Current Press Release

TUCKERTON – In 2019, filmmaker James Rutenbeck set out to chronicle a renowned educational program among marginalized people in Boston. Instead, he came to grips with systemic racism and his own role in it. The riveting result, A Reckoning in Boston, will be shown at the Ocean County Library Tuckerton Branch, 7 PM Monday, January 8.

The PG-13 documentary focuses on two life-hardened enrollees in the Clemente Course in Humanities, a nationwide, community-based deep dive into history, literature, art and philosophy for people 17 and older in economic, social and educational adversities.

As Kafi Dixon and Carl Chandler schooled nightly in their Dorchester neighborhood to meet the program’s demands, Rutenbeck’s involvement with them awakened him to the violence, bias and gentrification that dictated the direction of their lives.

Rutenbeck’s transformation became complete when he turned his subjects into his collaborators and producers. The ensuing years found all three at crossroads in their lives that none of them imagined.

James Rutenbeck received two Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Journalism Awards for in-depth examinations of the American health care system and the lives of rural children. A Reckoning in Boston captured Best Feature Documentary honors at the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival and has been screened at festivals nationwide.

A Reckoning in Boston will be shown through Kinema, which fosters community partnerships and involvement through the works of independent filmmakers. Viewers are invited to take part in a post-screening discussion led by Branch Manager Ellen O’Keefe.

Please register at https://bit.ly/OclTuckertonReckoning to attend this free adult program. For more information, stop by the OCL Tuckerton Branch, 380 Bay Avenue, or call (609) 296-1470.

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