A Sentimental Screening on the Power of Poetry To Be Heard is still fresh for those who lived and learned from it in 2010

Written by Eric Shea

This year’s screening of the 2010 film To Be Heard carried even more sentimentality and emotional weight than when it made its premiere at the inaugural DOC NYC six years ago. Earlier this year one of the film’s directors, Roland Legiardi-Laura, passed away after a battle with cancer and he was very fondly remembered by his co-directors and DOC NYC Artistic Director Thom Powers before and after this year’s screening.

The film followed three Bronx high school students, Karina Sanchez, Anthony Pittman, and Pearl Quick, and their experiences taking a “power writing” class taught by Legiardi-Laura, fellow director Amy Sultan, and Joe Ubiles. The film delved into the student’s lives in and out of school and how each of them used poetry both as a coping mechanism and as a tool for self-empowerment. The three students, who affectionately called themselves “the tripod”, each dealt with personal and emotional tribulations that are covered in gut-wrenching detail throughout the film. All three students used poetry as an escape from adversity, whether it was Sanchez’s relationship with her abusive mother, Quick’s struggles with her body image, or Pittman’s attempts to stay out of trouble with the law.

Even six years on the film still had a profound impact on its principal characters. During the post-screening Q&A Sanchez recounted a recent encounter in a Bronx pizzeria where she was recognized by a young girl who thanked her for telling her story in the film since it’s the story of so many young women in New York City who don’t get a chance to use their voice and their words like Sanchez did. Quick, who was also in attendance, is now studying at the Princeton Theological Seminary.

Eric Shea is a freelance writer and manages the music blog Maimed and Tamed.