A fiercely self-determined family in the deep south resists despair with love in this unique narrative of Black achievement.
Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida. We take a journey back home, with filmmaker Ira McKinley, to the land of sugarcane, as he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations. Told through stories that transcend space and time, Outta The Muck presents a community, and a family, that resists despair with love, remaining fiercely self-determined, while forging its own unique narrative of Black achievement.
Directed & Produced by: Bhawin Suchak and Ira Mckinley
Produced by: Tracy Rector and Darian Henry
Executive Producers: Sam Pollard, Lois Vossen, Sally Jo Fifer
Runtime: 80 minutes
National Broadcast on Independent Lens: Monday February 6th, 2023
EMAIL: Bhawin74@gmail.com
Phone: (518) 526-5586
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Our Team
IRA MCKINLEY
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER
Ira Mckinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.
BHAWIN SUCHAK
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DoP/EDITOR
Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).
TRACY RECTOR
PRODUCER
Tracy Rector approaches storytelling with a passion for amplifying and uplifting Indigenous and BIPOC voices. She has two decades of experience as a community organizer, educator, filmmaker, film programmer, and arts curator, all infused with her deep roots in plant medicine. For the last 20 years she has directed and produced over 400 films including shorts, features, music videos, and virtual reality projects. Her work has been featured on Independent Lens, ImagineNative, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, as well as at international film festivals including Cannes and Toronto. Tracy recently completed her second term as a Seattle Arts Commissioner, sits on the boards of the Mize Foundation, the Flaherty Seminar, and Working Films, and is the co-founder of Longhouse Media and the founder of Indigenous Showcase.
DARIAN HENRY
PRODUCER
Darian Henry is a filmmaker, digital-media educator, founding member, and co-executive director of the nationally known film and digital media organization Youth FX. She has shot, directed, and produced over 50 short documentary, narrative, and experimental films. In 2016 Darian co-founded NeXt Doc, a year-long documentary fellowship designed to amplify the voices of emerging documentary storytellers between the ages of 20-24 from diverse backgrounds. As an educator, Darian uses film and digital media as a means to empower and inspire black and brown youth in a wide range of Youth FX programs that arm them with the skills, techniques and access needed to create films based on their own realities and imagination. Darian is currently working as a producer on Ira Mckinley and Bhawin Suchak’s feature-length documentary film Outta the Muck which is supported by Sundance Institute and iTVS.
SAM POLLARD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Sam Pollard is one of the most respected names in the world of documentary cinema, the recipient of an Oscar nomination and multiple Emmy awards. He produced the HBO documentaries Four Little Girls, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, and If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise. Sam directed the acclaimed documentary Slavery by Another Name, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently aired on PBS. He also directed four episodes of PBS’s American Masters--including, most recently, August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand--and two installments of the groundbreaking series Eyes on the Prize. In 2017 Sam premiered three new films: ACORN & The Firestorm, Maynard & Sammy Davis, Jr: I've Gotta Be Me. His latest film MLK/FBI was shortlisted for an academy award in 2020.
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