EVENT LINK: http://tinyurl.com/sign-my-name
January 18th, 10:00pm -11:30pm EST, Virtual, Free
Sample an upcoming film about Betty Reid Soskin that focuses on her little-known life as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s and '70s.
Sign My Name to Freedom will be a feature-length film about 102-year-old Betty Reid Soskin, her lost music, and her family's experiences confronting Jim Crow segregation in the Bay Area. The film will be a documentary hybrid, drawing on Betty's extensive photo archive and footage shot with her over more than four years, but it will also include dramatic recreations with actors to depict pivotal moments in her life that were never documented. It centers on a secret she had kept for more than 50 years: her life as a singer-songwriter during the 1960s–70s, when she wrote autobiographical songs to process her experiences as the first Black family to move across the color line into Walnut Creek when it was racially segregated. Film director Bryan Gibel, who originally planned to document the story of Reid’s Records, encouraged her to bring out taped recordings of her music that had been buried in the back of a closet. He was blown away by their quality and shifted gears. Over the past six years he and his crew have been working with Betty and her family members to bring this documentary to completion while she can still enjoy it.
The evening's free program will include a 20-minute preview sample of the film; Q & A with director Bryan Gibel and other members of the team, including Betty's granddaughter Alyana Reid; and information about the crowdfunding campaign to support finishing the film. With luck, Betty herself will join us for at least part of the program.
The Zoom link for this online event will be emailed to you.
For more info about the film, please visit www.signmynametofreedom.com. You can sign up for the film's email list for occasional updates on how you can support the project at www.signmynametofreedom.com/join-us
For more info about Berkeley Historical Society & Museum, please visit www.berkhistory.org.