34 DAYS: THE FIGHT FOR DYETT

A FEAUTRE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY

We're revolutionizing the way films are made.

We're mobilizing resources to support the production of this film and the community whose story is being uplifted. Media Sutra is gearing up for our third feature-length documentary about the Fight for Dyett Hunger Strike in Bronzeville, Chicago in partnership with the hunger strikers themselves. This $270,000 will support us to complete filming and production, and support our continued Resource Mobilization efforts for the Bronzeville community for them to self-determine their bold visions.

SYNOPSIS

In the face of the largest simultaneous public school closure in the country, a resilient Black community on Chicago's South Side embarks on a courageous hunger strike, defying all odds to save their high school. As they confront relentless hunger, unprecedented health crises, and a deeply entrenched system of racial oppression, their fight becomes a symbol of hope and garners widespread support. '34 Days: Fight For Dyett' chronicles their struggle, showcasing the indomitable spirit that empowers them to rise from the ashes of America's crippling challenges and emerge triumphant, like a phoenix, in reclaiming their generational legacy.

THE COMMUNITY

Bronzeville is a historic neighborhood in Chicago’s South Side, just a few miles south of downtown. Historically known as the “Black Metropolis”, it is home to many legendary icons, the first Black YMCA and Provident Hospital, where Daniel Hale Williams, an African American doctor, pioneered open-heart surgery.

The Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) has been an instrument for grassroots democracy in the North Kenwood and Oakland communities of Bronzeville since 1965. KOCO utilizes direct action community organizing as its primary methodology for change, and develops new generations of Black leadership that will build stable, viable, and just communities where opportunity is not denied based on race or economic status. KOCO remains the oldest Black-led grassroots organization in Chicago.

THE HUNGER STRIKERS

Dr. Aisha Wade-Bey

Anna Jones

April Stogner

Cathy Dale

Irene Robinson

Jeanette Taylor

Jitu Brown

Marc Kaplan

Monique Redeaux-Smith

Nelson Soza

Prudence Brown

Rev. Robert Jones

THE ISSUES & THE IMPACT

Through this film we hope to end school closure and privatization, support the fight for community schools, counter harmful narratives about Black communities, and invest in Bronzeville’s self determination. Click on the drop downs below to see more about the issue areas we're focusing on.

Schools continue to be a battleground for racial justice as efforts to destabilize BIPOC communities are on the rise. We are in an ideological battle with public education caught in the middle, leading to harmful narratives that shape policies. BIPOC communities are starved of resources, and self-determination is stifled, not allowing our nation to reach its greatest potential. With the pandemic bringing education to the forefront, and the catalytic movement for Black lives, a new story about public education is emerging. What will the story be? Who will tell the story? Who will benefit from the story? Over the last few years the topic of public education has seemed like a rope in a political game of tug of war. This has pulled parents, families, educators, and communities in varying directions instead of supporting them to coalesce and create new possibilities. Where education goes from here is crucial. This is our moment to lift up the voices of those most impacted to shape the narrative and self determine the future of public education.

The disastrous effects of school closure and privatization reverberate through homes, communities and generations, putting kids in danger and stripping them of opportunities. The communities most often impacted by school closures and privatization are Black and brown, and poor and working class. Bronzeville, in their struggle was fighting for a model of public education pushing for equity and justice: community schools, which are defined as “a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources,” by the Coalition for Community Schools. This model focus on not only education but also resources, programs, health and social services, leadership development, and community engagement, which leads to “improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.”

The communities most often impacted by school closures and privatization are Black and brown, and poor and working class. Too often, there is a hyper-focus on the traumas happening in Black communities and the over-representation becomes accepted as the mainstream narrative, especially for places like Bronzeville in South Side Chicago. This harms the community and can overshadow any positive work they are doing to change the long-standing oppressive systems and structures that have been upheld for centuries. This narrative also places the blame solely on the community at hand rather than the oppressive governmental structures. Instead of acknowledging that this is happening at a systemic level, the communities themselves are the only ones blamed. There is an incredibly harmful narrative that perpetuates the idea that Black communities don’t care about their children’s education, but this could not be farther from the truth. The Fight for Dyett is just one of many examples of that.

Through this film, we aim to share a successful example of a community fighting for what they deserve. We want to directly challenge those harmful narratives and support the fight for an equitable and just public education system. Bronzeville is not the only place school closures and privatization are starving Black communities, it’s a nationwide issue that has been happening for decades, but the system is designed to make communities facing this issue feel isolated and alone. We want to provide an example to many other communities who are looking for the push or the courage to stand up for their communities, and show that it is possible. Lastly, we want to honor and uplift the legacy and impact of the struggles and sacrifices the hunger strikers made for their community, so that it can be witnessed and experienced through those who lived it.

This film also seeks to mobilize resources for the Bronzeville community to vision forward and invest in their continued self determination. As filmmakers of color, we’ve seen firsthand how documentary can be an amazing tool for uplifting stories and creating change, but it can also be harmful, extractive and exploitative if not approached with intention and care. So often, films profit greatly off the communities whose stories they tell, while the communities receive little more than “visibility.” In this project, the film is just one piece of a larger effort to support and resource the Bronzeville community. In total, we aim to raise $1,000,000, half of which will go towards production and half of which will go towards the Bronzeville community. Through a reparations framework, we want to change that by resourcing the community and allowing them to self-determine how they will use the resources, as they know their needs best.

Resource Mobilization &
Building A Solidarity Economy

Actualizing a solidarity economy in the United States requires reparations.

Media Sutra is bringing together resource mobilization and filmmaking in a revolutionary way that centers community self-determination, a Solidarity Economy, Transformative Investing & reparations.

A TRANSFORMATIVE Way of Filmmaking

Documentaries have the potential for powerful change -- but also have the same potential to cause harm if not done in right relationship and intentionally. So often, filmmakers profit off their films, while the communities featured in them receive little more than visibility of their struggle. We're changing the model and going against the grain. Together with Media Sutra, KOCO (the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization) are collaborators of the film, ensuring the Bronzeville community autonomy over their story and are guaranteed profits that come from the film during its lifetime. We are showing that the community — the original storymakers and storytellers — deserve to be valued as such.

A TRANSFORMATIVE WAY OF INVESTING

We are not only fighting for basic human rights, like education, but also innovating models of reparations and self-determination that lead to wellness and community wealth building. Media Sutra innovated a reparations-centered framework called Transformative Investing to inspire the redistribution of wealth, land and power to communities from which they were extracted. The fight for Dyett High School included a fight for community autonomy over their institutions, and this should be something they have over all aspects of their community. They should not also just be fighting to meet basic needs, but resourced to support visioning, dreaming, thriving and creative future making, which brings them full circle to their rich history rooted in art and culture.

HYPER-LOCAL
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Investing hyper-locally means that the community will be resourced beyond the film so that they have the power and resources to continue to manifest their community’s vision, generate ongoing revenue and create infrastructure.

THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF ART
Cultural workers, artists, and creatives have long been at the center of systemic change and justice movements. This film aspires to advance ongoing culture shift and organizing work to create the conditions for reparations.

BEING IN “RIGHT RELATIONSHIP”
Reparations requires the return of extracted resources to Black communities. The root of the word is “repair,” so we must also heal from harm. Through interdependent, long-term, transformative relationships, we actualize resource sharing as a new norm, replacing transactional exchanges.