Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round

Opens Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Special Events

  • Wed Sep 17 : 

    Q&A with filmmakers after the 6:30 show

    Buy Tickets
  • Thu Sep 18 : 

    Q&A with filmmakers after the 6:30 show

    Buy Tickets
  • Sat Sep 20 : 

    Q&A with filmmakers after the 1:30 show

    Buy Tickets
  • Sun Sep 21 : 

    Q&A with filmmakers after the 1:30 show

    Buy Tickets

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Wednesday, September 17 and Thursday, September 18 at 6:30: Q&As with filmmakers

Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21 at 1:30: Q&As with filmmakers

AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND is the untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When 5 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, an extraordinary history-making partnership was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over the sweltering summer led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in the Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman(Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit), four living protesters rescue this forgotten history, 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.

  • Country USA
  • Running Time 89 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Director Ilana Trachtman
  • Cast Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Helene Wilson Ageloff, Christina Clarke, Courtland Cox, Esther Delaplaine, Dion Diamond
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

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