Power House Movie: "A Valley Divided" (documentary)

Gesa Power House Theatre presents a Power House Movie screening of the documentary film "A Valley Divided" on Wednesday, June 23 at 7:00PM.

In the Yakima Valley, the nation's fruit basket, where populations are increasingly majority-Latino, elected representatives are still overwhelmingly white.

"A Valley Divided" explores the ways in which the Latino community in Eastern Washington is finding its voice and demanding equal representation at the ballot box. The new documentary, directed by Madeline Gunderson, reveals the entrenchment of decades of political discrimination and holds up a mirror to the larger story of a changing United States.

Although Yakima County's population is about 50 percent Hispanic, the county had had just one Latino county commissioner in its history. A 2020 lawsuit against Yakima County alleges that its at-large voting system dilutes the agency of Latinos, in violation of the state Voting Rights Act, and pushes for ranked choice voting.

Power House Movies showcase award-winning festival favorites, feature-length narratives, documentaries, and undiscovered gems, paired with exclusive content from the movie makers themselves – most often in conversation with our Director of Film Programming, Warren Etheredge.

General admission tickets ($15 adults, $10 students) are available online at www.phtww.org or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500. This event will include some additional short films and have a total runtime of approximately 75 minutes.