LOCATION: 0014W for film at 6PM / 0015W for pizza at 5:15PM
EVENT SPONSOR(S): Prison Ministry Enlivening Duke Divinity (PriMEDD) Student Group
EVENT DESCRIPTION: One night in 2003, ThereseBartholomew woke to the devastating news that her beloved younger brother Steve had been shot and killed. Debilitated by depression, facing bond hearings and trying to keep her new marriage afloat, Therese worked through her grief the only way she knew how: by setting out to meet the person behind Steve’s untimely death. Completed in 2012, The Final Gift follows the filmmaker’s seven-year pursuit to find meaning in her life after her brother’s murder. Her vision for the film grew out grew out of her desire to meet and understand the killer. In December 2010, that meeting occurred and was filmed in a South Carolina prison. The meeting was the first victim offender dialogue involving a violent crime in South Carolina’s adult system. The film addresses universal ideas of forgiveness, redemption, as well as the larger societal questions –how do we make peace with crime, support the victims, and restore our communities? The documentary shows the impact of violence on a family and one survivor’s path to peace and healing. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, calls The Final Gift “a remarkable journey…intimate in the telling, honest and brave and true.” TodayTherese holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice and is a frequent speaker on the subject of restorative justice; author of a memoir, Coffee Shop God (2009); and the first filmmaker in more than two decades to have brought cameras into a South Carolina prison. Therese lives in Charlotte, NC, with her husband Doug and children.
