PBS Books hosts a program with award winning directors Sharon Grimberg and Cyndee Readdean, to discuss their AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND: THE DECADE-LONG ROAD TO SCHOOL DESEGREGATION on PBS.
In September 2023, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE premieres two new documentaries by Executive Producer Cameo George, that examine the deeply mixed legacy of America’s efforts to racially integrate public schools.
THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND tells the story of the bitter struggle to integrate Boston’s school and captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order. It premieres on September 11 at 9pm ET; check your local listing. It is streamable for free at pbs.org.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Sharon Grimberg: Writer, Producer, Director for THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND
Sharon Grimberg is an award-winning filmmaker with 25 years of experience working for public television. According to The Baltimore Sun, her latest film McCarthy, about the infamous Wisconsin senator, met “the highest hopes that the most enlightened founders of public broadcasting had for the medium.” Her previous project, a mini-series on the history of the circus, garnered a Writer’s Guild nomination and was on The Wall Street Journal’s list of the best television of 2018. Grimberg was the executive producer of The Abolitionists, which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and of the multi-platform mini-series We Shall Remain, which retold US history from a Native perspective. According to The Washington Post, the project “shifted the focus and the weight of history.” From 2003-2015, Grimberg was the senior producer of American Experience where, she played a key role in the origination, development, acquisition, and editorial oversight of more than 130 films.
Cyndee Readdean: Producer and Director
Cyndee Readdean (Producer and Director) is an award-winning director, producer, and writer. Her films have appeared on PBS, ABC, MSNBC and EPIX. Readdean directed and produced episode two of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning series Reconstruction: America after the Civil War and the Emmy-nominated film The FBI & the Panther. She served as the series producer on the four-hour series By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem. Her producer credits include Freedom Summer, the 2014 American Experience film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the George Foster Peabody Award; the Emmy-nominated Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; and the two-hour premiere episode of the OBAMA series. Readdean is a member of DGA, PGA and WGA.
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