{"id":29507,"date":"2023-10-30T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T19:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=29507"},"modified":"2023-10-30T12:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T19:49:17","slug":"new-documentary-about-chesa-boudin-screens-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/30\/new-documentary-about-chesa-boudin-screens-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"New documentary about Chesa Boudin screens in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>By Garth Grimball | Special to The Examiner<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oct 27, 2023\u00a0(SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/2\/6f\/26f6edd4-74f2-11ee-9de6-d330b6ecae56\/653bf9cbed45b.image.jpg?resize=400%2C300\" alt=\"chesadoc-sfe\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chesa Boudin at the &#8216;Beyond Bars&#8217; screening at the San Francisco\u2019s Main Public Library\u2019s Koret Auditorium at 5:00 pm on Oct. 25th, 2023.&nbsp;Courtesy of Unbendable Media LLC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A new documentary that premiered in The City this week about the life of former San Francisco District Attorney&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/voters-oust-chesa-boudin-as-san-francisco-district-attorney\/article_1736bebe-e5ed-11ec-8415-83c1f9cf4e51.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chesa Boudin<\/a>&nbsp;features first-time interviews with his formerly incarcerated parents, as well as the couple who raised him in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boudin and his wife, Valerie Block \u2014 along with Boudin\u2019s biological father, David Gilbert \u2014 attended the&nbsp;standing-room-only screening of&nbsp;\u201cBeyond Bars: It\u2019s a Movement, Not a Moment\u201d at the San Francisco Public Library\u2019s Koret Auditorium on Wednesday evening.&nbsp;During a post-film forum with director&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/movieweb.com\/robert-greenwald-beyond-bars-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Robert Greenwald,<\/a>&nbsp;Boudin shared his reaction to the documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis was my first time seeing it,&#8221; he said. \u201cI was holding my wife&#8217;s hand. It was an emotional experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, Boudin, a Yale-educated attorney who had worked at the San Francisco Public Defender&#8217;s Office as a postdoctoral fellow for seven years, launched a campaign for the DA\u2019s seat and won the election by a slim margin. His campaign focused on the elimination of cash bail, ending mass incarceration, and eliminating racial bias in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon after his win, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/sf-police-union-attacks-da-candidate-with-hundreds-of-thousands-in-mailers-tv-ads\/article_079f8922-f2f0-58e3-ade6-bcdcff566c6a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco Police Officers Association<\/a>&nbsp;launched attack ads calling Boudin &#8220;the number one choice of criminals and gang members,&#8221; and a multimillion-dollar recall effort ultimately ousted him from office after only two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greenwald introduced the film as a call to collective action for reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-58.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-29508\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chesa Boudin at the premiere of &#8216;Beyond Bars&#8217; at SF Public Library&#8217;s Main Branch on Oct. 25, 2023. The film is the first time that all four of Chesa\u2019s parents &#8211; his adoptive parents Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and his birth parents Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert speak on-the-record about Chesa\u2019s life.Photo courtesy of Brave New Films<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVirtually everyone knows the criminal justice system is broken,\u201d he said. \u201cHow can you use this film to extend, expand, organize and inspire all of us to take action in the movement?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Boudin had long been open about his personal history, the documentary featured extensive interviews with both his biological parents and adoptive parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were Weather Underground members who, when Boudin was 14 months old, were convicted of murder for their participation in the 1981 Brink&#8217;s robbery in New York. They went to prison, and Boudin was raised by fellow Weather Underground members Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The documentary features photographs of Boudin visiting his parents in prison, along with discussions about the trauma of incarceration. Kathy Boudin, who died in 2022, talks about how the prison guards would not let her touch her toddler son during family visits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The family interviews are intercut with footage of Boudin\u2019s DA campaign, and last year\u2019s recall campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The audience response to the film was positive, with the only boos coming when a graphic in the film listed all the major donors to the recall campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gloria Berry, who worked on Boudin\u2019s campaign and currently serves on the SF African American Reparations Advisory Committee, said the negative reaction to Boudin\u2019s election was inevitable because \u201cpolitically it\u2019s not safe to say you work with someone who cares about Black people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the post-screening panel, Boudin shared that he was happy he saw the film in a group setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn this audience and in this city, I never feel like the people I interact with are strangers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole city is family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boudin\u2019s politics and activism have moved from City Hall to academia. He is the founding executive director of UC Berkeley\u2019s Criminal Law &amp; Justice Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeyond Bars\u201d will continue screening on a national tour, including stops in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new documentary that premiered in The City this week about the life of former San Francisco District Attorney&nbsp;Chesa Boudin&nbsp;features first-time interviews with his formerly incarcerated parents, as well as the couple who raised him in Chicago. Boudin and his wife, Valerie Block \u2014 along with Boudin\u2019s biological father, David&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/30\/new-documentary-about-chesa-boudin-screens-in-san-francisco\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1320],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29512,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29507\/revisions\/29512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}