Reclaiming the Reel Panel

Reclaiming the Reel

Co-presented by Color Congress

With Ambreen Qureshi, Charlie Raboteau, Ginou Choueiri and JT Takagi; moderated by Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress

In 1992, the Librarian of Congress warned that documentaries and home movies were vanishing faster than archives could preserve them. Today, that crisis is not just technical; it’s political. As censorship rises, public institutions are defunded and climate threats grow — archivists and community media centers stand at the forefront of protecting Black, Brown and Indigenous histories. This panel brings together intergenerational filmmakers, archivists and cultural workers to explore the archive as a site of resistance, memory and narrative sovereignty. Join us to discuss radical strategies for preservation in the face of erasure.