Winner, Best World Documentary at the 2025 Harlem International Film Festival, New York
We take a last road trip with Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, back to rural Georgia where he once picked cotton as a child. We're with him and partner John Artis. They’re both lifers—John was the kid who wrongly went to prison with Rubin for the killing of three white people in a New Jersey bar. On the road, Rubin rediscovers the forces that forged him: segregation, discrimination, and racial hatred. He’s buoyant, charismatic, determined, undeterred, but it’s an unforgettable journey back to Ku Klux Klan country.
His story is his resurrection song, from Black American destroyer in the ring who persevered to become a civil rights icon known around the world. It is the story of not only how he survived prison, but how he fought to make the wrongly convicted a mainstream issue and battled to outlaw the death penalty. It's also the story of John, the athletic kid who lost his dream of playing for the New York Jets.
This is the saga of two lifers who beat the odds, their remarkable resilience over decades, and their ultimate victory and freedom.
Made by writer/director Peter Thurling and producer Joan Schafer, with the support of executive producers Floyd Kane and Danny Glover.
Join writer/director Peter Thurling and producer Joan Schafer for a special post-screening discussion.
Peter Thurling is an award-winning writer, director and producer who has contributed important creative works and inspired a generation of Canadians with such landmark TV series as Here Come the 70s and Floating Over Canada. From the 1970s to the present day, he’s focused on stories that explore the human spirit in all its fantastic diversity. His partner through it all has been legendary Toronto TV producer Joan Schafer.
Joan Schafer is the producer at the heart of Rubin Hurricane Carter: Forever A Fighter. The film went on to premiere at the Harlem International Film Festival where it won Best World Documentary.
Earlier in her career Joan Schafer was an executive producer at CITY-TV when it was an outstanding independent voice in Toronto. Joan was also a founder and vice-president at First Choice (now Crave), the first 24-hour PayTV service in Canada.
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