To Do 06.11.20

WATCH: free black films

I think the opposite of racism is not tolerance, which means putting up with something; nor is it acceptance, which posits that one party judges another. I think the true opposite of racism is understanding. Because racism is a lie, a scheme constructed between you and other people. So one way to fight racism is to discover why institutions and people in power would want you to believe in lies – a worthy pursuit. And the heralded Criterion Collection, which preserves and publishes important films, is pursuing another way: spreading understanding by sharing films by and about black people. They announced last week they are donating thousands of dollars to organizations supporting Black Lives Matter, and lifting the paywall on select films from black filmmakers and on documentaries about the black experience. On their website it’s called Black Lives. And free films include Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Les Blank’s A Well-Spent Life, Leilah Weinraub’s Shakedown, Agnes Varda’s Black Panthers, Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding (the New York Times called him “the nation’s least-known great filmmaker”) and more. These are independent and artistic works. It’s not Netflix and chill. It’s more like Criterion and grow. At criterion.com.

BINGE: Public access television

A camera can give extra importance to its subject; the reasoning is that there must be a good reason that someone is pointing a camera at it. So when we see the Central Coast on TV, we are interested and invested. AMP (Access Media Productions, formerly Access Monterey Peninsula) is our public access television station and has been filming and sharing local public, nonprofit and government events on five channels (and website) since 1998. Things like Monterey Architectural Review Committee meetings, like the one on March 20, 2019, where they discussed how a request by Mountain Mike’s Pizza to increase signage from 14 square feet to 19 square feet would be inconsistent with the city’s approved sign program. Through a partnership with Voices of Monterey Bay, AMP hosts crime reporter Julia Reynolds Martinez’s podcast, “Gray Area,” about the local justice system. One AMP producer, Noah, hosts a street interview show in which she and cameraman Kodiak film different people at Monterey’s Tuesday farmers market and edit it with quick cutaway shots, zooms on people in the background, outtakes and technical hiccups, funny asides and oblique freeze frames on things like the prop mic that Noah uses (“very Between Two Ferns-esque” says the subtitle). AMP’s mission is about free speech, citizen participation and preserving democracy, but it’s also got ramshackle charm, eavesdropping fun and neighborly connection – those aren’t mutually exclusive. accessmediaproductions.org.

READ: Classroom Confidential

Victoria Lucido taught in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District for 33 years, mostly at Colton Middle School. She wrote a book about it titled Classroom Confidential: How I Survived 33 Years in a Public School Classroom… and You Can Too! Which sounds like an advice book, which it is. But it also offers non-teachers her personal tour through the teaching profession. “Think twice before agreeing to teach summer school,” she writes. “If you need more money in the summer, it would be better to be a waiter, a golf caddy, or anything but a teacher. Summer is the time to refresh and rejuvenate.” And here’s another: “The school custodian and the school office supervisor can make or break your career.” Which sounds dramatic, but Lucido also taught drama. She admits that she’s of the old school, thus passages like “I’ve always believed students should have a healthy fear of their teachers.” Which sounds kind of Machiavellian, but is interesting. One chapter is titled “Staff Meetings: A Necessary Evil or a Complete Waste of Time?” You can get the book on Amazon, or get it delivered by emailing vicielucido@gmail.com. victorialucidobooks.com.