Quiet No More/Silence Sam/Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd

Eléonore Hamelin (2020, U.S., 27 min.)/Courtney Staton and Jeremiah Rhodes (2018, U.S. 30 min.)/Cy Dodson (2021, U.S., 27 min.) 

Tragically, the epidemic of violence against African Americans and other people of color has a long and varied history. Not only has there been direct violence, shootings and lynchings, there has also been state-sanctioned violence in the form of police shootings and killings and structural violence in a legal system intentionally designed to disadvantage people of color. All of this stems from deep-rooted histories and symbols of violence that continue to pervade American society in ways both blatant and subtle. So how do we address this violence in a way that ends this persecution and rebuilds healing community bonds?

In this powerful triptych of short films, we hear firsthand from those on the frontlines of three recent incidents of racial violence in American society:

In Quiet No More, Reverend Sharon Risher tries to work through her grief and anger at losing her mother and cousins in the shooting by a white supremacist at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston in 2015. Rev. Risher struggles with the burden of always being asked to be the one to forgive and tries to chart a path forward that allows her to make peace.

In Silence Sam, students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill lead a charge to remove “Silent Sam,” a confederate war monument in the main quad of the campus that was originally erected intentionally to celebrate white supremacy. Enduring pushback from university leadership, the state legislature, and the police, they will not be silenced any longer in demanding that their campus live its values and make a space where all actually feel welcomed and safe.

In Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd, director Cy Dodson lives in the neighborhood in Minneapolis where Derek Chauvin and other cops murdered George Floyd. He brings his camera to bear witness to the community’s struggle to process this heinous crime, including both its tearing itself apart and then its coming together to rebuild on principles of justice for all.

A difficult, moving, and necessary journey through America’s recent horrors, we hope this can lead to meaningful reflections about how we can build better bonds to heal racial violence here at Penn State and in our communities.