Buffalo State Film Series Provides Powerful Insight into Diverse Communities

Buffalo State College’s Beyond Boundaries Film and Discussion Series offers the campus and surrounding community the opportunity to view difficult issues—homelessness, racism, mental illness, sexuality, and much more—in the most poignant and artful of ways.

The free series, which began in 2014, has included well-known, award-winning documentaries such as I Am Not Your Negro, and RBG, as well as a number of lesser known gems that cut right to the heart of an issue. The films are screened six Thursday evenings during the academic year in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Tower Auditorium and attract viewers not only for the films but also for the post-film discussions.

Series coordinators Ruth Goldman and Meg Knowles, both associate professors of media production in the Communication Department and documentary filmmakers, invite faculty members, community professionals, activists, and sometimes even the filmmakers themselves to participate in a panel discussion and answer questions following each screening.

“After almost every film, at least one student will stand up and say, ‘This is my life,’” Knowles said. “They have lived the focus of the film, but they haven’t necessarily seen it talked about. It’s very impactful for students.”

Goldman added that other audience members will share oral and written comments such as, “I didn’t know anything about this topic, and it completely opened my eyes.”

The series, which is free to attend, is sponsored by the college’s Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney.

“This initiative is something I’m proud for our office to support each year,” said Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, the college’s chief diversity office. “Beyond Boundaries reflects the college’s mission of championing diversity and inclusion on an urban-engaged campus. It also gets people talking about important issues from different perspectives that should be heard.”

One goal of the series was to bring diverse audiences together.  

“Each film appeals to different communities,” Goldman said. “While some people come to one or two films they identify with, others attend them all.”

It all comes from a commitment to documentaries. In 2007, Knowles created a documentary film series with Michael Niman, professor of communication. Soon after Goldman joined the Buffalo State faculty in 2013, she worked with Jason Parker, the former diversity program coordinator, to launch a diversity-focused film series. In fall 2014, Knowles and Goldman decided to merge the two film series, and Beyond Boundaries was born.

They consider it a service to introduce students and others to documentaries filled with universal truths.

“Let us serve you something you might not have served yourself, something that’s astonishing, and not the most obvious choice when your friend asks what to watch on Netflix,” Knowles said.

The curation process starts early. Knowles and Goldman go through the many choices, write to distributors, and negotiate costs while simultaneously choosing the discussion panel.

“If there’s a hot-button issue in the news, we try to find films that address it,” Goldman said.

Other times, the films capture a moment in time or focus on an ongoing societal issue. The fall 2021 lineup, for instance, included Summer of Soul, a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival; Foster, a documentary created by Buffalo State alumna Deborah Oppenheimer and Mark Jonathan Harris about the Los Angeles foster care system; and Pier Kids, a portrait of homeless queer and transsexual youth of color who forge their own family on a street pier in New York City.

The films that drew the biggest audiences were Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World in fall 2018 and Lake of Betrayal: The Story of Kinzua Dam in fall 2017, two documentaries that feature the triumphs and challenges of Native Americans. Foster also had a big audience.

During the heart of the pandemic, Beyond Boundaries continued online and gained momentum.

“We had huge audiences with people home without conflicting events,” Goldman said. “And we were able to get some fantastic panels remotely.”

Now that films are back in person, audience numbers remain steady. Most screenings attract 50 to 100 patrons.

The series, both Goldman and Knowles noted, has staying power because of its ability to provide fodder for ongoing conversations in a platform that educates as much as entertains.

“I learn something from the panelists associated with every film we show,” Goldman said.  

The spring 2022 semester offerings begin on February 10 with The Neutral Ground: A Film about Sore Losers (2020), which examines the fight to remove Confederate monuments. It will be followed on March 10 by No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics (2021), which tells the story of five LGBTQ+ comic book artists whose careers go from the underground scene to the international stage. For this film, Buffalo State is partnering with Just Buffalo’s Babel series. Alison Bechdel, one of the artists featured in the film, is part of the Babel lineup this spring and will also speak after the film.

On April 14, the series features Not Going Quietly (2021), a documentary about Ady Barkan, a 32-year-old rising star in progressive politics who became an advocate for national health-care reform after receiving a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

All films begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney auditorium. For more information, call (716) 878-6210 or visit the Beyond Boundaries Facebook page.

Pictured from top: Universal health care advocate Ady Barkan gets arrested (not for the last time), from the film Not Going Quietly; the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee is removed in New Orleans, from the film The Neutral Ground; and cartoonist Alison Bechdel proves the marker is mightier than the sword, from the film No Straight Lines. The three films compose the spring 2022 Beyond Boundaries series.