This film offers subtitles in English and Closed Captioning. You can select these options by clicking the ‘CC’ button in the bottom right of the player.

In the fall of 2014, Kafi Dixon and Carl Chandler enrolled in a rigorous night course in the humanities at a community center in their Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Kafi, 44, sharp, witty and restless, dropped out of school at 15. She dreams of starting a land cooperative in Boston for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement. Carl, 65, a community elder and doting grandfather, is the class’s intellectual leader. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck comes to Dorchester to document the students’ engagement with their course, but as he is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten their place in the city, he is forced to come to terms with his flawed film premise and his own complicity in racist structures. Spending more time listening than filming, James enlists Kafi and Carl as producers of the film. Five years on, despite many personal obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives, and, following their lead, James does too. Bringing to light the foundations of systemic racism in one community that has spanned generations, A Reckoning in Boston shows that transformation, healing and social change begins within each of us.

Watch at your own pace anytime between Feb 2-Feb 8, 2021, or join us and watch-along before the live Opening Night Q&A.

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February 6, 2021
5:30pm (PST) / 8:30pm (EST) : Press play and begin watching the film.
6:53pm (PST) / 9:53pm (PST): Grab a quick snack and refill your beverage
7pm (PST) / 10pm (EST) : Join us for the live Q&A on Zoom (RSVP required.)

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Human Rights Watch thanks the David D. Dodge Foundation for its support.

Thank you to our partners:
Survivors of Torture, International
Interdisciplinary Human Rights Initiative, College of Arts and Letters (CAL), San Diego State University
IRC
San Diego Pride
Alliance San Diego

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