The diocese’s Racial Justice Commission is hosting this free screening of the award-winning documentary. Following the 90 minute film, participants will engage in a Zoom conversation with the filmmakers, Writer and Director James Rutenbeck (a member of St. Stephen’s in the South End), and Producers Kafi Dixon and Carl Chandler who are featured in the film. The Rev. James M. Hairston, Priest-in-Charge of St. Augustine - St. Martin, Boston, will moderate the conversation.

Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

A Reckoning in Boston

James Rutenbeck

Carl Chandler

Kafi Dixon

Llewellyn Smith

Anne Marie Stein

Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day she drives a city bus; at night she studies the humanities in a tuition-free course. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder, is the class’s intellectual leader. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities. He looks for transformations but is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten Kafi and Carl's very place in the city.  Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists the pair as collaborators with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives – and James does too.