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Raised Up West Side

Chicago’s West Side epitomizes the violent, struggling city we see daily in the media. RAISED UP WEST SIDE peels back the layers, exposing the deep-seated segregation, food insecurity, and mass incarceration that continue to shape these predominantly Black neighborhoods. Following the harrowing, yet frequently inspiring plight of ex-offenders, social activists, and entrepreneurs working on the West Side, we witness the fierce tenacity required to change the narrative — and change lives.

  • Brett A. Schwartz
    Director
    Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story
  • Brett A. Schwartz
    Producer
    Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story
  • Darius D. Jones
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Reynaldo D. Engram
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Liz Abunaw
    Key Cast
    "Herself"
  • Wayne Detmer
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Robin Whaley Smith
    Key Cast
    "Herself"
  • Pascal Sabino
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 26 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 7, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sarasota Film Festival
    Sarasota
    United States
    April 2, 2022
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Julien Dubuque International Film Festival
    Dubuque
    United States
    April 20, 2022
    Iowa Premiere
    Best Use of Music
  • Lift-Off Global Network Online

    April 4, 2022
  • Katra Film Series
    New York
    United States
    April 22, 2022
  • WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival
    Houston
    United States
    April 23, 2022
    Gold Award
  • Hamilton Black Film Festival
    Hamilton
    Canada
    May 28, 2022
    Best Director -Feature Documentary
  • Piermont Film Festival
    Piermont
    United States
    June 11, 2022
    Best Feature Documentary
  • The Telly Awards
    New York
    United States
    May 25, 2022
    Bronze Telly Award
  • Indy Film Fest
    Indianapolis
    June 19, 2022
    Indiana
    Official Selection
  • New Hope Film Festival
    New Hope
    United States
    July 24, 2022
    Pennsylvania
    Official Selection
  • Filmocracy Fest
    Los Angeles
    United States
    July 14, 2022
    Best of Fest Screening
  • San Antonio Film Festival
    San Antonio
    United States
    August 3, 2022
    Texas
    Official Selection
  • Social Justice Film Festival
    Seattle
    United States
    September 30, 2022
    Seattle
    Official Selection
  • International Black Film Festival
    Nashville
    United States
    October 2, 2022
    Tennessee
    Official Selection
  • Gary International Black Film Festival
    Gary
    United States
    Gary
    Official Selection
  • Twin Cities Film Festival
    St. Louis Park
    United States
    October 22, 2022
    Minnesota
    Official Selection
  • LA Black Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Los Angeles
    Official Selection
  • St. Louis International Film Festival
    St. Louis
    United States
    Missouri
    Official Selection
  • Baltimore International Black Film Festival
    Baltimore
    United States
    October 7, 2022
    Maryland
    Audience Award - Feature Documentary
  • Halifax Black Film Festival
    Halifax
    Canada
    February 26, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Wayfarer Theaters at Renaissance Place
    Highland Park
    United States
    February 26, 2023
  • Hudson International Film Festival
    New YORK
    United States
    April 14, 2023
    Best Documentary
  • Chicago/Midwest Chapter of Television Arts and Sciences
    Chicago
    United States
    November 11, 2023
    Emmy Award
Distribution Information
  • Freestyle Digital Media
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Brett A. Schwartz

Brett A. Schwartz is an Emmy®-winning director/producer based in the Chicago area. Schwartz’s feature documentary, INSATIABLE: THE HOMARO CANTU STORY premiered at SXSW in 2016 and screened in dozens of film festivals, both nationally and internationally, including The Seattle Int’l Film Festival, Napa Valley Film Festival, The Chicago Int’l Film Festival, Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival, and several others. The film is distributed by Virgil Films and has streamed on Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, and additional services. A short film titled MÁS QUE LA PLAY: PUERTO VALLARTA was nominated for a Regional Emmy Award in 2018. Schwartz’s feature-length documentary, MASHED MEDIA (2010) aired on PBS and is distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences. A short film entitled SHIFTING TRADITIONS (2000) aired on PBS and was distributed by The University of California Center for Media and Independent Learning. In addition to his work as an independent director/producer, Schwartz produced documentaries that aired on several networks, including Bravo, MSNBC, HGTV, Court TV, CBS, and PBS. Schwartz received a Master’s in Documentary Film and Video Production from Stanford University in 1999 and lives in Highland Park, Illinois with his wife and their two children.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In 2018 I learned about Professor Jennifer Lackey’s philosophy class at Stateville Correctional Center outside Chicago. Lackey pivoted from her standing Northwestern University philosophy courses to teaching inmates and ultimately developing Northwestern’s Prison Education Program. I visited Professor Lackey’s classes twice. I had never been to a prison before, much less a maximum security state penitentiary. In one class, Lackey focused on the existence of evil in the world — with a group of students that were technically serving life sentences or even on death row. Here I was shaking hands, conversing casually, and even laughing with convicted murderers and rapists as we discussed the weightiest issues of the human condition. The bottom line is that I saw common humanity in the eyes of most of the men I met at Stateville.

Later that year I visited the Farm on Ogden, a brand-new urban farm and market in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Under that building’s rehabbed roof rose the headquarters of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest Program. I discovered Windy City’ Harvest’s Corps program, a 13-week transitional jobs program that trains a cohort of mostly ex-offenders in urban agriculture. A state of the art aquaponics-based indoor farm that yields loads of fresh produce in the middle of a well-known food desert also rose under the Farm on Ogden’s roof.

Several miles away in another West Side neighborhood, I met Liz Abunaw, a Chicago entrepreneur who is striving to build a Black-owned grocery store where none exists — in the Austin neighborhood. While filming near the Farm on Ogden, I soon met students from My Block My Hood My City, taking tourists through what often is regarded as a blighted ghetto. Social activist Jahmal Cole who founded the group flipped the script: area youth engaged those outside the neighborhood to showcase their neighborhood’s culture and history in a pride-filled, affirmative way, becoming West Side ambassadors along the way.

Ultimately, the threads of RAISED UP WEST SIDE came together when I met Darius Jones. Darius’ journey fully encapsulates the harrowing plight of Black men growing up on Chicago’s West Side. He was raised in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, and though his single mom did her very best, she could not save him from the “street life.” Darius joined a gang at the age of 13, owned his first gun at 15, and by 19 he had been convicted of aggravated carjacking and sent to Cook County Jail’s maximum security facility. While serving his sentence at Cook County, he found out about a progressive jail program that allowed him to learn farming skills and enabled inmates to spend time outside and get highly coveted fresh air. Coming from solitary confinement, this program was a godsend to Darius. Once his public defender uncovered holes in his case that led to an early release due to a guilty plea, Darius entered one of the first Windy City Harvest Corps’ cohort groups. The program altered the course of his life, and gave him even more than a second chance.

My initial questions about redemption and second chances came together in these places and within all these stories on Chicago’s West Side. From formerly incarcerated individuals to reclaiming land and providing sustenance to a community that desperately needs it, there were seeds of hope growing in The Farm on Ogden and within these West Side neighborhoods. Just like the humanity I saw in the eyes of Statesville’s inmates all those years earlier, I committed myself to tell a story in RAISED UP WEST SIDE that humanizes people society conveniently labels as “felons” or “offenders” while shutting the door on them. I was convinced that an audience would find empathy for these individuals -- and give them a second chance.