Emmy Award-winning director Ilana Trachtman’s invigorating, nuanced documentary recalls a small yet crucial chapter in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1960, five students from Howard University perched defiantly on a merry-go-round in Maryland’s Glen Echo Amusement Park, which had been segregated since the turn of the 20th century, and refused to leave. As their sit-in gained national attention, the Black students were joined in their resistance by members of Bannockburn, a mostly Jewish housing community across the street. Borrowing its title from a Langston Hughes poem, AIN'T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND features a voice-over cast that includes Mandy Patinkin, Jeffrey Wright, and Dominique Thorne, among others. Inspired by her own family history, Trachtman -- whose father was a Jewish labor organizer -- has created an uplifting work of historical excavation that reminds viewers of the importance of collaboration and humility in the face of injustice.

Special guests include the film's director Ilana Trachtman in conversation with Larry Hott, award-winning documentary filmmaker, plus Amy Bookbinder, who appears as a child in the film.

DOCUMENTARY | 2024 | 90 MINUTES
USA | ENGLISH
DIRECTED BY ILANA TRACHTMAN

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