We Belong

Gay/Lesbian Short

Director: Joe Wilson

RT: 11:00mins

Friday September 28 4:30PM

Website: http://webelongthemovie.com

Synopsis:

We Belong is the story of a rural teen who has the courage to stand up to bigotry and intolerance in his school – and the determination to tell his story to the world.

When C.J. is gay bashed in the school locker room, then arrested for disorderly conduct because he protests to an administrator about the harassment he has experienced, he decides to fight back by making a video documentary, His project leads him to other rural youth who have suffered anti-gay harassment, and shames the school district into developing an anti-bullying and diversity training program.

We Belong demonstrates that young people have the power to change their communities and the world, and that helping youth to tell their stories, in their own way and on camera, is enlightening, empowering, and effective
    

Filmmaker Bio:

Joe Wilson is Program Officer for Human Rights at Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, D.C. , overseeing efforts to support the protection and promotion of economic, social, civil and political rights in the U.S. and other countries including El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, South Africa and the north of Ireland.

Before joining the Foundation, Joe worked with the Pacifica Radio Network’s national public affairs program Democracy Now, and was a director of domestic and international grants programs at Share Our Strength, an anti-poverty organization. Joe received his B.A. in Urban Planning and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1986, and served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Mali from 1988 – 1991. In 1991 he helped to establish GLOV, a community-based organization aimed at countering violence and discrimination against GLBTQs in Washington, D.C.

Joe continues to be active in broader struggles for economic and social justice, including movements against global corporatization and for recognition of indigenous rights and sovereignty. He views filmmaking as an important tool in these efforts - one that can inform, challenge and mobilize people even as it entertains them.

Joe's first short film, "Otro Amores", examined GLBT life in Oaxaca, Mexico; it won a national Videomaker Magazine award for best short film in 2006. He is currently working on a feature documentary about his hometown of Oil City, Pennsylvania.