Local filmmaker Bob Hercules presents portraits of two great community organizers and a controversial Holocaust survivor in three documentaries screening this week in the first Chicago Independent Film Festival.
Senator Obama Goes to Africa follows the President-to-be on the trip to his ancestral Kenya, as well as South Africa and Chad, that helped cement his international reputation. (Already screened).
Get the word on one of Obama’s role models in Hercules and Bruce Orenstein’s The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy, an examination of the Chicago rabble rouser whose mid-century collective actions create the mold for contemporary community organizing. That’s Friday at 6 PM at the A.P.O. Building, 1438 W. 18th St.
Hercules and Cheri Pugh’s Forgiving Dr. Mengele looks at Eva Kor, a survivor of Josef Mengele’s horrific twin experiments at Auschwitz who sparked a furious debate with her public statement of forgiveness for the Nazi scientist. Forgiving Dr. Mengele screens Thursday at 6 PM at St. Augustine College, 1333-45 W. Argyle.
edia runs through Sunday. See a complete schedule here.