Community Cinema Screens TULIA, TEXAS in Seattle

A crowd gathers at the SIFF Cinema at the Seattle Center for a free Community Cinema screening of TULIA, TEXAS

Over the weekend, a crowd gathered at the SIFF Cinema at the Seattle Center for a free Community Cinema screening of TULIA, TEXAS, directed by Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen.

A big hit at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival, some audience members came with questions in mind to ask the panel of local community members, which included Harry Williams, one of the lawyers who worked on the Tulia case and currently works at the ACLU of Washington as a staff attorney. Before coming to Seattle, Williams worked in Texas with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project and was a staff attorney at the Texas Fair Defense Project. As a member of the legal defense team in Tulia and a Seattle resident, he was able to bridge connections between these seemingly very distant communities. Williams was also joined by Alison Holcomb, director, ACLU of Washington’s drug policy, and Jacque Larrainzar, policy and outreach manager at the Seattle office for civil rights and a member of the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Together the panel fielded questions related from local race relations to Seattle’s initiative to identify institutionalized racism in the city government to felon rights and the legalization of marijuana. Hildy Ko of KCTS, the Seattle PBS station, was also at the screening and gave out information about the film and other KCTS materials such as bumper stickers and program guides.

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Tags: African American, Seattle