Portland State’s School of Social Work is screening local filmmaker Jordan Thierry’s 2011 documentary, The Black Fatherhood Project, Monday, Feb. 6, in the Smith Memorial Student Union.
Portland State’s School of Social Work is screening local filmmaker Jordan Thierry’s 2011 documentary, The Black Fatherhood Project, Monday, Feb. 6, in the Smith Memorial Student Union.
The film marks the beginning of the School of Social Work’s Culture and Conversations dialogue series, which aims to “encourage people to think critically about important issues and topics that are culturally specific,” according to Cimone Schwoeffermann, SSW recruitment and retention specialist.
The Black Fatherhood Project combines Thierry’s own personal childhood experience of growing up in Portland with historian interviews to trace “the roots of the fatherless black home,” according to the film’s website.
The film “goes all the way back through slavery, coming over to the U.S., what a traditional family looks like and the different barriers that have been in place” for black families, Schwoeffermann said. “He calls it the breakdown of the black family.”
Schwoeffermann, who first met Thierry when they were undergraduates at the University of Oregon, had seen The Black Fatherhood Project at a community event and thought it would be valuable, not just for community members but for social workers specifically.
“I think it’s important for social workers to have a historical context about different communities they are engaging with, to inform their work to make it more culturally relevant and inform their practice,” Schwoeffermann said. “The part I was excited about was just having that conversation about families and how families work, and the unique differences between different families in the U.S.”
The event, which is co-sponsored by the Multicultural Center, will focus on the film, yes, but also the dialogue that it generates.
“I think the discussion is the richest part of it,” Schwoeffermann said. “It’s a time to really think critically about different topics from a social work perspective and hear from community leaders who are doing the work.”
The SSW’s Culture and Conversations series continues Feb. 15 with “Understanding Islam,” an event held in collaboration with the Muslim Educational Trust.
