On June 30th, two PACE team members (Nicole Aguilera and Daisy Alvarez) attended a special screening of an environmental justice-focused documentary at Foreign Cinema in the Mission District of San Francisco. Hosted by Brightline Defense, their first-ever Summer Movie Premiere featured a screening of a four-minute segment highlighting youth leaders engaging with sea-level rise in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael.
Filmed in early April, the segment spotlights a peer-to-peer learning exchange facilitated between Canal youth leaders and Chinatown youth leaders. Whereas Canal residents struggle with and discussed the impact of flooding exacerbated by climate change and sea-level rise in their neighborhood, Chinatown youth spoke to the air quality issues that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color in San Francisco.
Although many of the featured youth could not make it to the Wednesday evening screening, the intimate event was filled with staff for involved organizations as well as supporting partners, such as Executive Director of Brightline Defense (Eddie Ahn), the Director of the San Francisco Environment Department (Tryone Jue), Film maker for NBC Bay Area OpenRoad (Dan Herz), and the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (Rafael Mandelman).
At the end of the event, Canal Alliance was surprised to receive a Certificate of Honor from the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco. The certificate recognizes Canal Alliance’s commitment to the Canal community stating it is, “…in appreciative public recognition of distinction and merit for outstanding service to a significant portion of the people of the City and County of San Francisco.”
Thank you to Canal and Chinatown youth leaders, Brightline Defense, NBC Bay Area and the OpenRoad crew, and the City and County of San Francisco! Watch the documentary here.