February Screenings for ‘Wake’ Documentary at Penn State Brandywine
Screenings of “Wake,” a documentary by Jacob Mejias that follows the racial protests in Philadelphia in the summer of 2020, are being scheduled in early February at the Penn State Brandywine campus in Media, writes Amanda Ayado Ota for Penn State Brandywine.
The film was created by Mejias while he was a student at Penn State Brandywine. Mejias is a graduate of Penn State University,
A special screening of the documentary will take place for students on Thursday, Feb. 3, noon, at the Student Union on Brandywine’s campus in Media.
A community screening will take place on campus Thursday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m.
The film sparks important discussions surrounding reported systemic racism and inequalities minorities face in America.
During recent MLK programming at the Brandywine campus, Mejias participated in an “alumni in action” conversation with Vippy Yee, Rosenberg Director of the Center for Ethics & Civic Engagement.
During the event, Mejias offered insights into the film.
He had developed a taste for documentary filmmaking during a class assignment.
“George Floyd’s death really opened my eyes to how permissible society can be and how easy it is to overlook a lot of the things that happen every day in this country.”
He realized it was topic that needed to be talked about and he wanted to give people a platform, as well as educate them without picking a side or showing bias.
“The first thing I thought of was making a documentary because I love film-making.”
Making the documentary was a learning process for Mejias as well.
“In reality, this documentary shows what I’ve learned through all this civil unrest and through the pandemic and everything that’s happened in this country,” he said.
His hope is that the film will move people to action and help put people on the same page so we can all start moving forward, “and we don’t have to keep marching for the same reasons.”
The film documents his friend Joshua Yeboah-Gyasi as he slowly created with others a peaceful protest in the city.
“It was just such a surreal experience having the protest go from like 15, 20 people at the start to 50 people to a hundred people, to 300, to a thousand to thousands of people,” Mejias said.
Find out more about the documentary “Wake” here.
Penn State Brandywine opened in 1967 and is one of 19 Penn State Commonwealth Campuses (and 24 total locations) across the state. It is located at 25 Yearsley Mill Road in Media.
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