A rediscovered 1968 BBC documentary about school desegregation in Sausalito and Marin City will screen free at San Rafael's Showcase Theater on Thursday, Sept. 17.

The film, "The Mood of America," captures the aftermath of a 1965 voluntary desegregation effort in the Sausalito Marin City School District. Historian David Duncan, Ph.D., rediscovered it while researching his dissertation on the district's history. His own relatives attended school in Sausalito during that period.

The evening begins with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by the screening at 6 p.m. and a panel discussion, according to a County of Marin news release. The Showcase Theater, part of the Marin County Fairgrounds on Avenue of the Flags, seats 309.

Produced for the BBC's Man Alive investigative series, the documentary features interviews with Black and white students, parents, school board members and Sidney F. Walton, the district's Black principal at Richardson Bay School. Walton was removed from his post in 1968 after a segment of white parents and a newly elected school board majority objected to his approach.

The screening is the fifth since the film's rediscovery. Previous audiences in Marin City, Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Anselmo have noted how closely the 1968 conversations mirror discussions still happening in Marin schools, the county said.

"Showing this film today is not about looking backward or assigning blame; it is an opportunity to listen, reflect, learn from our shared history, and continue working together to create the future we want for all our children," Felecia Gaston, executive director of co-presenter RIZE MARIN, said in the release.

RIZE MARIN, formerly Performing Stars of Marin, co-presents the event alongside the Marin County Free Library and the League of Women Voters of Marin County.

A panel after the film will include Duncan; Phillip Logan, community schools director for the Sausalito Marin City School District; and Marin County Superintendent of Schools John Carroll. Other panelists are Marin City resident Jazmine Trammell, community activist Royce McLemore, Lea Mixon of Wise Choices for Girls and Sausalito parent advocate Kirstin Thomas. Tiffany McElroy of the San Anselmo Racial Equity Committee will moderate.

For disability accommodations, call (415) 473-6358 or use CA Relay 711. More details are available at marinlibrary.org/mood-of-america.