Kendall Moore, PhD

“The Good Radical” (37 minutes, 2009) is a documentary short that focuses on the life of Dr. Cynthia Hamilton and her relationship with her 90-year-old mother. Cynthia was one of the pioneering women of the Eco-feminism Movement as well as the Environmental Justice Movement. By the late 1980s, Cynthia was regarded as one of America’s top black intellectuals. But, in 1993, almost over night, her life changed. In August 1993--just days before she was about to depart for a new job, at the University of Rhode Island--she learned that she had Multiple Sclerosis. By the mid-nineties, Multiple Sclerosis had taken over her body. Her legs were rendered useless, and then she became relegated to a wheelchair, permanently. At the age of eighty, Evelyn, Cynthia's mother, retired from her job as a teacher's assistant in Los Angeles to help her daughter who was struggling with her illness. This film chronicles several years in their life together, and illustrates how families make selfless choices to help one another.