The Ohio State University at Newark is hosting a screening of the documentary Revolutionary Hearts: A New Documentary from Peter Kinoy & Mary Lutz, on Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in Hopewell Hall 59 (auditorium), 1189 University Drive, Newark, Ohio. The filmmakers will join the event virtually to answer questions after the screening. The event is free and open to the public.
Revolutionary Hearts captures the extraordinary lives of former Newark residents David and Janet Greene. Their lives were forged in the mines and factories of Appalachia and centered around building formal and informal freedom schools for liberation, including The Freedom School of Licking County. David grew up in the cauldron of labor struggles and raised a family while scraping by from job to job, but the Greenes never lost sight of their central passion: teaching, learning and organizing with the people around them.
The film takes the viewer on a journey from the Reagan years of the 1970s and the deindustrialization of America up to the present day, touching on a great many everyday issues and concerns and inviting everyone into the conversation.
After 50 years of industrial labor and poor working conditions left David with several life-threatening cancers, he was unable to continue his former activities. True to the spirit that has driven this fierce couple for 50 years, David took up art and began to paint the story of his life and the stories of the many unsung heroes whose lives have intertwined with their own. David and Janet use these paintings to continue to teach and learn with those around them to build a collective knowledge for liberation. David’s paintings form a visual motif in the film. The film also features a music track created by jazz musician Dan Loomis.
The screening is sponsored by the Central Ohio Technical College and Ohio State Newark Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; the Ohio State Newark Office of Outreach; the Freedom School in Licking County; and the departments of journalism and educational studies at Denison University.