Jeffery Robinson had one of the best educations in America. He went to Marquette University and Harvard Law School and has been a trial lawyer for over 40 years – as a public defender, in private practice, at the ACLU, and now at The Who We Are Project. In 2011, Robinson began raising his then 13-year-old nephew and, as a Black man raising a Black son, struggled with what to tell his son about racism in America. How, he wondered, did we get here? And when he started looking at our Nation’s history, Robinson was shocked by what he had not known. For the past 10 years, in community centers, concert halls, houses of worship, and conference rooms across America, he has been sharing what he learned.

In Who We Are – A Chronicle of Racism in America, Robinson faces his largest audience, asking all of us to examine who we are, where we come from, and who we want to be. Anchored by Robinson’s 2018 performance at NYC’s historic Town Hall Theater, the film interweaves historical and present-day archival footage, Robinson’s personal story, and observational and interview footage capturing Robinson’s meetings with Black change-makers and eyewitnesses to history. From a hanging tree in Charleston, South Carolina, to a walking tour of the origins of slavery in colonial New York, to the site of a 1947 lynching in rural Alabama, the film brings history to life, exploring the enduring legacy of white supremacy and our collective responsibility to overcome it.

The film will screen at the 2022 Greater Farmington Film Festival on Friday, October 7th, at 9:15pm, at the Riviera Cinema. Here are 5 good reasons to join us for the film.

1. Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America is a documentary feature film that confronts the history of slavery, racism, and police brutality head on.
2. You’ll be inspired by our shared responsibility to create a better country in our lifetimes.
3. Jeffery Robinson states his “hope [is] we get to a point where the narrative in the United States about our past is one that is true, not to tear ourselves down, but to reckon with where we started and how far we need to go to get to the true promises of our country.”
4. Co-director Emily Kunstler says the film “asks all of us to examine where we come from, who we are, and who we want to be.”
5. Screen Daily notes that “Jeffery Robinson is precise, empathetic and informed. He is every teacher you might have ever wished for as a student.”

Purchase your tickets today at gffilmfest.com/films!