“Merritt College: Home of the Black Panthers,” the groundbreaking documentary produced by Peralta TV that has been generating considerable interest in the Bay Area, has caught the eye of the United Nations.

Each year the United Nations marks the “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade” with a series of events. This year, Peralta TV’s new documentary about the Black Panther Party is going to be screened as one of three keynote films presented at UN Headquarters in New York.
(See http://www.un.org/en/slavery/hq_events.shtml.)

Along with the screenings, the weeklong series of events at the UN, March 22–25, 2009, includes panel discussions, art exhibits and a cultural concert, “Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum.”

Featured guests at the concert include Akon & Peter Buffett, Mezzo-Soprano Audrey Babcock, Soprano Angela Brown, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Izaline Calister, Toumani Diabaté, Danny Glover, Gilberto Gil, Bill T. Jones, Sarah Jones, Salif Keita, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Emeline Michel, The Marley Brothers, CCH Pounder, Stephanie Benson, Phylicia Rashad and pre-taped testimonials from Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali. (See http://www.un.org/en/slavery/profiles.shtml.)

“It is quite an honor for our TV station to have its work featured at such an important international event,” said Peralta Colleges’ Chancellor Elihu Harris. “I am very proud that our colleges’ contribution and legacy will be featured on a global stage.”

The Peralta TV documentary, which outlines the formation of the Black Panther Party at Merritt College in Oakland, Calif., will be showcased in an event entitled “The Legacy of the Slave Trade on Modern Society” with the film’s director and executive producer, Jeffrey Heyman, participating in a corresponding discussion panel.

In addition to Heyman, the panel will include Ngugi wa Thiong’o, author and Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, Jean Claude Martineau, poet and historian, Sylviane Diouf, author and curator of the Digital Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Derek Walcott, Caribbean poet, playwright and Nobel Laureate.

“Merritt College: Home of the Black Panthers” is narrated by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and focuses on the party’s roots at Merritt College, one of the colleges along with Berkeley City College, College of Alameda and Laney College that make up the Peralta Community College District.

The film chronicles the birth of the Black Panther Party during the politically, socially and economically turbulent times of the late 1960s in Oakland. It is a compelling story about social justice and political activism that is told through rare interviews with original party members and features vivid, original artwork from Black Panther publications as well as rarely seen photos and archival footage.

Peralta TV can be seen on AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, Cable Channel 28 in Oakland, Piedmont and Emeryville and on Cable Channel 27 in Alameda and Berkeley. For more information, visit http://www.peralta.tv or http://www.youtube.com/peraltatv.

Note to editors: Stills of the film are available for publication. A trailer for the film can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/peraltatv.