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Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon

documentary feature film // 84 minutes // 2015
co-directors: Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, Erin Yanke
Available through Kanopy subscriptions and distributed by Collective Eye films.


Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon documents the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members throughout the past fifty years. The film features personal stories of resistance told by victims of police misconduct, the families of people who were killed by police, and members of Portland’s reform and abolition movements. Utilizing meditative footage taken at sites of police violence, experimental filmmaking techniques, and archival newsreel, Arresting Power creates a space for understanding the impacts of police violence and imagining a world without police. The film grew out of Safe & Sound: Artists Respond to Police Violence, a video/web project about police violence in Portland, Oregon, that I collectively produced in 2012 - 2013 with Erin Yanke and Jodi Darby.

Safe & Sound received a 2012 Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Arresting Power received a 2013 Precipice Fund Project Grant from the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art through the Andy Warhol Regional Re-grant Program. Arresting Power was made possible through individual donations from hundreds of friends and supporters.

Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon is feature-length documentary film. Documenting the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members over the past 50 years, the film features personal stories of resistance told by victims of police misconduct, the families of people who were killed by police, and members of Portland’s reform and abolition movements. 

Arresting Power is in numerous public libraries and has been screened widely, such as during this public event where the film was projected on the side of a bridge in Portland, Oregon (pictured above) in 2021. 

I co-directed this film with Jodi Darby and Erin Yanke, which we created over several years in collaboration with community groups. Click here to watch the complete film.

Arresting Power projected on the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon as part of an outdoor screening by Mobile Projection Unit, June 24, 2020

selected screenings, exhibitions, events
2020: public outdoor socially screening organized by Mobile Projection Unit, projected on the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon
2019: screening & discussion with filmmakers at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in conjunction with Abigail DeVille’s exhibition, The American Future
2015: 

awards

thank you:
funding & creative contributions  (music, Matt McCormick)
Julie Perini is a filmmaker and artist in Portland, Oregon.