Seattle's True Independent Film Festival 2009

On November 9th in 1982, on a New York City street, Silvia Baraldini was jumped by eight members of the FBI terrorist task force and brought into custody during a sweep of the radical left. Silvia was the leader of the May 19th Communist Organization, a key element in an alliance of revolutionaries, Black, White and Puerto Rican, who worked relentlessly to expose repressive policies of the U.S. government. In 1983, using an array of tactics, the government put an end to the alliance. Silvia was convicted of helping to free Black Panther, Assata Shakur from prison and received a 43-year sentence. Baraldini speaks with an almost religious integrity, focused on essential beliefs and principles. Her insistence on justice for the oppressed transcends politics, so does her personal suffering. After seventeen years in U.S. prisons, in 1999, following a ten-year campaign culminating in one million Italian signatures, Silvia won the right to serve out the remainder of her sentence in her homeland, Italy and was transferred to Rebbibia prison in Rome. Silvia’s story exemplifies the enduring human spirit within the resistance movements as well as the repressive measures waged against them by the United States government.

Awarded the STIFFY for Most Principled

Genre:
Educational, African American, Black, Hispanic, Third World, Women, Human Rights, Independent, Student, Period/Historical