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Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 7 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, a Columbus City Council member talks about dealing with racism.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 6 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, Linda Mitchell's sister-in-law speaks movingly about Linda and her home.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 5 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, a realtor talks about what the neighborhood was like 20 years ago.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 4 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, a resident talks about being concerned by well-intentioned White people.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 3 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, a African American gay man talks about his views.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 2 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, a realtor chimes in with her views of the situation.

Flag Wars — Talking Back (Clip 1 of 7)

In a forum between individuals highlighted in the film Flag Wars and the Columbus community at large, two residents share their opposing points of view.

  • Updated on June 1, 2009

Filmmakers

Linda Goode Bryant

Linda Goode Bryant

view interview »

Laura Poitras

Laura Poitras

Flag Wars’ narrative structure is designed to ‘drop’ the viewer into the film’s events so they gradually watch the story unfold and come to understand the community through the people who live there, rather than through talking heads or voice-overs.”

— Laura Poitras, Filmmaker

Film Update

Critical Acclaim

“Documentary finesse can . . . be seen in Flag Wars. . . . The film is fascinating point-of-view storytelling.”

&mdash Elvis Mitchell, New York Times

Flag Wars, the extraordinarily moving documentary by Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras, tells the story of an increasingly common but little-documented American phenomenon — the economic and ideological clashes involved in urban gay gentrification . . . Featuring an immediate vérité style, unforgettable subjects, and a hauntingly elegiac jazz score by Graham Haynes, the film is as deeply moving as it is politically astute.”

&mdash The Advocate

The ‘gentrification’ of poor neighborhoods may sound like a good thing, if you're white and middle class. But what about the poorest of the poor who may own a ramshackle house and not have the money to make necessary repairs? This insightful documentary presents a black neighborhood invaded by white gays who seem at first unsympathetic to their black neighbors. But the seed of solution is here and it lies in unselfish volunteerism.”

&mdash M.S. Mason, Christian Science Monitor

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