Take Another Look! RARE’s Documentary Worth Watching Again
Have you watched RARE’s documentary, Roosevelt High School: Beyond Black and White yet?
No? Well, we certainly invite you to do so! (It’s always available on RARE’s website.)
Yes? We strongly encourage you to watch it again!
Similar to revisiting a favorite museum, hiking trail, neighborhood park or restaurant – every time we go back it’s different. The venue, view, or exhibits may be unchanged. There may be nothing new on the menu but each time it’s a different experience – because we are different!
Or maybe we just can’t grasp, digest, or experience it all in one visit. We can’t appreciate it all with one viewing or meal – it’s too much to absorb. And possibly it’s our prior experiences at that park, museum, or eatery that give us greater understanding of the depth of it. Each experience is layered on top of our previous understanding; connecting with what we already know – or thought we knew.
Some films need to be viewed only once. Some books need only to be read once. But those that have impact and brilliance hidden in the images, dialogue and description between the pages beg us to dive in again. To re-read. To re-watch. To see new angles and to appreciate deeper connections. They woo us with compelling concepts and characters – daring us to find meaning as if mining for nuggets of importance.
We think that “Roosevelt High School: Beyond Black and White” is one of those films. The first time you watch RARE’s documentary, it may leave you feeling shocked, impressed, aching for the world to change, and possibly with a sense of needing to do something. It may be vague. A gut-feeling inviting a response.
Every time you watch this film – or even just parts of it – your ears, heart, and intellect will be tuned-in to catch more of it. To want to watch more of it – to understand more of it. And to be willing to be changed by it. To become more courageous in your conversations and choices.
Let yourself be captivated by the comments from recent RHS students and staff, by the statistics, by the newscasts and images from 1971-72, and by the challenge to live REformatively, rather than PERformatively.
We hope you have the courage to watch, re-watch and watch RHS: Beyond Black & White once again. The more you watch, the more you learn.
The 30-minute documentary Roosevelt High School: Beyond Black and White is a production of Roosevelt Alumni for Racial Equity (RARE), a non-profit organization formed in 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd and the upheaval that followed. The film was selected by the 2023 Social Justice Film Festival to be screened in person and online. It has been aired five times on KCTS / PBS since June 2021. The film is available to view on demand via the RARE website, as well as discussion questions, curriculum, and promotional materials. Contact RARE to schedule an in-person screening for a group.
