Cathedrals

How does my trying to reconnect with collaborators of a S-8 film made nearly 50 years ago turn into a revealing portrait of two black men and their continuing struggle – what it means to be black in America today?
 
In the original S-8 film made in 1976, Kevin is a young boy who’s suffered third degree burns on his face while living at the notorious Cathedral housing project in the South End of Boston. I was a senior at a prep school; Don was a young man living at Cathedral – and we co-directed this short documentary “Cathedral” about Kevin – a prescient 10 year old protagonist.
 
For 49 years I’ve wondered about Don and Kevin – but after finding, digitizing and rewatching this lost S-8 film, then amazed at what we’d captured together, realized I’d made no effort to stay connected with them. I decided to make a change – and find them.   What unfolds from this moment is CATHEDRALS – a story no one could have predicted, and one that would change all three of our lives…again.  At the core of this unlikely reunion – with Don as much, and even more-so, an instrumental collaborator  – is  a real life unfolding of histories, emotions, joys and sorrows, revolving around one of the most pressing issues still facing us today - race and class.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CATHEDRALS

"A gem of a film — a twisting journey through a half-century of the lives of three men from vastly different backgrounds. What starts out as a detective story turns into a heartwarming multi-generational reunion that lays bare America’s racial and class divide.” 
--------- Andrew Jarecki (Jinxed, Capturing the Friedmans)

“Moving. A cinematic weaving of three portraits spanning a racial divide and forty years.”
---------- Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March, Bright Leaves)