Making the Impossible Possible

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Description

MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE, a 33-minute production of the Alliance for Puerto Rican Education and Empowerment (APREE), tells the story of the student led struggle to win Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY in the late 1960’s. Puerto Rican, African American and other progressive students forged a powerful alliance and together changed the face of higher education with the founding of one of the first Puerto Rican Studies departments in the nation.

 
“The stories within the film awaken a new sense of self while inviting us to recognize our own collective strengths.”, explains Co-Producer Gisely Colón López. “Puerto Rican history contributes to transformational and equitable changes within many sectors of society.”

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Resources

Study Guide

Reviews

“There are lessons about organizing that are needed at this critical moment. This film hit at the heart of why we need ethnic studies and they – these young PR pioneers - were at the helm in the 1960’s. Palante!”

Blanca Vazquez
Hunter Adjunct Professor
PSC CUNY Executive BD

“A deeply moving film on a interesting and not widely known struggle.  You wove together a wonderful and inspiring story! Beautifully filmed and edited Super informative!

Norm Cowie
Filmmaker/Educator

“I am blown away by the subject. In very short time you conveyed an amazing story beautiful and accessibly.”

Katherine T. Acey
Director of Strategic Collaborations
GRIOT Circle

“It was wonderful to spend 35 minutes bearing witness to the Puerto Rican struggle.”

Lyn Goldfarb
Filmmaker

“What a FABULOUS film!! I was blown away, uplifted, taken back to the amazing spirit of those times and encouraged by how learning about it can fire up the young movements of today. Most of all, the unbreakable bonds between Blacks and Puerto Ricans and students and faculty should be the big takeaway here, along with la lutta continua, never give up.”

Rosalind Petchesky
Distinguished Professor of Political Science
Hunter College, City University of New York

“What a powerful film!  I'm so honored to know this legacy through all of your stories. Thanks for the inspiration.”

Dr. Anna Ortega-Williams,
Asst. Professor, Hunter College 

Fantastic Film … a beauty with all that spirit and wow what a history!”

Jane Gold, LCSW-R 

"Wow! The energy, the pacing, the archival photos and footage, and the storytelling and storytellers! It teaches and inspires and underlines how important it is to know always the roots of our activism and our victories—on whose shoulders we stand.”

Elena Schwolsky, RN
Author and Educator

“Excellent. What amazing archival footage. The film helps contextualize what's happening at CUNY now!”

Jillian M. Báez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies
Hunter College, CUNY

“Fantastic film! The formation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at Brooklyn College became the model for similar critical curricula adopted by Universities and Colleges around the U.S., some of which remain in place today because of the activists and scholars captured in this film."

Michelle Materre
Founder and Director
Creatively Speaking

Highlights

Big Muddy Film Festival
Global Peace Film Festival
Portland Film Festival
International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival
Black Panther Film Festival at Maysles Cinema
Workers Unite! Film Festival
Mayday Space Film Festival
LASA Festival de Cine
Harlem International Film Festival
Queens World Film Festival
Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos de Vieques
New York Latino Film Festival
Philadelphia Latino Film Festival

Credits

Directors: Tami Goldand Pam Sporn
Producers:Gisely Colón López, Tami Gold, Pam Sporn
Editors:  Sonia Gonzalez-Martinez and Pam Sporn
Featuring Music: Arturo O’Farrill, Oscar Hernández and BombaYo
Distributor: Third World News Reel
Year: 2021
Country and Language: US – English/Spanish Subtitles
Length: 33 minutes
Color:Color/BW

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