SCREENING | THURSDAY, APRIL 23 | 5:30 PM | FREE
Sanctuary Cinema, NMPBS & FUSION presents
Emergent City, Henry David Thoreau, & UNIDOS
Join Sanctuary Cinema, in collaboration with PBS, POV PBS, and NMPBS, for a community screening of segments from two films streaming on the PBS App—Emergent City and Henry David Thoreau—plus a special screening of the short film UNIDOS '26.
Emergent City (an excerpt of the film will be shown)
by Kelly Anderson, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg & Brenda Ávila-Hanna
Over a decade, within the borders of a single Brooklyn community district, a microcosm of American democracy emerges. Residents of Sunset Park face a tangled web of rising rents, a legacy of environmental racism and the loss of the industrial jobs that once sustained their community. When a global developer purchases Industry City - a massive industrial complex on the waterfront - and begins to transform it into an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself.
Emergent City is an observational civic epic. It sheds light on power and process, illuminating systems and giving viewers a front row seat to the public and private spaces where the city is shaped. With extraordinary access, it tracks an ensemble of participants including the local council member, Industry City’s developers and community members with divergent stakes. The film explores the profound intersections of gentrification, climate crisis and real estate development, and asks how change might emerge from dialogue and collective action in a world where too many outcomes are constrained by money, politics and business as usual.
Presented by Ken Burns Henry David Thoreau (excerpt)
by Erik Ewers & Christopher Lower Ewers
Henry David Thoreau helped define modern environmentalism and nonviolent resistance, yet his life has been obscured by myth. The author of Walden and Civil Disobedience, he was brilliant but flawed, idealistic but opinionated. A writer, scientist and activist, his words resonate urgently with today’s challenges as humanity looks for ways to live in harmony with nature—and each other.
Presenting a Special Screening of UNIDOS '26 (entire short will be screened)
by Jesus Nuñez, Vee Bruno & Mayra Cortez
UNIDOS '26 follows the core cast of teenagersIkal, Santi, El Güero, Rob, and Sebas, whose diverse immigrant experiences highlight the rich diversity within the Latine community. These teens and young adults are directly inspired by the different immigrant experiences of some of our closest friends and family members. These are your cousins, your friends, your neighbors, and classmates. The people in our communities whose lives are affected by our government's persecution.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 23
5:30 PM: Doors
6:00 PM: Film Screening
7:15 PM: Panel + Discussion
About NMPBS (co-collaborator)
For 15 years, the NMPBS Education & Outreach department has hosted community film screenings and panels that center New Mexican communities, elevate PBS content, and promote relevant and meaningful community conversation.
About POV PBS (co-collaborator)
POV (a cinema term for “point of view”) is television's longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 500 films to public television audiences across the country.
About PBS (sponsor)
PBS offers programming that expands the minds of children, documentaries that open up new worlds, non-commercialized news programs that keep citizens informed on world events and cultures and programs that expose America to the worlds of music, theater, dance and art. It is a multi-platform media organization that serves Americans through television, mobile and connected devices, the web, in the classroom, and more.
ABOUT SANCTUARY CINEMA
A brave space for transformative justice and belonging through film.
Founded in 2025 by shiloh burton and Luis Peña-Alvarez, Sanctuary Cinema (SC) is a New Mexico–based nonfiction film and community dialogue project dedicated to creating brave spaces for belonging, reflection, and transformative justice through documentary film. Anchored in narrative sovereignty, SC screens stories told by those most impacted, honoring lived experience as essential knowledge and rejecting passive spectatorship by fostering audience engagement, collective storytelling, and civic action.
The free, monthly series activates accessible public venues across Albuquerque, pairing POV/PBS films with facilitated panels, local filmmakers, cultural workers, nonprofit partners, and audience participation. By bridging artistic, civic, and community worlds, Sanctuary Cinema builds trust, strengthens relationships, and provides pathways for meaningful local engagement, using documentary film as a catalyst for collective care, collaboration, and community-led change.