Homeless man, ex-felon, activist: Ira McKinley takes on a new role as filmmaker in his documentary debut THE THROWAWAYS (2013), playing this Friday at the MFA as part of the Roxbury International Film Festival. This film, funded partly through crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, takes an impassioned stance on the issues faced by inner-city black communities today. The camera follows McKinley as he rallies and organizes throughout Albany, NY, a community still suffering the blow of the economic recession.

His personal stories of prison time and police beatings are set against national issues of mass incarceration and police brutality. But the aim is emotional; a scene portrays an Albany town meeting where a mother breaks down in anger, screaming “they’re killing our kids.” McKinley wants viewers to experience, viscerally, the tragic stories that plague these communities deemed disposable–the “throwaways”–by our current political system.

THE THROWAWAYS (2013) will be opened by another crowdfunded project, THE BRAVEST, THE BOLDEST (2014), a short film directed by New York City filmmaker Moon Molson. Molson tells the story of two army officers sent to a housing project to inform a woman of her son’s death in combat. Both films will be screened as part of the Roxbury International Film Festival, focusing on films by, for and about people of color.

THE THROWAWAYS (2013) DIR. BHAWIN SUCHAK AND IRA MCKINLEY (62 min)
THE BRAVEST, THE BOLDEST (2014) DIR. MOON MOLSEN (17 min)
6/27 – 8:00pm
$9 students, members and seniors / $11 GA

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Alfond Auditorium, G36
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

Part of the MFA’s ongoing series: The Roxbury International Film Festival