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 15th 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….
