I previously profiled this new documentary film which Kartemquin Films has currently in
development, and now they have created a new way for you to help out on
the new film.
Following in the tradition of many important movies, Kartemquin has made in the past, such as Hoop
Dreams, The Interrupters and their new film, The Trials of Muhammad Ali (which premieres this month at the Tribeca Film Festival), their new
project – ’63 Boycott – deals with
the always combustible mix of race, politics and education in a now little
remembered event that shook a city to its foundations.
What occurred in Chicago
on October 22, 1963, on a day to be
called “Freedom Day” was a massive
protest march involving over 200,000
Chicagoans – including adults and school students – to downtown Chicago, where
they went to protest the segregationist policies of the racist Chicago Public Schools Superintendent
Benjamin Willis.
The film, which is being directed by Kartemquin
co-founder Gordon Quinn, who
directed the documentary A Good Man,
about choreographer Bill T. Jones,
will combine hours of unseen footage of the event with then-and-now interviews
of boycotters. The project’s genesis began from footage shot by Quinn and his
filmmaking partner Gerry Temaner while
they were students at the University of
Chicago at the time.
However Kartemquin is still currently looking for
participants of the march. So, in other to help them find people who were
involved in the boycott, for the first time in the company’s 47-year history, they will be using an
interactive website.
Boycotters will be located through the website where they
can identify and tag themselves in over 500 stills pulled from the film, as
well as upload their own images and stories.
Anyone visiting the site will be able to view 500 photos
pulled from never-before-released footage of the boycott, and will allow users
to identify themselves and others they may know in the photos, share their
stories with each other and the filmmakers, and upload their own images.
According to the filmmakers, the project has already
gotten a tremendous response from former boycotters and they spoke with former
CPS teachers and students involved in the boycott, in addition to having
already filmed two interviews with the organizers of the event itself.
The filmmakers will select individual stories for
inclusion in the film which is scheduled to be completed in time for the 50th
anniversary of the boycott this fall.
To contact them go to HERE, via email at [email protected], or call 773-413-9263.
Here’s a film teaser of footage from the boycott: