The Gentleman Bank Robber: Free Film at UNCA

  • 2018-03-29 19:18

To cap off the weekend of the UNCA Queer Studies Conference on “Prisons, Borders and Pipelines: Toward a Queer Abolitionist Movement”, Blue Ridge ABC & Tranzmission Prison Project will be presenting a documentary film entitled “The Gentleman Bank Robber: The Story of Butch Lesbian Freedom Fighter rita bo brown.”

From the filmmaker:

The Gentleman Bank Robber is a portrait of revolutionary rita bo brown, a white working class butch from rural Oregon who became known as “The Gentleman Bank Robber” in the 1970s for combining her butch style of dress with a polite way of demanding funds from bank tellers. The film moves between everyday moments with bo in and around her current home in Oakland, California, and historical retelling of the events of bo’s extraordinary life through interviews with bo and her collaborators, archival materials, and rare social movement ephemera. The Gentleman Bank Robber weaves together personal and political perspectives on 20th century social movement histories, including queer liberation in the 1960s; militant, underground activity with the George Jackson Brigade in the 1970s, a revolutionary prison abolitionist group; political prisoner support work in the 1980s, and prison activist work into the present day. bo brown is a model for how to lead a life of committed activism while maintaining a sense of humor and humanity.

Learn more about the film and watch a trailer at Julie Perini’s website.

Can’t make it?  No worries, we’ll be showing it again in Asheville in mid-June.  Details forthcoming.

bo brown has been diagnosed with Lewys Body Dimentia, a degenerative and terminal neurological disease.  To learn more about bo’s health and to donate to her healthcare fund, visit youcaring.com.

TROUBLE showing, April 1st, 7pm @ Firestorm

  • 2018-03-25 10:22

Rather than our normal film-showing on the last Friday of the month, we’re joining our Trouble showing to the end of letter writing.  5pm, Sunday the 1st of April at Firestorm, come down and write some letters and meet BRABC friends.  Stay for the showing of Trouble at 7pm.  A description follows:

Destroying Domination: Revolutionary Feminism in an Age of Misogynist Reaction

Today, decades of hard-fought victories in the struggle for female emancipation are under threat from waves of resurgent misogyny. From attacks on abortion and reproductive justice, to the revival and spread of religious fundamentalism and authoritarian nationalism… patriarchy is on the march. Meanwhile, as the corporate media celebrates the #TimesUp movement initiated by rich women in Hollywood, femicide, sexual exploitation and rape continue to tear more marginalized communities apart.

Systems of male domination lie at the very roots of capitalism and state power. During periods of political crisis and counter-revolution, women, and all those who eschew their socially-assigned gender roles, are often the first to be targeted for repression and increased violence. In part, this is because of the important position that women have always occupied, as the beating hearts of communities of resistance. But this repression is also intended as a token gesture to working-class men that are upset by their declining social and economic status, and who rather than focus their rage at their true enemies – the rich and powerful – have historically and consistently opted to clutch ever tighter to their positions of relative power and control over their would-be female comrades.

In this month’s edition of Trouble, sub.Media takes a look at patriarchy as an enduring system of social, economic and political control, and shares stories from some of the front-line struggles being waged by women around the world – from Indigenous communities fighting against the colonial dispossession of their lands, to the challenges faced by migrants forced from their homes by economic inequality, climate change, and war.
Love & Tacos,
The Troublemakers @ sub.Media

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