Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round
Documentary Feature | Philadelphia, PA, United States
Directed by: Ilana Trachtman
Description: When 5 Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, the first organized interracial civil rights protest in US history was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. For the Black and white citizens on the picket line, picketing together led to partying together and union organizers mentored student activists, ultimately producing ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, and a Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, and Alysia Reiner.
Directed by: Ilana Trachtman
Description: When 5 Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, the first organized interracial civil rights protest in US history was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. For the Black and white citizens on the picket line, picketing together led to partying together and union organizers mentored student activists, ultimately producing ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, and a Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, and Alysia Reiner.
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Filmmaker Bio:
Ilana TrachtmanIlana Trachtman has produced and directed Emmy Award-winning nonfiction programs for over twenty-five years. She has explored worlds for PBS, HBO Family, ABC-TV, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery, A&E, and the Sundance Channel, pursuing stories such as the legacy of slavery in Latin America, social activism among Gulf Coast shrimpers, glassblowing for at-risk youth, and transgender parents. Favorite PBS prime-time credits include directing the independent feature Mariachi High; Black in Latin America, hosted by Henry Louis Gates; and Texas Ranch House; as well as producing for History Detectives and Reading Rainbow. Through her production company Ruby Pictures, Ilana made the feature Praying with Lior, which played theatrically in over 60 cities in the US and abroad. The film garnered 6 Audience Awards for Best Documentary, the Grand Prix at the International Disability Film Festival in Moscow, and was a critic's pick of the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer. Most recently, Ilana produced and directed The Pursuit: 50 Years in the Fight for LGBT Rights for WHYY, which won the Mid-Atlantic Emmy for Best Documentary.
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