Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower
Wednesday, September 11, 2024 @ 7PM (EDT)
(Doors open at 6PM for tabling and community networking)
Screened at The State Theatre
Check out our Digital Handbill!
Joe Piscatella (2017, U.S., 79 min.) + post-film discussion
Think youth can’t change the world? They already are. In Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong and his friends are alarmed when the Chinese government announces changes to the textbooks and teachings about history and government in their schools. Rather than quietly accept their fate, they organize and take to the streets in peaceful protest, forming the Scholarism movement. Despite threats of imprisonment and government pushback, they help ignite a pro-democracy movement that stands up for the rights of citizens to determine their own government and future.
Mind Over Matter, our theme for 2024-25, is about how much more resilient we become when we look inward and reconnect with the values and beliefs that animate us at our core. This is true on both an individual and societal scale. In this consequential political, social, and climatic year, the temptation to feel overwhelmed and to tune out can be enormous. But if we follow the lead of brave youth like Joshua Wong, we can reconnect with the values that animate us as a nation and become more resilient by engaging in participatory democracy and speaking up for what we believe. Help us kick off this important conversation with a live, in-person film screening at State College’s beloved State Theatre and leave inspired to vote, participate in civic discourse, and be a more active citizen.
Following the film we’ll have a discussion with Penn State experts on the Hong Kong democratic movement and youth activism, as well as with local, non-partisan organizations and groups that help Americans engage in our democratic process. Invited panelists include:
- Kendall Mainzer, PSU Votes
- Sylvia Neely, Citizens’ Climate Lobby
- Kathleen O’Connell, League of Women Voters
- Maggie Shum, Assistant professor of political science at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College
- Autumn Graham (Moderator), Biological Science Educational Coordinator
(Co-sponsored by PSU Votes, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the League of Women Voters of Centre County, and NextGen America)
[Joshua Wong]’s a remarkable figure perhaps because, on the surface he seems so unremarkable – a gawky teen in oversized clothes from a lower-middle class background who nevertheless manages to rouse people with his energy and plain speaking.