A film screening of a documentary in progress, and Q&A with members of the film team at Berkeley Public Library
Sign My Name to Freedom: The Lost Music of Betty Reid Soskin
Director: Bryan Gibel | Co-Director: AK Sandhu
Join us Saturday, March 16th at 3pm at the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch for a captivating event that will shed new light on local-icon Betty Reid Soskin.
This free event will showcase an exciting forthcoming documentary Sign My Name to Freedom, a feature-length film about 102-year-old Betty Reid Soskin, her lost music, and her family's experiences confronting Jim Crow style workplace and residential housing segregation in the Bay Area.
The film will be a documentary hybrid, drawing on Betty's extensive photo archive and footage shot with her over many years, but it will also include dramatic recreations with actors to depict pivotal moments in her life that were never documented. It centers on a secret Betty had kept for more than 50 years: her life as a singer-songwriter during the 1960s–70s, when she wrote autobiographical songs to process her experiences as the first Black family to move across the color line into Walnut Creek when it was racially segregated.
Betty kept her songs on reel-to-reel tapes in a plastic bin in the back of her closet until she was inspired to revisit them through the making of this documentary. Now she’s ready to share them with the world. In addition to exploring lesser known aspects of Betty’s life, the project will also release an album of Betty’s unreleased songs to the world for the first time, and it takes viewers along with Betty on her journey to explore her lost music in her 90s by partnering with musicians from around the Bay Area.
Film director Bryan Gibel met Betty in 2016 and encouraged Betty to bring out taped recordings of her music that had been buried in the back of her closet for decades. Over the past eight years he and his crew have been working with Betty and her family members to capture her story and bring this documentary to completion.
The evening's program will include a 20-minute preview sample of the film, Q & A with film director Bryan Gibel and other members of the team, and information about the crowdfunding campaign to support finishing the film.
Don't miss this opportunity for a sneak peak at a documentary in progress that sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of iconic Betty Reid Soskin.
If you cannot attend, but want more information on how to support this project, please visit www.seedandspark.com/fund/sign-my-name-to-freedom and consider donating to the project there!
The film team is currently raising funds to complete the film while Betty is still with us to experience it. Although she is doing well at 102, the clock is ticking given her advanced age. The crowdfunding campaign will run through mid-March, but if the team doesn't hit their fundraising goal for the project, none of the donation pledges will be processed.
You may also want to sign up for their newsletter so you can get information about other upcoming screening opportunities. Last, you can contact the filmmakers directly at film@signmynametofreedom.com.
This event will be held on Saturday, March 16th at 3pm in the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Community Room.