Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story

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Brick by Brick:
A Civil Rights Story
Documentary
Directed byBill Kavanagh
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producers
  • Bill Kavanagh
  • Linda Porto
CinematographyPeter Stein
EditorSylke Froechtenigt
Running time53 min
Production companyKavanagh Productions Inc
Original release
Release2007 (2007)

Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story

school desegregation. The documentary also recounts the heroic efforts of grassroots activists to keep the battle alive to address racial isolation and housing discrimination in Yonkers, as well as the infamous 1988 confrontation between the Federal courts and the City of Yonkers over the city's contempt of court orders.[3] Westchester County civil rights activist Winston Ross is among those portrayed in the film, which details his youth in Yonkers' Runyon Heights
neighborhood and his years in the city's public schools.

Lawrence Downes of The New York Times described the documentary as "a sober warning about the present day." Downes asserted that, "America — never mind Yonkers — still grapples with unsettled issues of poverty and race, and until that conundrum is resolved, it will keep reasserting itself in new and troubling ways."

A dramatization of the 1988 confrontation is encapsulated in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero (2015), largely based on the Lisa Belkin non-fiction book.[4] Many of the political actors and characters in Show Me a Hero are portrayed in the original documentary, including Nick Wasicsko, the youngest mayor in the city's history, who figured prominently in the 1988 crisis.

Release

Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story premiered on

film festivals
nationwide over the following years.

References

  1. ^ "Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story". HuffPost. 2007-04-07. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  2. ^ Capps, Kriston. "'Show Me a Hero' Has Wrapped, But Check Out Its Real-Life Prequel". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  3. ^ James Feron (4 August 1988) First Contempt Fine Is Paid by Yonkers Over Housing Plan. The New York Times retrieved August 7, 2015
  4. OCLC 39811925
    retrieved August 7, 2015
  5. ^ Lawrence Downes (18 February 2007) Bricks and Boundaries. The New York Times retrieved August 9, 2015

External links