"Two Schools in Hillburn" film

I'm grateful for all the support we have received thus far for the making of "Two Schools in Hillburn," a documentary about one of the most important moments in the history of Civil Rights and education in New York. It's about an event that took place in Hillburn, in Rockland County, in 1943.

It was there that Jim Crow laws that forced African American children to attend rundown, ramshackle schools while white children got to go to new, well-equipped schools were struck down, once and for all. 

All the filming has been completed, first draft of the script written and post production has begun. But we're short of the funds needed to finish the film.

The documentary tell the story of the brave efforts of the families of the 49 children who attended the beat up, old "colored" school and young NAACP attorney, Thurgood Marshall, who came to Hillburn and saw that segregation was alive and thriving here.  Thanks to Mr Marshall, the practice ended and the families of children attending Brook School would be able to send them to Hillburn School. But it wasn't easy and it easy and it wasn't clean.  

This was more than a decade before Marshall would gain noteriety by winning Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka, KS, which tore down the legal grounds for separate but equal Jim Crow laws. It is said he learned how to defend the integration of schools, in part, because he had seen how his opponents would defend the practice in Hillburn.

The film will tell the story of what Rockland and Hillburn looked like during that time. It will look at the key participants, describe events, talk to people who recall the event, etc.

This is my third documentary. The first being "20 Million Minutes," which told the story of one local community organization that took on the International Olympic Committee which had refused to offer a minute of silence for the 11 Israeli Olympians murdered by terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.  The second was "Hudson Valley Honor Flight: Generation Bridge" which is about bringing World War II veterans to Washington DC to visit the monuments in their honor and then go to schools to talk to high schoolers about the War and why it's so important to talk about their experiences.

Both documentaries were non-profit endeavors as is this film.  It will be premiered at the Cultural Arts Theater of Rockland Community College on May 20th, 2017.

If you watched the Academy Awards last year, you heard a presenter say documentaries are the least prestigious content in all of film and the Oscar winners would be leaving with their statues in a Honda!  Well, mine is a Prius and I am hoping to fund enough of the film to pay for its being made.

The bulk of the funds will come from larger donors. We need the funds now in order to finish the documentary.

I'm excited to be part of this project. This is an important story, it happened in my County and it changed the trajectory for life and education in the US. I can't wait to tell it!