The Long March on PBS

The Long March, a film produced by my friend Jane Barr, shot by videographer Josh Richard and directed by myself and Dr. Bob Legg (University of Tennessee), will be airing on ETPtv (www.etptv.org), our local PBS affiliate, on Sunday, November 15^th at 7pm. Tune in!!

This is a film we collaborated on while Josh and I finished our journalism & electronic media degrees at the University of Tennessee. We partnered with local producer Jane Barr to begin looking at the successes of school integration and its connections with the past.

While looking into this we found some interesting, and in some cases, shocking evidence that today’s public schools are more segregated than ever before. The causes range from an arcane system of school finance, socio-economic influenced settlement patterns, and lack of parental support and involvement. These inequities must be addressed if we are to create truly successful students and participants in our collective future.

Despite the tireless efforts of great educators and administrators, our public education system and its students are failing to compete. Some are failing even more than others. This is an important part of the vision of the civil rights movement. We should continue to demand equality, just as those brave souls who marched in the streets of Birmingham, and from Selma to Montgomery did.

The civil rights movement was an American movement. It was about justice and equal opportunity for all of us. Let us continue moving from a people of separate histories to one of commonality. Let us continue the work, pushing for a future filled with justice & equality, especially for our children.

We hope the documentary contributes in some small way to a meaningful dialogue about our educational system. Tune in!

The Long March

synopsis

The Long March is a documentary film that examines the state of public education through the lens of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Integrated school systems and the field of race preference/moral bias research both were spawned by leaders of the movement. It presents forgotten ideas inspired by people involved in the movement, such as the using Ghandi’s non-violent direct action as a political tool in the US. It also looks at aspects of rural African American culture that are lost in the shadow of slavery. The civil rights movement of the 1960s should continue to inspire us to take on overwhelming odds, including giving our best to our future generations.

About the Long March

The film began as an attempt at a limited, short-run series of programs designed to explore the efforts and ideas of the American civil rights movement during the years of 1955-1968 and its continued legacy in America and beyond. Producer Jane Barr along with myself and Josh Richard filmed and conducted interviews over the period of a year in 2008. It was a tremendous journey and one we all hope continues. As Ambassador Andrew Young, a close personal friend of Dr. King told us, ”The civil rights movement is a struggle for the fulfillment of the dreams of justice and equal opportunity for all Americans, so, we’ll never finish it.” The Long March has won the Broadcasters Education Association Award of Excellence, an Accolade Award of Merit and Best Documentary Feature at Indiefest 2009. It has also been an official selection at the International Black Film Festival 2009 and Documfest 2008, Romania’s International Documentary Film Festival.

Directed by: Tre Berney & Dr. J. Robert Legg

Edited by: Tre Berney and Josh Richard

Narrated by: Jane Barr

Executive Producer: Dr. J. Robert Legg

Producer: Jane Barr

Director of Photography: Josh Richard

Sound Designed & Mixed by: Tre Berney @ Falseye Studios

Historic Consultant: Dr. Cynthia Griggs Fleming

Interviews conducted by: Jane Barr

Original music by: Bright Shuttle – Scott Murrin, Matt Silvey and Tre Berney

Interviews included:

Jonathan Kozol

Andrew Young

Richard Heffner

Guy Carawan

Candie Carawan

The Carolina Chocolate Drops

Dr. Cynthia Fleming

Ernest Green

Melanie Killen

Sheryl Threadgill

C.T. Vivian

Sam Walker

T.J. Holmes

Reverend Jesse Jackson

Vivian L. Derryck

Dr. Marcellus Barksdale

Tebabu Assefa

plus many more….

Moving Right Along....

First - "The Long March" will air on ETPTV in November!! I will post a date and time as soon as we know it. Great news for myself, Ms. Jane Barr, Dr. Bob Legg &, of course, Mr. Josh Richard! Couldn't be happier.

For the most part, everything is great as of now, despite the attack of some seed ticks. Doing a little nesting and digging into the first Prime Suspect. My life in pictures these past few weeks:




Tiny frog.













Sarah trying out our homemade Moby wrap... on the Pooh doll. (That is not our child's head)









Seed tick bites. Hello antibiotics.











In studio news:

1. "The Long March" was selected to be shown at the International Black Film Festival! Great news for Amoako Films and myself as well. My friend, and the film's producer, Jane Barr and I will be heading down to Nashville for the festival. Come out if you're in the Opry Mills area.

2. Briar Thickett's album is available from them. It looks great.

3. "Cold Nice Gold," from my own band Bright Shuttle, will be available next week as well. Very happy about that. Long time comin'....

If you wondered...

what I was up to... well... watching these types of things:

Briar Thickett Mastered

The Briar Thickett release "All Scratched Up" is back from mastering. My friend Seva over at Soundcurrent Mastering lent his expertise to the finished mixes. We are glad he did it. A firm lesson for musicians, bands, and producers. Don't skimp on mastering.
The guys and girl are glad to be listening to their finished product. I have to say that it came out well. I'm pretty proud of the way it finished. Click here to hear a track from "All Scratched Up."
My good friend Chad Rogers, or "The Diddy" as some refer to him will be finishing up the artwork, making what I began with look wa-a-a-y better. It should be back from the presses by September 1st at the latest.

On Bright Shuttle territory, the LP is done and being pressed by URP as we speak. The art is almost finished. It too should be available as of September, though I don't want to curse it.

Everything is moving so quickly right now. Sarah and I are trying to get settled into our new digs and prepare for the little one.

Make sure you chime in on the health care debate. It is important to tell you representatives what you think, however you stand.

Thank you Josh Richard!

For all 3 of you that thought the site was looking ok so far, you should check it out now!
I finally found a good, user friendly flash MP3 player, thanks to my friend Josh. Now you can hear samples of my audio work and well as video production.
Just got the Bright Shuttle test pressing back from URP and listened through it. Sounds great. It sounds even more like the recording than it did. The first 2 song on the second side are a little quiet, but a listen through the whole thing made me think that it works just fine.
So get out your $15 and be prepared for some southern noir, my friends.
Now, if my back would just cooperate... uygh!!!
www.falseyestudios.com
Another photo of my beautiful wife. I know, I know... I'll try to calm the gushing.

Moving on up... or just over.

Howdy folks. I revamped my website over at www.falseyestudios.com. Let your fingers do the walking. Here's where I will be doing the current projects blog. Simpler, and more family friendly.
And here is the most recent news:






Couldn't be more beautiful. A little boy.









More soon...