February 28, 2019 432 AM
L PASO – Best-selling El Paso author Ron Stallworth will appear at a benefit screening of the Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansmen at 7pm Mountain time, Thursday, March 21 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon.
Doors open at 6pm, and Ron will do a Q&A after the screening.
Hosted by the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival, the screening is a benefit for the Migrant Families Relief Fund in the El Paso Community Foundation.
Tickets are a suggested donation of $50, available at epcf.org/bkkk and at the door if available. Stallworth is the El Paso-based author of the best-selling memoir Black Klansmen, which details how the Austin High School graduate and Colorado Springs police detective infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. It was published independently in 2014 and reissued in 2018 by McMillan’s Flatiron Books, becoming a New York Times best-seller.
Pre-signed copies will be available for sale at the event.
Director Spike Lee’s film version, BlacKkKlansmen, has grossed more than $90 million since its Focus Features release on August 10, 2018. It received a standing ovation and the Grand Prix award at France’s Cannes Film Festival last May. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Lee’s first Best Director nomination, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Music Score, and Best Film Editing. Lee won for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The movie is rated R.
The Migrant Families Relief Fund was created in 2018 to assist four El Paso nonprofits that provide shelter, legal services, advocacy and other support for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. — Annunciation House; the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee; Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services; and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. Go to epcf.org/families to donate.
