by Sergio via IndieWIRE
Just last week, I reported on a new cable TV documentary series, Hard Earned, being produced by Al Jazeera America and the Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, about the struggles of low income families (HERE).
But that’s not the only documentary that Kartmequin Films has on its slate - a company responsible for some of the most important and acclaimed documentaries made during the last 20 years such as Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, and the soon-to-be released documentary on the late film critic, Roger Ebert, Life Itself,.
They also have currently in the works, Raising Bertie, produced by Kartemquin co founder Gordon Quinnand Justine Nagan, and directed and produced by Margaret Byrne, which deals with "three young men as they grow into adulthood in a community where expectations are low and fighting is a way of life. In rural Bertie County, an African American led community in North Carolina, their leaders have the opportunity to improve the futures of their youth… and one women’s attempt to elevate Bertie’s underprivileged youth and raise their expectations for their future."
Now, Raising Bertie, along with Hard Earned, and two other works-in-progress - In the Game, about “how race, gender and class impact, the life of a soccer coach and the young women he is committed to helping,” andGeneration Food, about how a worldwide broken down food distribution system enables billions of people to be overweight, while at the same time billions go hungry - will be sneak-previewed at the Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago, on Friday May 2nd, starting at 8:30PM.
Tickets are now currently on sale; to get yours and to find out more info about the screening program, go HERE.
IndieWIRE Shadow and Act: on Cinema of the Diaspora | Sneak Preview of Kartemquin Films’ Documentary-In-Progress ‘Raising Bertie’ In Chicago 5/2
