BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo community will come together on May 14 to mark two years since the deadly mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson Avenue.
That's the same day "Pain and Peace," a feature-length documentary exploring hatred and forgiveness, will debut here.
A survivor of a post-9/11 hate crime co-produced it, and wanted to involve people who were impacted by the Tops tragedy in the project.
"There are millions of people out there that face tremendous trauma and the more we reflect on our own journey, the more we think about finding positive in the negative experience that we went through, we can definitely come back and find ways to contribute to make this world a better place," said Rais Bhuiyan co-producer of "Pain and Peace."
Rais Bhuiyan traveled more than 17,000 miles across North America to make this film. He is a survivor of a post-9/11 hate crime attack, and that inspired him to explore hate and forgiveness through the lens of hate crimes in the United States and Canada.
That includes the 5/14 shooting.
For the film, Bhuiyan spoke with Garnell Whitfield, Jr., whose mother Ruth was killed in the shooting, and Dr. LaVonne Ansari from the Community Health Center of Buffalo. He also talked with survivors of other mass shootings and people who used to belong to hate groups.
"When we went to Buffalo in 2023, we met Garnell and a few other folks who are the survivors of this tragedy, and it deeply touched me knowing his life history and also the way he lost his aged mother and the impact it had on him and also the community. It deeply moved me and the way he also talked about his journey of finding purpose," said Rais Bhuiyan.
Bhuiyan says he was inspired to make the film because he knows what it's like to wake up every day with the wounds of hate.
"Seeing the rise of extremism, hate-fueled violence against Asian Americans, Blacks, Jewish, Muslims, Sikhs, LGBTQ, and others, I wanted to know more about what drives people to hate others and where does the visceral hate-fueled violence come from and can peace and forgiveness be found? Can we go through a healing process? And that helped me to embark on a journey to understand more about others' healing process," said Rais Bhuiyan, co-producer of "Pain and Peace." "I am hopeful that this community will flourish with their message of love, mercy, and compassion and will help continue to make this world a better place."
Bhuiyan is also the founder of the non-profit World Without Hate, which takes him around the world to share his story and talk about the power of forgiveness.
The screening of "Pain and Peace" is at the North Park Theatre on Tuesday at 6:30. Doors open at 6. It's free, but you do need to make a reservation so they know how many people to expect.
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