Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Ethnic Studies Documentary Needs Funding

Posted By on Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 2:15 PM

Precious Knowledge Trailer from Ari Palos on Vimeo.

Wow, if the trailer is any indication, Precious Knowledge is going to be the powerful voice we need to help explain the importance of ethnic-studies classes in the Tucson Unified School District—and in any other school district.

Creators of the documentary have been working on it for two years, and they need help to complete the film in order to get it aired on the local Arizona Media PBS station.

You can read more about the filmmakers here, and you can find out about contributing to the film project here. The filmmakers need to raise $20,000 in order to get it aired on PBS, and so far, they've raised $520.

According to their website:

PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE is “the Arizona documentary” of the moment as Arizona is thrust into the national spotlight with its recent wave of anti-Latino legislation. Along with the harsh immigration bill SB1070 Arizona lawmakers passed HB 2281, giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish Ethnic Studies classes.

We have secured a commitment of funding from Arizona Public Media/KUAT, the Independent Television Service (ITVS), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This is terrific as it gives us a good shot of having this documentary seen by millions of viewers on PBS, however, their financial support requires matching funds.