RAISING BERTIE is a six-year portrait of three young African American men coming-of-age in North Carolina’s rural Bertie County. Like MOONLIGHT and BOYHOOD before it, the intimate portrayal of these young men interconnects narratives of family, youthful innocence, and isolation with the will to succeed in the face of formidable odds.
The feature-length documentary RAISING BERTIE, winner of Best Documentary Feature at Atlanta Docufest, is produced by Kartemquin Films and executive produced by Jermaine Cole aka rapper J. Cole.
This powerful vérité film delivers an authentic and tender portrait of the lives of three young boys – Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell – as they face a precarious coming of age in Bertie County, North Carolina.
Director Margaret Byrne brings audiences deep into the emotional lives of these young men as they try to find room for themselves in a place where life is dictated by a slow pace, opportunities are limited and tenuous family ties simultaneously offer comfort and heartache. Shot over the course of six years, RAISING BERTIE is an experience that asks us to see this world through their eyes: boys navigating between finishing high school and an elusive first job, as millions of young Americans similarly take their next step into an inherited idea of adulthood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1iNY7Fh3PA
Set in Bertie County, a rural African American-led community in Eastern North Carolina, Raising Bertie offers viewers an authentic and tender portrait of the lives of three young boys – Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell – as they face a precarious coming of age.
Rural minorities like the youth in Bertie represent some of the nation’s most vulnerable and least visible. Like many rural areas, Bertie County struggles with a dwindling economy, a declining population and a high school graduation rate below the state average. The Perdue chicken processing plant is Bertie’s last major employer, and the 27 prisons that lay within a 100 miles of Bertie cast a long shadow. Bertie County is predominately African American – its challenges compounded by generations of economic and educational discrimination and exclusion.
Bertie also is the home of Junior, Bud, and Dada, three engaging young men with difficult pasts attending high school at The Hive, an alternative school for at-risk boys. There, we meet Vivian Saunders, a passionate community activist from Bertie County. At The Hive a combination of respect, socio-emotional learning, and mentorship helps to put these young men’s lives on track. The Hive is a beautiful model of effective, supportive, and innovative interventions that help to improve opportunities and the quality of life for African-American boys and young men in Bertie.
But, when budget shorgalls lead the Board of Education to close The Hive, Junior, Bud, and Dada must return to Bertie High School and a system that once failed them.
This raw and starkly poetic Kartemquin vérité documentary weaves the young men’s stories together as they navigate school, unemployment, violence, first love, fatherhood, and estrangement from family members and mentors, all while trying to define their identities.
Intimate access depicts an honest portrayal of the boys’ perspectives and the caring adults in the community who understand what it means to take care of their own. The film is an in-depth look at issues facing many of rural America’s youth of color and what happens in the everyday lives of young people caught in the complex interplay of generational poverty, economic isolation, and educational inequity. Raising Bertie is an experience that asks us to see this world through their eyes and incites recognition and understanding of lives and communities too often ignored.Raising Bertie
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Margaret Byrne’s Award-Winning Documentary RAISING BERTIE Opens June 9
RAISING BERTIE is a six-year portrait of three young African American men coming-of-age in North Carolina’s rural Bertie County. Like MOONLIGHT and BOYHOOD before it, the intimate portrayal of these young men interconnects narratives of family, youthful innocence, and isolation with the will to succeed in the face of formidable odds.
The feature-length documentary RAISING BERTIE, winner of Best Documentary Feature at Atlanta Docufest, is produced by Kartemquin Films and executive produced by Jermaine Cole aka rapper J. Cole.
This powerful vérité film delivers an authentic and tender portrait of the lives of three young boys – Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell – as they face a precarious coming of age in Bertie County, North Carolina.
Director Margaret Byrne brings audiences deep into the emotional lives of these young men as they try to find room for themselves in a place where life is dictated by a slow pace, opportunities are limited and tenuous family ties simultaneously offer comfort and heartache. Shot over the course of six years, RAISING BERTIE is an experience that asks us to see this world through their eyes: boys navigating between finishing high school and an elusive first job, as millions of young Americans similarly take their next step into an inherited idea of adulthood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1iNY7Fh3PA
Set in Bertie County, a rural African American-led community in Eastern North Carolina, Raising Bertie offers viewers an authentic and tender portrait of the lives of three young boys – Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell – as they face a precarious coming of age.
Rural minorities like the youth in Bertie represent some of the nation’s most vulnerable and least visible. Like many rural areas, Bertie County struggles with a dwindling economy, a declining population and a high school graduation rate below the state average. The Perdue chicken processing plant is Bertie’s last major employer, and the 27 prisons that lay within a 100 miles of Bertie cast a long shadow. Bertie County is predominately African American – its challenges compounded by generations of economic and educational discrimination and exclusion.
Bertie also is the home of Junior, Bud, and Dada, three engaging young men with difficult pasts attending high school at The Hive, an alternative school for at-risk boys. There, we meet Vivian Saunders, a passionate community activist from Bertie County. At The Hive a combination of respect, socio-emotional learning, and mentorship helps to put these young men’s lives on track. The Hive is a beautiful model of effective, supportive, and innovative interventions that help to improve opportunities and the quality of life for African-American boys and young men in Bertie.
But, when budget shorgalls lead the Board of Education to close The Hive, Junior, Bud, and Dada must return to Bertie High School and a system that once failed them.
This raw and starkly poetic Kartemquin vérité documentary weaves the young men’s stories together as they navigate school, unemployment, violence, first love, fatherhood, and estrangement from family members and mentors, all while trying to define their identities.
Intimate access depicts an honest portrayal of the boys’ perspectives and the caring adults in the community who understand what it means to take care of their own. The film is an in-depth look at issues facing many of rural America’s youth of color and what happens in the everyday lives of young people caught in the complex interplay of generational poverty, economic isolation, and educational inequity. Raising Bertie is an experience that asks us to see this world through their eyes and incites recognition and understanding of lives and communities too often ignored.
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WEINER Documentary to Open Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
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WEINER, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg[/caption]
Weiner, following disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner’s 2013 campaign for mayor of New York City, will be the Opening Night Film of the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, will screen as the free Closing Night Film.
Four films : Unlocking the Cage by Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker, Two Trains Runnin’ by Sam Pollard, Raising Bertie by Margaret Byrne, and Presenting Princess Shaw by Ido Haar, will exhibit as Center Frame screenings.
Filmmakers and subjects from the films will participate in extended conversations after the Center Frame screenings. Special guests include Steven Wise from Unlocking the Cage; David Dennis, co-director of Mississippi Freedom Summer, from Two Trains Runnin’; Reginald Askew, Davonte Harrell, David Perry, and Vivian Saunders from Raising Bertie; and Samantha Montgomery from Presenting Princess Shaw.
Full Frame 2016 will feature two free outdoor screenings in addition to the Closing Night Film, continuing its tradition of showing free films Friday and Saturday nights. (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies and Iris will screen outdoors at Durham Central Park.
The 2016 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, now in its tenth year, has been awarded to Jonathan Olshefski for Quest: The Fury and the Sound and to Matt Yoka for Whirlybird. Grant organizers will join the filmmakers in presenting short excerpts from their works-in-progress prior to a screening of The Peacemaker by 2014 grant recipient James Demo. The grant is awarded in honor of filmmaker Garrett Scott, who made a distinctive mark in the documentary genre during his brief career. It recognizes first-time filmmakers who, like Scott, bring a unique vision to the content and style of their documentary films.
Opening Night Film of the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival at Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall
OPENING NIGHT FILM – Thursday, April 7, at 7:40pm
Weiner (Directors: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg)
With unparalleled access to the candidate, Weiner follows disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner’s 2013 campaign for mayor of New York City and intensely navigates new political scandal as it unfolds.
Center Frame Screenings at Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall
CENTER FRAME – Friday, April 8, at 1:30pm
Unlocking the Cage (Directors: Chris Hegedus, DA Pennebaker)
Having devoted his career to fighting for greater legal rights for nonhuman animals, attorney Steven Wise and his colleagues at the Nonhuman Rights Project launch a history-making lawsuit arguing for captive chimpanzees’ right to personhood.
CENTER FRAME – Friday, April 8, at 8:00pm
Two Trains Runnin’ (Director: Sam Pollard)
Featuring artful animation and performances by Gary Clark Jr. and Lucinda Williams, this story of the search for two forgotten blues singers takes us to Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. World Premiere
CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 9, at 4:30pm
Raising Bertie (Director: Margaret Byrne)
In this intimate portrait of coming of age, three young men in rural Bertie County, North Carolina, persevere against poverty, discrimination, and unemployment. World Premiere
CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 9, at 8:00 pm
Presenting Princess Shaw (Director: Ido Haar)
Video blogger and aspiring singer Samantha Montgomery is unaware she has a follower and fan in the form of an enigmatic Israeli composer, whose unforgettable YouTube mashups might just help Samantha achieve her dreams.
FREE CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Sunday, April 10, at 8:00pm – Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall (Ticket Required)
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
The legendary, influential king of 1970s sitcoms reflects on his life, his work, and the profound shift in national consciousness fomented by his groundbreaking television shows.
FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING
Friday, April 8, at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
(Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies (Director: Yael Melamede)
Personal stories of dishonesty are interwoven with insights by behavioral economics expert Dan Ariely in this enlightening study of the human tendency to lie.
FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING
Saturday, April 9, at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
Iris (Director: Albert Maysles)
The late, legendary Albert Maysles documents 93-year-old fashion icon Iris Apfel in this charming celebration of style, wit, and individuality.
Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant
Saturday, April 9, at 4:20pm – Cinema 3
Quest: The Fury and the Sound (Director: Jonathan Olshefski)
A longitudinal portrait of an African American family who, despite being victimized by gun violence, continue to embrace their community.
Whirlybird (Director: Matt Yoka)
Bob Tur revolutionized the news industry from the Los Angeles sky and defined our recorded memory of the city.