A Celebration of Life
The social justice vision for The Sakia Gunn Film Project has its roots in a Black history story that gives our film company, Providence Productions, its name. The first open heart surgery was performed in 1893 by a Black doctor, Daniel Hale Williams, at a hospital in Chicago named Provident Hospital. Dr. Williams helped to found the hospital in 1891 at a time when the medical treatment of Black people was woefully inadequate. The connection is that the story of Sakia's death can signal what the future is going to look like for other kids like her. We want our youth to have a different future. The mission of the Sakia Gunn Film Project is to add fluidity and flexibility to how people think about Black LGBT people. Our project would be the first in what we hope will be a series of films chronicling the lives and accomplishments of Black Lesbian and Gay people whose stories are largely untold. Since the death of Marlon Riggs there have been few artists who specifically address our issues. No film has addressed Sakia's story or youth like her. The film's mission is to make Black LGBT kids more visible and less vulnerable. The goal is to elevate them and signal to everyone that Black LGBT youth are worth loving, protecting and planning for. And that's what Providence is... planning for the future with a grace that should be explored and celebrated.
The Sakia Gunn Film Project has screened at:
Antioch College Film Festival, Yellow Springs, OH
AALLU (African Asian Latina Lesbians United)
Bayard Rustin Progressive Democrats, Plainfield, NJ
Bits of the Mix, Hamburg, Germany, Sponsored by the Bildweschel Archive
Dyke TV Fundraiser, New York, NY
Langston’s SGFP Benefit, Brooklyn, NY
MIX NYC Film Festival, New York, NY
National Black AIDS Coalition, Boston MA
New Jersey Library Association, Long Branch, NJ
Plainfield Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Plainfield, NJ