Cathedrals

How does 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?
 
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 (The Jinx, Capturing the Friedmans)


In the film, Cathedrals, filmmaker Dan Algrant enters the American minefield of race, class, and identity. His navigation asks the viewer to look in their own mirror.

The beauty of the film is in the weaving of two stories, a distant past and an immediate present. From this weave we meet three men whose shared history exposes the simmering embers of race and power in America.

At first it is the white filmmaker’s effort (Algrant) to make sense of the world, but gradually it becomes the two African American participants (Don Wright and Kevin Thames) who subtly guide the audience into the wide chasm of race in America.

It is left for the audience to forge the bridge.

---------------MARCO WILLIAMS (Two Towns of Jasper, Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre)


“Moving. A cinematic weaving of three portraits spanning a racial divide and forty years.”

--------------ROSS McELWEE (Sherman’s March, Bright Leaves)