From Diversity to Segregation, Award-Winning “Can We All Get Along?” Looks for Answers



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Exploring the mystery of how a historically diverse high school became segregated, the award-winning film “Can We All Get Along? The Segregation of John Muir High School” will have a special screening at Laemmle Playhouse 7 on November 20th at 7:00 p.m.

The title, “Can we all get along?” was inspired by the humble plea burned into our social conscience by Rodney King, whose violent beating by Los Angeles Police Officers sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots. King was an alumnus of John Muir High School.

The filmmaker is also an alumnus, who, upon seeing at his 30-year reunion how segregated the school had become, was forced to ask himself if he would send his own son to his alma mater.

“I was one of those kids who grew up and experienced my education through the prism of the desegregation that resulted from the 1970 Spangler v PUSD decision,” says filmmaker Pablo Miralles, founder of Arroyo Seco Films. “It was the norm for me and I wondered why integration is no longer a priority in public schools.”

John Muir High School opened in 1926 near the redlined neighborhoods in West Pasadena becoming in effect the “integrated high school” in the PUSD. The school famously produced baseball great Jackie Robinson, Hugo Award-winning author Octavia Butler, nine-time academy award winner Dennis Muren, Fortune 500 CEO Ko Nishumura, and dozens of other luminaries in politics, professional sports, opera, music, art, and the military.

The film takes viewers on a fascinating journey from the days when the school was naturally diverse, exploring the racial politics of the Pasadena area that drove increased segregation, the diversity Pasadena schools experienced post-Spangler, and how that success began to unravel after the passage of Proposition 13 in California.

Nominated for “Best Short Documentary” at the 2019 Burbank International Film Festival, “Can We All Get Along? The Segregation of John Muir High School” has also been honored with:

Silver Award – Telly Awards
Award of Excellence – Impact Docs
Award of Excellence – Accolade Global Film Competition
Award of Excellence – Best Shorts Competition
Award of Excellence – The IndieFEST Awards
Award of Merit – Depth of Field Film Festival
Official Selection – Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival

Tickets to explore the integrated past and segregated present of this historically diverse high school can be purchased at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pasadena-screening-tickets-75323088385.

About Arroyo Seco Films

Arroyo Seco Films was established by Pablo Miralles in 2008 to create film, TV and digital media productions that are both challenging and entertaining. The company’s first feature documentary, “Gringos at the Gate – Soccer and the US Mexico Divide” was shown on the ESPN Networks and won the Golden Remington Award at WorldFest in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

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