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Friday, June 14
2:30 PM - 4:15 PM

National Museum of African American History & Culture, Oprah Winfrey Theater

1400 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20560 (entrance on Madison Drive)
Tickets and Passes

Paint Me a Road Out of Here

Director

Catherine Gund

Executive Producers

Yara Shahidi, Keri Shahidi, Mickalene Thomas, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović, Susan Sawyers, Julie Mehretu, Melony and Adam Lewis, Agnes Gund, Geralyn Dreyfous, Barbara and Eric Dobkin, Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter

Producer

Tanya Selvaratnam

Editor

Arielle Amsalem

Cinematographers

Jia Li, Junting Zhou, Emerson Mahoney

In 1971, underestimated artist Faith Ringgold made a monumental painting for the women incarcerated at Rikers Island jail called “For the Women’s House.” Fifty years later, artist Mary Baxter, who at the age of twenty-five gave birth in prison, finds herself banding together with an eccentric bunch of activists, politicians, artists, corrections officers, and Faith Ringgold to free the painting with the ultimate goal of freeing the women. Paint Me a Road Out of Here is a wild tale of the painting’s whitewashed journey and the two artists who challenge the same powerful, oppressive, and persistent institutions, a half-century apart with their artwork, their voices, and their shared persistent goals.

Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Catherine Gund, film participant and executive producer Mary Elizabeth Baxter, Director of Community Liaisons, Women’s Community Justice Association Leah Faria, moderated by Karen Attiah, Opinions Columnist, The Washington Post.

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Catherine Gund

Director, Paint Me a Road Out of Here

Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, racial justice, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice, and the environment. Her films have been screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. She won the 2023 Gracie Award for Documentary Producer. Her recent films include Paint Me a Road Out of Here, Meanwhile, Angola Do You Hear Us?, Voices From a Plantation Prison, Primera, and Aggie. An alumnus of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program, she has four children and lives in NYC.