Screening of Documentary Film The Last Battlefront: Quest for the Vote in DC – Featuring a Panel Discussion with filmmaker Anna Reid Jhirad.

This one-hour documentary is the first historical film on the right for self-government in Washington, D.C. told through the lives and voices of its citizens. This is a non-partisan film with conflicting points of view which premiered on PBS.

Washington, D.C. is one of the only capitals in the world where its citizens have no representation in the national legislature and where Congress and federal authorities routinely intrude on the local government of the District. The film looks at four turning points in the history of Washington, D.C. to understand how this happened and the struggles of D.C. residents to restore their basic rights of self-government that other Americans enjoy.

Filmmaker Anna Reid Jhirad, founder of Marigold Productions, LLC, is a deeply experienced and award-winning filmmaker who has worked for years as a writer and producer on documentary programs that landed on PBS, in museums, IMAX cinemas, and in independent markets. She is now directing a series of films. She was able to work with major producers–Henry Hampton in Boston; Charles and Grace Guggenheim in Washington, D.C.; PBS executives such as Tamara Robinson at WETA and WNET; and African American directors such as Dante James. The programs won significant awards among them Emmys, Cine Golden Eagles, the Dupont Columbia Award, and an Academy Award Nomination, as well as awards from film festivals (Pan African Film Directors’ Award, Black Maria Film Festival, Philadelphia Women’s Film Festival).

A key thread running through her films is their focus on history. In trying to understand the racial violence in Boston during the 1970s, she launched her own earliest films at WGBH but also worked with Blackside Inc, on Eyes on the Prize. In Washington, D.C., she was lead writer for Power to Heal, a story about the racial integration of hospitals under Lyndon Johnson, which appeared on PBS nationally. She helped develop museum exhibitions with Margo Taft Stever, featuring newly discovered photographs of William Howard Taft’s 1905 Mission to Asia. Now with The Last Battlefront: Quest for the Vote in Washington, D.C., she has found, again, that history has a way of broadening our understanding of a difficult political dilemma, D.C.’s long struggle for basic rights of self-government, democracy, and representation in Congress. At a time of national struggles over voting rights, these little-known stories offer insights that should help reframe the fight. She is a member of the Writers Guild East.

Watch the trailer here.

Post-screening panel to include: