A Reckoning in Boston

Wednesday, July 28, 2021
5:30pm EDT

Delaware Humanities invites you to a special screening of "A Reckoning in Boston" followed by a live Q&A with the filmmaker James Rutenbeck and subject/producer Kafi Dixon.

Watch the film at 5:30pm EDT and join a live conversation at 7:00pm EDT by clicking on the Q&A tab under the screen.

To learn more, visit A Reckoning in Boston.

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.