The Counter: 1960

Three North Carolina University students, Joseph, Diane, and Franklin, are completely frustrated by a constant string of police killings of unarmed black youth. They decide to meet and think of what it is students like themselves can do to contribute to positive change. While waiting for his friends to arrive for their brainstorm session, Joseph, the current Black Student Union president, takes a call from his parents and ends up engaging them around possible strategies. They remind him of his own grandparents' involvement in the Civil Rights movement over two generations ago. He thanks them and shortly after pulls out two heirloom pieces he inherited from his grandfather, a Masonic ring and watch. Before entering a popular, off-campus diner, Joseph slips on the two pieces of jewelry resulting in a miraculous occurrence, time travel. He and his friends shift back to 1960 and find themselves seated at a 'whites only' lunch counter. The past is about to inform the present. (Pan African Film Festival)