| Details | Join the National Portrait Gallery for a free two-day film program exploring the impact of U.S. expansion during the 20th century. These films are presented in conjunction with the exhibition “1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions.” On Sunday, Sept. 24, the National Portrait Gallery will screen “War for Guam,” produced and directed by Frances Negrón-Muntaner. This 57-minute film explores World War II and its enduring legacy in Guam, a U.S. territory since 1898. Rare archival footage and testimony from survivors and their descendants sheds light on the Native people of Guam, the CHamoru, and the militarization of their island. Following the screening, National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol will moderate a public dialogue between filmmaker Frances Negrón-Muntaner; Lauren Swaddell, senior associate with expertise in Pacific conservation and Indigenous engagement at the Pew Charitable Trust; and Neil Weare, civil rights attorney and co-founder of Right to Democracy. On Sunday, Oct. 1, the Portrait Gallery will screen two films. “The Spanish American War,” produced by Blackhawk Films, is a 22-minute compilation of brief newsreels of the War of 1898 between the United States and Spain. It offers a rare testament of the parallel—yet coincidental development of U.S. overseas expansion and early films. “Foreign in a Domestic Sense,” directed by Natalia Lassalle Morillo and Sofía Gallisá Muriente, layers narratives of Puerto Ricans who have migrated to Central Florida as a result of political and environmental disasters. Their stories bring to light more contemporary issues around displacement and community. A panel discussion with directors Natalia Lassalle Morillo; Sofía Gallisá Muriente; and filmmaker and professor, Judith Escalona; moderated by Taína Caragol, curator of painting and sculpture and Latino art and history, will explore the film’s relevance to the past and present. |
|---|