Unless you’re a political prisoner aficionado, you may have never heard of Silvia Baraldini. Political prisoners held by the United States government rarely get any airtime. Tonight, homegrown filmmakers Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas will tell Baraldini’s story at the Capitol Theater. If you’re proud of how the United States government deals with dissidents, this film is likely to make you think twice.



An active participant in both the Black Power and Puerto Rican independence movements in the United States in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, Baraldini was sentenced in 1982 to 43 years in prison, in part for her participation in freeing Black Panther Assata Shakur from prison, as well as for conspiring to participate in two armed robberies, and for contempt of court when she refused to testify before a grand jury that had been investigating the activities of the Puerto Rican independence movement. In case you’re not aware, 43 years is a long time to spend in prison, a harsh sentence Baraldini's supporters say is a result of her political beliefs not the seriousness her crimes — a contention U.S. government officials have staunchly denied. Baraldini has spent time in a list of high-security facilities, including the notorious basement unit of a Federal Prison in Lexington, Ky.



But the film isn’t about Baraldini’s crimes, or her experience in prison, per se. Freeing Silvia Baraldini is more about what makes a young Italian immigrant become a potent American radical, and what happens to potent American radicals when they get too potent. In the 1980s, when the “Me Generation” was doing its thing, Baraldini deepened her commitment to political struggle. She became the national leader of the May 19th Communist Organization, a key player in an alliance of revolutionaries, black, white and Puerto Rican, who worked relentlessly to organize people who viewed the U.S. capitalist system as a leading source of political oppression. Since then, Baraldini has been described as everything from an international terrorist to a modern-day Rosa Luxembourg.

“People may not walk away agreeing with everything she did,” says co-producer and director Margo Pelletier. “But they’ll definitely understand that she was persecuted for her political beliefs.”

Pelletier and Lisa Thomas have a personal connection to their subject and to the Pacific Northwest. Ten years ago, Thomas left the Seattle area and headed for New York City to pursue a career in filmmaking. She returns to the Northwest to premier her first film, Freeing Silvia Baraldini. Pelletier was an artist and political activist in the 1980s, and worked with Baraldini personally. In 1982, she experienced what it meant to be a political prisoner first hand while serving a six-month prison sentence for her participation in an action against the Apartheid government of South Africa.



“I am extremely happy to be screening our film in Olympia, where I spent four years attending Evergreen State College and was a member of the Olympia Film Society,” said co-producer and director Thomas. “My time in Olympia played a crucial role in developing me as a filmmaker and opened my mind, politically speaking, to the world at large.”



[Capitol Theater, Thursday, June 18, 6:30 p.m., $3-$8, 206 Fifth Ave. S.E., Olympia, 360.754.6670]