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The UMass Amherst Libraries will present screenings and discussions for a pair of documentaries – “1200+” and “Far Out: Life On & After the Commune” – in early May.

On Monday, May 5, the Libraries will host a free public screening and panel discussion for “1200+,” a documentary about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, at 5 p.m., in Old Chapel. A reception will begin at 5 p.m., followed by the screening at 6 p.m. and panel discussion at 7:30 p.m.

The panel will consist of film director Leonard Yakir, Sheila North, film producer and former Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, and Jennifer Wood, who is Ojibway from Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation, Ontario and a residential school survivor.

The Center for Women and Community will be present with a table at the event to offer resources and information regarding their sexual assault support and advocacy services.

This event is presented by the University Libraries in partnership with the Center for Multicultural Advancement & Student Success, Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, Office of Equity and Inclusion, Center for Women and Community, and the departments of Film Studies, Anthropology and Communication.

On Thursday, May 8, the Libraries and the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center (SCUA) will sponsor a screening and discussion of “Far Out: Life On & After the Commune” on at 7 p.m. at Amherst Cinema.

The film traces 50 years in the lives of a group of New England writers, activists and artists who became pioneers in the back-to-the-land and organic farming movement when they founded communes at in Guilford, Vermont, and Montague, Massachusetts in 1968. The group became leaders in the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement, and the film tracks their battles over atomic power in Seabrook, N.H. and elsewhere, which included five nights of sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden and a massive rally in 1979 that they co-produced with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash and other rock stars.

The post-film discussion will include director Charles Light and commune members Sam Lovejoy and Verandah Porche. Tickets for this event are available for advance purchase from the Amherst Cinema website.

More information about both events can be found on the Libraries’ website.