RAISIN/ROSEDALE Documentary to Explore Gentrification at 2017 Queens World Film Festival

"Raisin/Rosedale," a unique documentary film produced by LaGuardia Community College exploring the history of racial issues throughout the U.S., has been selected for the 2017 Queens World Film Festival, where it will be shown this Friday, March 17th at 6:30 p.m.

The film elegantly weaves together a historical account of housing segregation in Rosedale, Queens, with a fictional portrayal of a black family trying to integrate into a predominantly white Chicago suburb in scenes from A Raisin in the Sun, and interviews with LaGuardia theater students about their first-hand experiences with gentrification.

LaGuardia Community College serves an incredibly diverse and overwhelmingly low-income, disadvantaged student population (more than 70% have family incomes of less than $25,000/yr.).

The 21-minute film brings together some of the distinctive offerings of LaGuardia Community College-drawing from the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, a repository of collections that illuminate the social and political history of New York City, LaGuardia's award-winning theater program (whose students regularly best those from prestigious four-year colleges in national theater festivals), and the many neighborhoods and racial/ethnic histories of New York City.

The film is designed to spark dialogue about the history and current state of race relations throughout the U.S., and the effect of gentrification on our cities and neighbors-topics that are particularly timely considering today's political climate.

IF YOU GO:

Screening of "Raisin/Rosedale" film, produced by LaGuardia Community College, at the 2017 Queens World Film Festival

WHEN: 6:30 p.m., Friday, March 17th

WHERE: Kaufman Astoria Studios, Zukor Room, 34-12 36th St., Astoria, NY 11106

TICKETS: $15/each. Click here to purchase.

FREE ADMISSION available for media with valid press credentials. For press registration, click here.

More information at www.queensworldfilmfestival.com/films/detail.asp?fid=850.

About the LaGuardia Theater Program - Under the direction of Stefanie Sertich since 2011, LaGuardia theater students have received numerous regional and national recognition at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, which is regarded as the premiere theater program for the more than 600 two- and four-year colleges and universities nationwide with theater programs. LaGuardia students compete in Region I, one of eight regional competitions of the Festival, held each year. Regional winners then go to the national festival each spring at the John F. KENNEDY Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Recent LaGuardia awards and honors from the KENNEDY Center American College Theatre Festival include:

§ In 2017, Passing Strange, a LaGuardia theater production, was selected as one of four productions featured at Region I of the KENNEDY Center American College Theatre Festival. The National Awards Committee for productions showcased at the 2017 Regional Festivals honored Passing Strange with five awards:

o Distinguished Production of a Musical

o Distinguished Director of a Musical

o Distinguished Ensemble of a Musical

o Distinguished Performance by an Actress in a Musical-Aliayh Murchison

o Distinguished Performance by an Actor in a Musical-Jehan Havé

§ In 2017, LaGuardia student Jose Reyes was selected as a Region 1 winner of the KENNEDY Center American College Theatre Festival's award in Arts Administration. This win made him one of nine students from across the country to attend Nationals. Click here to read more.

§ In 2016, LaGuardia student Viguens Louis went to Nationals for his Region I win of a KENNEDY Center American College Theatre Festival's award in Arts Administration, which was given for the first-time that year. Click here to read more.

§ Also in 2016, a LaGuardia Theatre graduate studying at Lehman College, Fe Torres, was awarded an Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Award for Region 1. He then went onto Nationals, where he won two scholarships: the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre Scholarship, and an Artist-As-Citizen Conference Scholarship. Click here to read more.

§ In 2015, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, directed by Stefanie Sertich, LaGuardia theater program director, was selected as one of four productions showcased at Region I. For his performance in this production, LaGuardia student Ahsan Ali was selected as a distinguished actor in a supporting role. Click here to read more.

§ In both 2015 and 2014, student Julio Trinidad received an Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Award for Region 1, which allowed him to go to nationals both years. In 2015, he won three awards at nationals that came with sizable scholarships: 2nd place overall, the Mark Twain Comedy Award, and the Margolis Method Acting Training Scholarship. Click here to read more.

"While our students have taken home a good number of regional and national theater awards, I believe that the true measure of a theater program is its ability to build empathetic citizens in an ever changing world. This reflects our college's mission as well," says Stefanie Sertich, who's directed the LaGuardia theater program since 2011. "Theater/acting is terribly subjective and incredibly difficult-this business is about who you know and luck. That said, some of our graduates have become working actors and others are continuing to hone their craft in well-regarded theater programs at four-year schools," says Sertich.

One such graduate who is now a working actor is Ashley August, the 2013 NYC Youth Poet Laureate. For more, go to www.ashleyaugust.com/base.

The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, established in 1982, serves as a repository for NYC's social and political history, which includes the largest collection of New York City mayoral papers. Archive records include the personal papers and official documents of Mayors Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Robert F. Wagner, Abraham D. Beame and Edward I. Koch, the records of the New York City Housing Authority, the piano maker Steinway & Sons, The Council of the City of New York and a Queens Local History Collection. Assets from these collections are regularly referenced in news stories, and studied by journalists, policy makers, and other researchers examining the history of Greater New York.

The Archives regularly produces public programs exploring its collections, including an annual calendar produced in partnership with The New York Times and the City University of New York. Each year, the calendar is devoted to a theme of importance to the Greater New York Metropolitan area. The 2017 calendar is devoted to housing in NYC; the 2016 calendar focused on labor. Click here to learn more.