IMPORTANT UPDATE: EVENT CANCELED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Dear friends of CIRCLES and Talking Peace, 

As you may have heard, there is currently a teacher's strike at OUSD.  You can find out more about the reasons for the strike here.  In respect to the teachers, administrators, and students we have decided to postpone both of our Oakland screenings of CIRCLES this week - Wednesday's at Skyline High School and Thursday's at Oakland Technical High School.  

Our Impact Team believes in the transformative power of Restorative Justice to heal communities.  Our goal is to support Oakland school district in whatever way possible by encouraging relationship building and conversation in the midst of disagreement.  If you haven't already, please watch this video of Eric and his partner Cece as they lead a circle in the middle of a school board meeting.  

Please keep in touch with us with thoughts for ideas to support this effort.  

In solidarity, 

Cassidy Friedman

Director, CIRCLES

Eric Butler

Owner, Talking Peace

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Oakland Technical High School is hosting a special screening of CIRCLES at 4:00pm Monday February 28 at Oakland Technical High School. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director, Cassidy Friedman, and main character, Eric Butler.

Tickets are FREE with RSVP here. (https://tinyurl.com/yah5csqv)

The Oakland Film Society is presenting the documentary film “Circles” as an early acceptance into this year’s 17th Oakland International Film Festival, joining the concerted effort of Oakland Unified School District to screen the film in our schools to share this important topic of restorative justice in our schools to the Oakland community and the world around.

Eric Butler, a Hurricane Katrina survivor and pioneer of the restorative justice movement, relocates and finds work at an Oakland, California, high school enforcing his no-nonsense approach to counseling vulnerable Black and Latino teenagers. Shot over two years, the film follows Butler’s impassioned efforts to nurture troubled youth and keep them in school, fighting racial discrimination by replacing snap suspensions and expulsions with gritty, intimate and honest mentoring.

But when his own teenage son is arrested and beaten in jail, he begins to question his methods and ability—not just as a teacher, but also as a father. With incredible access, Circles is an inspirational portrait of a father desperate to provide his son with the leadership and compassion he never received from his own.

Contact rvershbow[at]gmail.com with questions.