Arresting Power - A Documentary Film about Police violence and resistance in Portland OR

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Arresting Power Film
Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon uses archival materials, documentary footage and interviews with community members, activists and organizers to uncover Portland’s unique history of policing and race relations, emphasizing its rich history of resistance from the late 1960s to the present.

In Arresting Power we explore the role police play in community safety and justice. With increased militarization of local police forces and increased criminalization of marginalized communities, there needs to be more ways to reach broader audiences. The police brutality seen around the Occupy Movement, the cases of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown, and the accompanying public outcry demonstrate that it is now more common to be critical of the police locally and nationally. Arresting Power provides contexts, frameworks, and histories that allow people not only to educate themselves about the issues of police brutality but also to give themselves space to feel complex emotions. Our artistic approach, with its slow pacing, quiet interludes and unflinching honesty, make it possible for people to absorb and respond to this challenging material.

Arresting Power consists of three subject areas: Memorial Stories, Community Stories and Resistance Stories.

Memorial Stories feature interviews with family members of people who were killed by Portland police, field recordings, police scanner audio, and  images of the sites where the deadly shootings or beatings occurred. Memorial Stories focus on Aaron Campbell, Kendra James, Keaton Otis, and James Chasse, Jr.

Community Stories are a collection of interviews with people who have survived intimidation, racial profiling and brutality at the hands of the Portland police.

Resistance Stories offer an overview of organizing efforts in Portland, past and present, which have been effective at building community support to create change within the city government and the Portland Police Bureau. Resistance Stories introduce viewers to community leaders and organizations including Walidah Imarisha, Professor and author of The Oregon Black History Timeline, JoAnn Hardesty and Rev. Dr. LeRoy Haynes of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice & Police Reform, Kristian Williams author of Our Enemies in Blue, Police and Power in America and Kent Ford, founder of the Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party.

We are in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign in order to pay for completion costs. The film will premiere in January at the Northwest Film Center.