By Roger Costa
Directed by Margaret Byrne, “Raising Bertie” spans a few years on the lives of three African-American young men as they struggle to find their place in society. The camera wanders around a community, structuring a humble portrait of aspects of Bertie County in North Carolina, until it reaches its subjects Reginald Junior, Davonte Dada and David Bud. They attend an alternative school called The Hive, an institution devoted to bring troubled kids into a responsible adult life.
Through personal and powerfully confident testimonies, Byrne captures the essentials of their personality, exposing their real inner forces and perspectives as they search for meaning and purpose, dreaming of achievements and a bright future. The Hive creates opportunities and develops recovery activities, offering them social, educational and moral growth, and the film precisely captures their intense care and patience, especially when the progress relies on the teens’ determination and own will.
Junior struggles with various frustrations including the lack of a confident attitude, as he’s working on changing his illiterate status and randomly seeks a job; Dada watches over his nephew, while his brother is incarcerated and endures an estranged connection with his father; Bud is working on his explosive temper, he’s finishing school where he is seen as a bully, intimidating and temperamental dangerous individual. They each also have a very close relationship to their hard-working mothers, whom are constantly in front of the cameras, providing harsh, heartbreaking and truthful perspectives on the boys’ process of re-integration, their broken and stolen childhood, as well as dealing with their lack of responsibility and commitment.
The director also explores the mothers’ strength as they battle standards and society in order to support and motivate their children. Everyone is affected based in their choices, the team at the recovery center, the mothers and relatives, their love interests and other young kids. Junior dreams of leaving the hometown, yet he feels very grounded to the place, “I’d feel lost somewhere else” he states. Throughout the years, they collect the pieces trying to re-establish themselves, while their journey allows documentarian Byrne to archive a moving and raw portrait of a generation living among a compassionate community, despite prejudice, and the uneasiness and upbringing of marginalized grown-up children into adulthood.
RAISING BERTIE (A Gunpowder & Sky Distribution release. Opens Friday, June 9th at Maysles Cinema in NYC, followed by June 16-22 Roxie Cinema in San Francisco and June 23-29, Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles.)
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