Santa Maria High School’s Chicano/Latino Studies students will be hosting a BI-POC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Film Festival from 1-4pm on April 8th, 2022. All district students from SMHS, Delta, Pioneer, and Righetti are welcome to attend this free event.  All students will meet in room 615 at SMHS; the various films will be shown in different classrooms in the 600’s. Attendees will enjoy watching some interesting films, eat great food, and win amazing prizes.

“Many Hollywood films still lack the diversity of our state and nation. When students get to see themselves in movies, it affirms that their stories, history and culture matters.  When we learn the backgrounds of cultures that differ from our own, we can appreciate their struggles and notice our common humanity.”

– SMHS Chicano/Latino Studies teacher Ricardo Valencia

“We would like to thank Youth Making Change and the Fund for Santa Barbara for sponsoring this event. We want our project to make People of Color in our community feel accepted. Looking at the demographics in our schools or even in the whole state of California, most of us are minorities, making up more than half of the population.”

–Guadalupe Arcos, Junior

“We want to showcase BI-POC (Black Indigenous- People of Color) through film so that our students and community can feel seen. We still continue to be underrepresented and misrepresented. You mostly see people of color playing in films as the poor maids or gardeners, but there is more to us than our ability to do physical work that others don’t. For this reason we have decided to honor amazing people and their stories.” –Ashley Mendez, Junior

Some of the films will include:

Panther

The Hate You Give

Spare Parts

Gook

Under the Same Moon

See the flyers here.