Dare Not Walk Alone

Jeremy Dean

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About the filmmaker:

As the son of missionaries, Jeremy Dean spent his youth traveling the world. He was immersed in the jungles of Central and South America and Asia. He also traveled throughout Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. It was during this time that he was exposed to numerous cultures and the struggles of indigenous peoples. He had to learn to survive by dealing with tribal customs and local traditions that sparked an interest in finding connections between diverse parts of the world. Dean returned to the United States to finish his formal education, receiving his B.A. in Fine Arts from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida in 2002. In 2003, Dean attended the University of the Nations School of Digital Filmmaking in Kona, Hawaii where he wrote and directed the short film Vanity. Upon returning to St. Augustine, Jeremy moved into a largely impoverished African-American neighborhood. He learned of a great civil rights struggle that took place in that community 40 years earlier. He joined a local church and through his friendships began documenting the life stories of people who had led the way for freedom so many years ago. These stories became the basis for his first feature length film, Dare Not Walk Alone.

About the film:

On June 18, 1964 a white hotel owner in St. Augustine, Florida, poured acid in a swimming pool filled with black and white youth conducting a civil rights demonstration. Photographs of this horrific incident were on the front page of every major newspaper around the world and broke the filibuster in the Senate allowing President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law. With rarely seen news footage and revealing interviews, Dare Not Walk Alone uncovers the untold story of the St. Augusine movement that led to this historic legislation. But far from a history lesson, the film also looks at the aftermath of desegregation and the grim realities of life today on streets where those campaigns were fought, in a place that symbolizes what Barack Obama has called "the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our time." This film has been called the "Civil Rights film for the modern age" and in the end we see signs of hope and reconciliation as well as a challenge to take the next step forward.

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