When five Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, the first organized interracial civil rights protest in US history was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together led to partying together and union organizers mentored student activists, ultimately producing ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, and a Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner and Tracie Thoms.

2024 will be an exciting year for Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round! 

Announcing the World Premiere of Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round! May 5th at the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore.  Screenings to follow at DC DOX (June 16th) and the Charlotte Black Film Festival (June 13-16.) We will keep updating screenings in the weeks to come!

We look forward to sharing the film with festival audiences, university students and high school students, members of mission-aligned organizations, faith-based groups. We anticipate (and can help plan) post-screening panel discussions, featuring members of the filmmaking team, the film’s subjects, or local activists involved in current social justice battles that parallel the one featured in the film.

To find out about booking the film at your festival, organization, or institution, please contact us and/or add your information to our mailing list.

We are currently fundraising to produce educational materials such as curriculum guides, discussion questions, and excerpts tailored for classroom and organizational use. If you are interested in supporting the distribution of the film and the accompanying educational material, please contact us and donate here.