Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round

Wednesday, September 17 - Thursday, September 25, 2025

Wednesday, September 17 at 6:30:  Q&A with filmmaker Ilana Trachtman and film editor Ann Collins moderated by filmmaker Byron Hurt

Thursday, September 18 at 6:30: Q&A with filmmaker Ilana Trachtman, CEO of Workers Circle Ann Toback, and “Make it Plain” host Rev. Mark Thompson moderated by Racial Justice Advocate Joan Grangenois-Thomas

Saturday, September 20 at 1:30: Q&A with filmmaker Ilana Trachtman, film composer Adam Dorn moderated by Matthew Johnson Harris (director and choreographer) 

Sunday, September 21 at 1:30: Q&A with director Ilana Trachtman and Dr. Clarence Taylor, Professor Emeritus of History at Baruch College. 

Please note that there are additional showtimes of AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND that screen with open captions (on-screen display of dialogue and sounds). For those showtimes, click here.

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
  • Distributor Ruby Pictures
  • 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, Closed Captioning, Descriptive Audio

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