Conversation & Screening

Decade of Fire

Wed, Nov 20, 2019

5:30 PM–8:00 PM

Martin E. Segal Theatre

Join us for a film screening of Decade of Fire, the acclaimed documentary which tells the story of the burning of the South Bronx in the 1970s. This screening presented by Women Writing Women’s Lives, the Center for the Study of Women and Society, the Gotham Center and the Center for the Humanities is a tribute to honor the life, work, and memory of Suzanne Wasserman, a documentary filmmaker, feminist, activist, past executive director of the Gotham Center, and member of Women Writing Women’s Lives. The film will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers Gretchen Hildebranand Vivien Vázquez Irizarry.

This event is free and open to the public, but click here to RSVP. This event is SOLD OUT, but it will be livestreamed here at 6:30pm, and there is an overflow screening room.

Decade of Fire began as a research project and evolved into a cutting-edge documentary about the destruction of a community and its rise out of the ashes. This powerful film illustrates what can be accomplished when praxis meets theory, when research meets civic action, when knowledge uncovers civic dissembling.

In the 1970s the South Bronx was on fire. Abandoned by the city government, nearly half a million people were displaced as their close-knit, multi-ethnic neighborhood burned to the ground. Black and Puerto Rican residents were blamed for the devastation. Using a rich seam of archival and home movie footage,Decade of Fire follows narrator Bronx-born Vivian Vázquez Irizarry as she pursues the truth.

Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Women and Society, Women Writing Women’s Lives, the Gotham Center and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.