The Carr Center hosted a DVD Release Party featuring filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman and his film “More Than a Month.”

In the film, Mr. Tilghman proposes that Black History Month should not be considered as the only time Americans consider the contributions of African Americans to progress. Rather, the figures, events and stories should be taught as part of history, year round.

Held Friday, Feb. 7, the evening consisted of a screening of the film, a question and answer period and an opportunity to personally “Meet the Artists”. Tickets for the event were $10 and included a copy of the DVD. Tickets were available at the Carr Center, located at 311 E. Grand River in downtown Detroit’s Paradise Valley/Harmonie Park.

While in Detroit, Mr. Tilghman worked with and presented the film and DVD to students from local high schools. Those sessions also took place at the Carr Center.

From the Carr Center:

 “INDEPENDENT LENS: MORE THAN A MONTH” on DVD. Should Black History Month be ended? That’s the question explored by African American filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman as he embarks on a cross-country campaign to do just that. Both amusing and thought provoking, “MORE THAN A MONTH” examines what the treatment of history tells us about race and power in contemporary America and asks the questions: How do we justify teaching American history as somehow separate from African American history? What does it mean that we have a Black History Month? What would it mean if we didn’t?

More Than a Month aired on the Public Broadcasting Service “Independent Lens” series.

Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, sets out on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. He stops in various cities, wearing a sandwich board, to solicit signatures on his petition to end the observance. He explains that relegating Black History Month to the coldest, shortest month of the year is an insult, and that black history is not separate from American history. Through this thoughtful and humorous journey, he explores what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America.

His road trip begins in Washington, D.C., crisscrosses the country during Black History Month 2010, and ends with an epilogue one year later. Each stop along the journey explores Black History Month as it relates to four ideas: education, history, identity, and commercialism.

Tilgman’s campaign to end Black History Month is actually a provocative gambit to open a public conversation about the idea of ethnic heritage months, and whether relegating African American history to the shortest month of the year — and separating it from American history on the whole — denigrates the role of black people and black culture throughout American history. But it is also a seeker’s journey to reconcile his own conflicting feelings about his own identity, history, and convictions.

More Than a Month is not just about a yearly tradition, or history, or being black in America. It is about what it means to be an American, to fight for one’s rightful place in the American landscape, however unconventional the means, even at the risk of ridicule or misunderstanding. It is a film is about discovering oneself.

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