Join us for a special film screening to mark Black History Month.
For almost 60 years, Glen Echo Amusement Park was the wholesome, beloved playground of white metropolitan Washington. Every summer, tens of thousands enjoyed its Crystal Pool, wooden rollercoaster, Spanish Ballroom, and Tunnel of Love. But the Black children living nearby could only gawk from the road.
In June of 1960, three shocking, unprecedented events happened at “idyllic” Glen Echo Amusement Park:
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Howard University Students arrived up at the Park, and sat down on the carousel.
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White, middle-aged neighbors, largely Jewish, joined the protests.
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The American Nazi Party showed up.
AIN'T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND is the award-winning film which tells the forgotten story of how those three events shook metropolitan Washington, forced sides, changed lives, and ignited sparks that flew out across the Civil Rights Movement for years to come.
Using just-discovered archival footage, and focusing on the stories of six individuals, you’ll be transported to those heady days, when private businesses could choose their customers, and the walls between Black and white were so high that friendships were unimaginable.
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND offers a rare and intimate lens on one protest in the early Civil Rights Movement. Telling the story of one amusement park, one group of individuals, and one moment in time, the laser focus allows for deep understanding of the non-famous individuals whose efforts, sacrifices, and personal awakenings fueled the Civil Rights Movement.
Director and Producer Ilana Trachtman will join us for a conversation about the making of the film and what she discovered about the impact of this story on the Civil Rights Movement.
This film is suitable for middle school and older.
Ilana Trachtman has made Emmy award-winning nonfiction programs for over thirty years. For PBS, HBO Family, ABC-TV, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery, A&E, and the Sundance Channel, she has explored worlds such as the legacy of slavery in Latin America, activism among Gulf Coast shrimpers, glassblowing with at-risk youth, and transgender parents. Prime-time directing credits for PBS include the independent feature Mariachi High (Imagen Award Nomination;) Black in Latin America hosted by Henry Louis Gates and Texas Ranch House. Ilana was a supervising producer on PBS’ History Detectives and the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet. Ilana began her career in the documentary unit of PBS’s Reading Rainbow. Ilana’s independent feature documentary Praying with Lior played theatrically in over 60 cities in the US and abroad, garnered six Audience Awards for Best Documentary, the Grand Prix at the International Disability Film Festival, and was a critic’s pick of the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Washington Post. Ilana produced and directed The Pursuit: 50 Years in the Fight for LGBT Rights for WHYY, which won the Mid-Atlantic Emmy for Best Documentary. Most recently, she co-produced Stand Up and Shout: Songs from a Philly High School (HBO.)
Rabbi Toba Spitzer has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton, MA since graduating from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1997. Rabbi Spitzer has long been active in peace and justice work both in the U.S. and in Israel/Palestine. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis , and currently serves as the co-chair of the New England region of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. Her groundbreaking book God Is Here: Reimagining the Divine, was published by St Martin’s Press in 2022, and is now being taught in synagogues and churches around the country. She served as the President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association from 2007-2009, and was the first openly LGBTQ rabbi to head a national rabbinic organization. Rabbi Spitzer has received the honor of being included in Newsweek’s Top 50 Rabbis in America 2008 list as well as the 2010 Forward list of 50 Female Rabbis Who Are Making A Difference. She has a life goal of bowling in all 50 states (32 down so far!).
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