Local filmmaker Duane Carleton’s documentary, Divided by Diversity, premieres on Vermont PBS on Thursday, May 18, at 7 p.m. The doc centers on the Mount St. Joseph Academy basketball team that won the 2011-12 Division II high school state championship.
Specifically, Carleton’s film chronicles the racism that five black athletes from the Bronx faced after enrolling at the private Catholic school in Rutland to play basketball. Some parents and players complained about losing playing time to “outsiders.” The five players also endured racist epithets from rival fans during games.
Cam Whittemore, a postal service worker who played surrogate mother to the athletes, was featured on the cover of Seven Days in December.
Carleton said that Eric Ford, senior manager of local content at Vermont PBS, contacted him about two months ago to inquire about seeing the film and putting it on air.
“I was aware that Vermont PBS has shown films from Vermont filmmakers,” said Carleton, who is also a musician. He added that his friend had done some research on how to connect with PBS affiliates. “It was definitely something I planned to achieve. But they reached out to me instead.”
The documentary premiered last August at Village Picture Shows in Manchester Center. Since then, Carleton has shown the film at, New England College in New Hampshire, SIT Graduate Institute and St. Michael’s College. It has also been shown at the West Rutland Town Hall, though Carleton hasn’t been able to get it screened in Rutland proper.
“The story needs to be told to as many people as possible,” he said.
Carleton also plans to show an excerpt of the documentary on June 3 during the White River Indie Festival at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction.
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The headline is misleading… This is a great film about MSJ Basketball in Rutland… Not Rutland Basketball… The headline does not fit your article nor the trailer for the documentry… The casual reader may get confused and not connect the dots if they just see the headline… And that would be a shame because it a great documentry.
Isn’t the documentary about how the high school basketball community in Rutland reacted to five black players on the MSJ team? Sounds like Rutland basketball to me.