Pursuing Light: The Bill Strickland Movie

Earlier this summer, Pursuing Light: The Bill Strickland Story, premiered as part of the Roxbury International Film Festival (RIFF). Bill Strickland was the inspiration for NECAT’s Founder & Board Chair Maarten Hemsley to open NECAT in Boston, and Bill’s belief that environment matters, beauty matters, and a person’s circumstances should never define the limits of their potential, continues to shape NECAT’s work today.

The film takes audiences inside NECAT’s culinary training program at the Suffolk County House of Correction and our Boston flagship. NECAT prepared a catered lunch for the Roxbury Film Festival premiere, and we hosted a red carpet screening at Roxbury Community College, which was attended by Bill Strickland. The event brought the NECAT community together and students, alumni, staff and supporters had the opportunity to meet Bill Strickland and ask Bill and Maarten questions as part of a panel discussion following the screening moderated by Maddrey Goode.

Pursuing Light is currently available on PBS, and the film was just awarded the Special Jury Prize from RIFF.  The film has also earned a Gold Telly Award for Best Social Impact Documentary and a Mid-Atlantic Region Emmy Award nomination in the Documentary category.