Join us to watch A RECKONING IN BOSTON, followed by a conversation with director James Rutenbeck and producers/ subjects, Kafi Dixon and Carl Chandler.
OCTOBER 22
SCREENING: 7PM
LIVE Q&A: 8:30PM
"AN ABSOLUTE MUST-SEE" The Boston Globe
"LANDS LIKE DYNAMITE" The Arts Fuse
Synopsis:
Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day she drives a city bus; at night she studies the humanities in a tuition-free course. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder, is the class’s intellectual leader.
White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities. He looks for transformations but is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten Kafi and Carl's very place in the city.
Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists the pair as collaborators with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives—and James does too.
James Rutenbeck
Director/Writer/Editor
Rutenbeck’s nonfiction films have screened at forums worldwide including Cinema du Reel, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery, and Flaherty Film Seminar. He is a two-time recipient of the Alfred I. du Pont Columbia Journalism Award for his work on the PBS series, Unnatural Causes (2008) and Class of ’27 (2016), an Editor’s Pick at The Atlantic, which he executive produced, directed and edited. James was a 2019/20 Fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University.
Kafi Dixon
Producer
A Black Woman, an Urban & Rural Farmer and a Generational New Englander, in 2017 Kafi Dixon founded Boston’s 1st Cooperative for Women and its 1st Worker / Owner Urban Farm Food Coop. Initially named the Women of Color Co-op, in embracing women of all races, class and culture the co-op was renamed Common Good Co-op. In response to the socioeconomic experiences of lower resourced and impoverished communities, and the intimacy of community violence women in Boston experience, as producer of A Reckoning Boston Kafi shares her experiences, hopes, and perspective as she asks us to bear witness to the systemic violence and interrogate resolutions.
Carl Chandler
Producer Carl is a baby boomer, a product of the Sixties. He was born in Boston, as was his grandmother, father, two daughters and a grandson. His ancestry is Black, Indigenous American and western European. He made the calculation early in life that he did not want to be a full participant in the so-called "American dream" since he felt that his people were not respected or embraced by America. As a consequence, he feels his education was incomplete. His lifestyle choices did not include lots of money. Originally poor by choice, then by necessity, he sees himself as poor but not impoverished. Throughout his life he has been able to give lectures and presentations on Indigenous culture in southern New England, which he believes is a small contribution to young people’s education. When his youngest daughter went away to college, he struggled with what to do next. A year later he found the Clemente Course in the Humanities. There, he received a first-rate education and a new direction in his life. He was elected class graduation speaker, and this honor confirmed to him that he should speak to the positive impact Clemente has on a person’s life. He has spoken in videos, public forums and small classes. This is his first film.
Screening sponsored with the support of Mass Humanities.