‘R.A.W. TUBA’ wins Best Short at Black Harvest

Richard Antoine White in 'R.A.W. TUBA'

Richard Antoine White in ‘R.A.W. TUBA’

Documentary about
Richard Antoine White’s
inspiring life earns the
Richard and Ellen
Sandor Family
Black Harvest
Film Festival Prize

R.A.W. TUBA was awarded Best Short film at the 25th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival on Saturday afternoon. Directed by David Larson and Darren Durlach, the inspiring documentary tells the story of Richard Antoine White, aka R.A.W.

Richard Antoine White spent the earliest years of his life enduring poverty and homelessness in West Baltimore. Today, he is Principal Tubist of the New Mexico Philharmonic and a tenured professor at the University of New Mexico.

Laron and Durlach met White while conducting research for a film about the inadequacies of arts education in America for their Baltimore-based production company Early Light Media. According to Baltimore Magazine, they felt that White’s story was worth sharing.

“We knew Richard was special,” Durlach told Baltimore’s Michelle Evans. “When you hear that a kid was basically eating out of trash cans in Sandtown and has gone on to become a professor at a university and is well-respected in a symphony orchestra, there’s something there.”

The details of White’s life are extraordinary. Besides earning a Doctoral degree from Indiana University, he still bears the scars where rodents chewed on his body when he slept in an abandoned row house as a child.

“We believe in Richard and the power of positivity that so many other ‘Richard Whites’ in Baltimore desperately need to hear,” the filmmakers declare on the R.A.W. website.

 
R.A.W. TUBA | TRAILER
EARLY LIGHT MEDIA | DAVID LARSON, DARREN DURLACH

 

 
The Sandor Family Prize
The Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Black Harvest Film Festival Prize was presented to R.A.W. by Kelley Kali during a matinee event on Saturday, August 17 at the Siskel Film Center.

Kali is the recipient of the first-ever Sandor Family Prize, winning it last year for her film, Lalo’s House.

Lalo’s House proceeded to win the 24th DGA (Directors Guild of America) Student Film Award and a Student Academy Award at the 45th Student Academy Awards.

Named for and generously underwritten by Gene Siskel Film Center Advisory Board Chair Ellen Sandor and her husband Richard, the $1,000 prize is awarded annually to a director of a Black Harvest Film Festival short film.

 
About the Black Harvest Film Festival
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Black Harvest Film Festival is Midwest’s largest- and longest- running Black film festival and the Gene Siskel Film Center’s most vibrant annual showcase. It highlights provocative films that tell stories, spark lively discussions, and address issues relating to the experiences from the African diaspora. Besides featuring more than 50 Chicago premieres, features, documentaries, and shorts, the BHFF hosts filmmaker appearances, panel discussions, and special events during its month-long run. www.siskelfilmcenter.org/bhff25 | Tickets may be purchased at the Film Center Box Office (164 N. State), through the Gene Siskel Film Center’s website www.siskelfilmcenter.org/content/tickets or through the individual films’ weblinks on www.siskelfilmcenter.org.

 
About the Gene Siskel Film Center
Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting edge cinema to an annual audience that has grown to over 100,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists.

 
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. Notable alumni and faculty include Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman.

 
Send your film updates to Reel Chicago Editor Dan Patton, dan@reelchicago.com.