HMTC marked the opening of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo with a film screening and discussion of a documentary about the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and research, "The Nazi Games" reveals how the Olympic Games were shaped by the collaboration of interests between Hitler and the ambitious members of the International Olympic Committee who turned the 1936 Games into the biggest Olympic Games the world had ever seen. Commentary was provided by David Klevan, Education Outreach Specialists at the William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

If you missed this program, you can watch it now on Youtube:

On January 14, 2021, HMTC and the NAACP marked Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend with a virtual screening and discussion of Defining Moments: The Civil Rights Movement in North Hempstead, part of HMTC’s David Taub Reel Upstanders Film Series. The film documents more than a dozen oral histories of North Hempstead residents who had a role in the Civil Rights Movement. A post -screening discussion, connected the history to contemporary concerns, will include the filmmaker Alan Ginsberg, Civil Rights activist Bernice Sims, and the Program Director for Nassau County’s Office of Minority Affairs, Dexter Hedgepeth. Watch the film on your own and then view the discussion that took place:

In honor of Election Day, HMTC’s David Taub Reel Upstander Film Series presents a virtual film screening and discussion on Zoom, of the documentary, Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot. The screening will be followed by a post-screening discussion with the former president of the Freeport-Roosevelt NAACP and Alabama native, Claudia Swansey.

Produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot, is the true story of the forgotten heroes in the fight for voting rights - the courageous students and teachers of Selma, Alabama, who stood up against injustice despite facing intimidation, arrests and violence. By organizing and marching bravely, these change-makers achieved one of the most significant victories of the civil rights era.

This 40-minute film, narrated by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, is a reminder that each of us has the ability to bring about social change and seeks to inspire young people and communities to exercise their right to participate in our democracy.

The film will introduce Claudia Swansey, who will also lead a post-screening discussion. Ms. Swansey was raised in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement and followed her family to Long Island in the late 1960’s. She later moved to Chicago, where she became politically active, working for Harold Washington’s mayoral campaign and Carol Mosley Braun’s Senate campaign. She returned to Long Island in the 1990s, where she got involved with the Freeport-Roosevelt NAACP Branch, along with a number of other organizations, eventually rising to become President of the branch from 2009-2011. She brings extensive experience in voter registration drives, both on Long Island and across the country, and a personal connection to the events in Selma.

The program is co-sponsored with the NAACP Freeport-Roosevelt Branch #2147, Education Committee.

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