“THE WITHERSPOON-JACKSON NEIGHBORHOOD”: Welcome Weekend in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood was the impetus for a film being shown at this year’s Nassau Film Festival, to be held May 20 and 21 at the Princeton Garden Theatre, or virtually May 22 through June 15. The festival, run by Lew Goldstein, is one of a handful for short films. (Film still courtesy of Nick Kochmann and Patrick McDonald)
By Wendy Greenberg
Having grown up in Trenton and Princeton, Rebecca Pack Burr returned to Princeton from the South to attend to her mother. That’s when she met a Trenton High School student — a caregiver’s daughter — who described the deteriorating physical conditions at the old high school.
Dismayed at the high school’s conditions, and the political process, Burr, who has been a filmmaker, video producer, and journalist, decided to document the sometimes contentious process that resulted in a new high school. The film, We Deserve Better; The Kids are Alright, takes the audience through the political process and closes at opening day of the new Trenton Central High School.
The documentary film is an entrant in the Nassau Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday, May 20 and 21.