non-conforming peoples.
A Just Transition to a Regenerative Economy must end wars, military culture, and the violence of militarized forces and police in our communities and across the world.
Anti-militarism and Abolitionist movements in the U.S. and delegates from our communities will convene in a virtual town hall with our international allies in the Global south while participating in the 2021 UNFCC in Glasgow, Scotland.
We will hear testimonies from communities resisting militarism and occupation in their communities both inside and outside the U.S. and ultimately call on U.S. elected officials to take action to move away from funding unending wars and military presence and prioritize investing in regeneration and repair for communities impacted by militarism in the U.S and all over the planet.
Speakers will include:
Participants at the COP26 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow:
- Alejandria Lyons – Southwest Organizing Project
- Ramon Mejia – GGJ Alliance
- Sheila Babauta – Micronesia Climate Change Alliance
- Sharif Zakout – Arab Resource & Organizing Center
Testimonies from international allies from the Global South and frontline community leaders in the U.S.:
- Seydi Sarr – African Bureau of Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA)
- Kyle Kajihiro – Oahu Water Protectors
- Youkyoung Ko – WILPF, Korea Peace Now!
- Sha Merirei Ongelungel – Indigenous Environmental Network
Our speakers will discuss a just transition to a regenerative economy, alternatives to policing and military intervention, and a pledge for U.S. Members of Congress to sign on.
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