| Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon | |
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| Directed by | Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, Erin Yanke |
| Produced by | Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, Erin Yanke |
| Distributed by | Collective Eye Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon is a 2015 award-winning documentary film co-directed by Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke.
The film showcases the development of conflict between local residents of Portland, Oregon and the law enforcement agencies during the last half century. It also features interviews of victims of police brutality and those by family members of people killed during police action. Interviews by members of Portland's abolition movement have also been included in the documentary. The film uses archival newsreel footage from the Oregon Historical Society along with scenes shot at the locations of police brutalities and tries to showcase a world without the current institution of the police. [1]
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art partly funded the documentary through the Andy Warhol Regional Re-grant Program which gave the film its 2013 Precipice Fund Project Grant. Supporters of the film made up the rest with donations. [2] [3]
The film has screened at the Northwest Film Center, the Hollywood Theatre (Portland, Oregon), the Clinton Street Theater, the Capitol Theater (Olympia), the Harlem International Film Festival and many other theaters, festivals, art spaces, community spaces around the United States and around the world.
Julie Ethel Dash is an American film director, writer and producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. After she had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States.
Copwatch is a network of activist organizations, typically autonomous and focused in local areas, in the United States, Canada and Europe that observe and document police activity while looking for signs of police misconduct and police brutality. They believe that monitoring police activity on the streets is a way to prevent police brutality.
Joanna Priestley is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art and Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan. Bill Plympton calls her the "Queen of independent animation". Priestley lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
Rose Bond is a Canadian-born media artist, animator and professor who currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She has been considered a scholar on the subject of animation and an experienced animator herself. Bond's animations and short films have been shown at film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival. Bond is also known for her architectural animation installations. She shown work at Exeter Castle in 2010 and created a prototype animation for the Smithsonian. Bond's hand-painted films are held in the film collection at the Museum of Modern Art.
Portland Center Stage at The Armory is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at The Armory in Portland's Pearl District. Portland Center Stage at The Armory was founded in 1988 as the northern sibling of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It became an independent theater in 1993 and in 1994 Elizabeth Huddle became producing artistic director. Chris Coleman took over in 2000 as the company's fourth artistic director. In 2018, Marissa Wolf was named the fifth artistic director and Cynthia Fuhrman named Managing Director.
Pride Northwest, Inc. is a community-based regional LGBTQ+ Pride 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The non-profit organization was founded in 1994 and the current executive director of the organization is Debra Porta, who has served as the president of Pride Northwest since 2006.
Edward Tevis Wheeler is an American politician who has served as the mayor of Portland, Oregon since 2017. He was Oregon State Treasurer from 2010 to 2016.
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB), officially the Portland Bureau of Police, is the law enforcement agency of the city of Portland, the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. While oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City Commissioners, the mayor has historically been assigned to the Police Bureau as the police commissioner.
Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse is an American feature-length documentary film, released in 2013 and directed by Brian Lindstrom. The film explores issues of police accountability in the case of James Chasse, a man with schizophrenia who was killed by Portland, Oregon police officers in 2006. The title refers to a song about him, "Alien Boy" by the Wipers.
Portland Film Festival is a non-profit organization which hosts events and programs in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 2013 by Joshua Leake with the help of Jay Cornelius. Their main event called the Portland Film Festival is an annual independent film festival that is held in several local theaters in Portland. This event focuses on showcasing films, but also provide food, a range of events to participate in, and other forms of entertainment.
Vanessa Renwick is an American artist and filmmaker living in Portland, Oregon. Since 1981, she has been working in experimental and documentary forms—writing, producing films, videos, photography, sculpture and installations. In 1996, she started her own production company, called The Oregon Department of Kick Ass. Renwick's art reflects an interest in place, landscape use and transformation, as well as relationships between bodies and landscapes.
United States v. City of Portland was a lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice against the City of Portland, Oregon on December 17, 2012, alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional use of force by the Portland Police Bureau against individuals with actual or perceived mental illness.
LGBT culture in Portland, Oregon is an important part of Pacific Northwest culture.
The Oregon Cartoon Institute is located in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 2007 by Anne Elizabeth Richardson, dedicated to raising awareness of Oregon's rich animation and cartooning history. The OCI has produced projects on Mel Blanc, Harry Smith, Robert Crumb, James Ivory, Pinto Colvig, Lew C. Cook, James Blue, Joan Gratz, Homer Groening, and others. Anne Richardson died on October 14, 2020. The current board is chaired by Katherine Richardson. Members of the board are Laura Berg, Sebastian Heiduschke, Kira Lesley and Ellen Thomas.
Beth Harrington is an Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated filmmaker based in Vancouver, Washington, specializing in documentary features. Her documentaries often explore American history, music and culture, including the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, and the history of women in rockabilly. In addition to her film work as a producer, director and writer, Harrington is also a singer and guitarist, and was a member of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers from 1980 to 1983.
Lindsey Grayzel is a documentary filmmaker from Portland, Oregon. She started as an editor in 1994 then became producer and director in 1999.
Fernanda D'Agostino is an American artist and sculptor from Portland, Oregon. Her 30-year career includes works that "integrated personal, societal and environmental concerns" into public art installations. Her new media works frequently incorporate technically sophisticated interactive elements.
Portland, Oregon has an extended history of street activism and has seen many notable protests.
Michael "Mike" D. Schrunk served as district attorney of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States from 1981 until 2012. He is believed to be the longest-serving district attorney in Oregon.
Demetria Hester is a Black activist, speaker, and hate crime survivor based in Portland, Oregon. She is a frequent organizer of and speaker at Portland's George Floyd protests, Black Lives Matter rallies, and vigils for victims of police violence.