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THE SUN RISES FROM THE EAST

By Tayo GIWA

INDIE RIGHTS - as SALES All rights, World / DISTR Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, Airline, World

Documentary - Completed 2023

In 1970s Brooklyn, a pan-African collective called The East creates more than a dozen self-sufficient businesses and institutions — essentially building an independent Black nation.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 55 mn
- Director(s)
- Tayo GIWA
- Synopsis
- The Sun Rises in The East chronicles the birth, rise and legacy of The East, a pan-African cultural organization founded in 1969 by teens and young adults in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Led by educator Jitu Weusi, The East embodied Black self-determination, building its own school, food co-op, newsmagazine and more than a dozen other institutions. The organization hosted world-famous jazz musicians at its performance venue, and it served as an epicenter for contemporaries such as the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords.
  
  In effect, The East built an independent Black nation in the heart of Central Brooklyn.
  
  The film also examines challenges that led to the organization’s dissolution, including government surveillance, its gender politics and financial struggles. Featuring interviews with leaders of The East and people who grew up in the organization as children, The Sun Rises in The East delivers an exhilarating vision for just how much is possible.