(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Puffin Cultural Forum will screen the groundbreaking new documentary Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, from Emmy award-winning director Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Mariachi High, Black in Latin America) as part of the Teaneck International Film Festival on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 4:45pm. The documentary is quickly becoming a lightning rod for heartfelt dialogue between the Black and Jewish communities, and celebrated in both communities' film festivals simultaneously. Ain't No Back won Best Documentary Feature at the DC Black Film Festival, and three weeks later went on to sell out all five nights of a limited theatrical run at the DC JCC.
Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round is the untold story of the unprecedented alliance formed between Black and Jewish communities to protest segregation at Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960. The civil rights campaign that ensued shook metropolitan Washington DC, forced sides, changed lives, and ignited sparks that fueled the Movement for years to come. The film has screened in over fifteen festivals, including a sell out at DC/Dox, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and the upcoming St. Louis Independent Film Festival. NYC and Philadelphia premieres will be announced soon.
When five Howard University students sat on a segregated Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the largely Jewish community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, what is likely the first organized interracial civil rights protest in US history was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. For these unlikely allies, picketing together led to partying and learning together, with union organizers mentoring student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in a Supreme Court case.
With never-before seen footage and immersive storytelling by director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Acclaimed actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, voice the Black and mainstream presses, respectively, with additional voiceover by Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner and Tracie Thoms.
The screening takes place Sunday, November 10 at Puffin Cultural Forum (20 Puffin Way) in Teaneck, New Jersey. The screening begins at 4:45pm. Tickets for this screening and all of the festival are available for purchase online. Director Ilana Trachtman will attend the Teaneck festival screening for a live Q and A. Sponsors of the screening include Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of the Links, Inc.; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Iota Epsilon Omega Chapter; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Kappa Theta Lambda Chapter
Producer/ Director Ilana Trachtman has made Emmy award-winning nonfiction programs for thirty years. She has explored worlds for PBS, HBO Family, ABC-TV, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery, A&E, and the Sundance Channel; pursuing stories such as the legacy of slavery in Latin America, social activism among Gulf coast shrimpers, the first LGBTQ activists, glassblowing with disenfranchised youth, and elderly prima ballerinas. Favorite PBS prime-time credits include directing the independent feature Mariachi High; the series Black in Latin America hosted by Henry Louis Gates; and Texas Ranch House; as well as producing for History Detectives and Reading Rainbow. Ilana’s feature Praying with Lior in over 60 cities, winning 6 Audience Awards for Best Documentary and critical acclaim from the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place November 7-14, 2024 across several venues in Teaneck, New Jersey. The festival features over 25 films, panel discussions, and parties, with filmmakers, actors, elected officials and industry guests in attendance.
With the support of the nonprofit organization Puffin Foundation, Ltd., a small group of dedicated volunteers set out, more than 20 years ago, to create an event that would present a collection of compelling and imaginative feature-length films, documentaries, and shorts from a variety of cultures that would lead audiences to question, debate, and become caring and involved citizens who recognize the need to institute positive change. TIFF has found its niche on the film festival circuit, and, having been dubbed by the Star-Ledger, “the film festival with a social conscience,” is growing in reputation as well as numbers.
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