Calling all teens! Join us, Fast Forward teens, for a free night of food, film, and family stories. We will screen The Seltzer Factory by local director and filmmaker, Paloma Valenzuela, and host a Q&A with her right after. We invite you to bring stories from your own families or communities to share through an interactive activity we will lead. Free food and beverages too!

More about The Seltzer Factory in Paloma’s words:

The film is a short documentary (hybrid in a way with narrative parts as well) that traces back a family story from my mother’s side: a story that set off a series of events that led my great grandmother to Cleveland ultimately saving her life, as just years later the rest of her family were sent off and killed in concentration camps in the Holocaust. I want to tell this story because I think this is a powerful story that many families can relate with — in terms of looking back, tracing back and finding those moments that led us to even still being here today. There is no doubt in my mind that if my Great Grandmother, Jewish-Hungarian woman from the town of Marghita wasn’t thrust into a move to the United States before the war took millions of lives – we would not be here today.

As a Jewish woman of color, and one of only 2 in my family on my mother’s side, I
also want to tell the story from my perspective- giving myself permission to
tell this story, even if I can feel sometimes “othered” as a Jewish
woman, I am a proud Jewish-American who is also part
Afro-Caribbean/Dominican/Latina and this is my story too.