#butterfly in the sky

[anyaboz]

Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high

Butterfly Persian Cat Room Guardian For auction!

[sp00ky-p00ky]

Reading Rainbow is something special I grew up with, and it absolutely fostered my love of reading ❤️

📚🌈

[thechanelmuse]

My Documentary Review

Butterfly in the Sky is like being embraced in a warm hug. It's not only a beautiful love letter to the iconic children's show, Reading Rainbow, and the faces in front (LeVar Burton) and behind the scenes; it's a special ode to a part of my childhood. I feel like I became a '90s kid again, eager to get my hands on a Scholastic book fair catalog just from watching this documentary. 

Reading Rainbow debuted at the right time in 1983. This documentary highlights it every step of the way. You have to meet kids where they are. Like James Naismith being tasked to create a new indoor game he called basketball to keep kids active during harsh winters, and after school programs being created to keep kids out of trouble "after school," Reading Rainbow garnered the attention of children and turned them into passionate readers by meeting them where their focus already was: the television.  

I will never stop saying that my beloved uncle (in my head), LeVar Burton, is truly the greatest teacher for my fellow Reading Rainbow classmates & I. He demonstrates not only the importance of reading, but the joy of it. Reading Rainbow would take viewers on a journey around the globe through books, witnessing different cultures without our feet stepping onto a plane. I'm still an avid reader to date. (Thanks, Unc 😊)

As shown in Butterfly in the Sky, the bittersweet part of all is that the show was stripped and denied from continuing the journey of molding young minds into eager readers, due to the interference of politicians and enacting that disastrous No Child Left Behind law. A combat against literacy to create a crisis and lack of care for the minds of children. 

Reading comprehension and proficiency in schools have declined for decades. The joy and magic of books isn't pushed to the forefront anymore in a world that chooses to mold young minds into short attention spans. Butterfly in the Sky may take us down memory lane, but also highlights that there is an untapped area that has been left open like a festering wound since the end of the iconic show.

Meet kids where they are.

[thyknife]

Watching the Butterfly in the Sky doc (about Reading Rainbow) that was just released recently on Netflix, and along with so much nostalgia and joy I’m realizing that

I am a product of a childhood with exposure to LeVar Burton. Mr Rogers. Bob Ross. Bill Nye. Sesame Street.

These were programs led by adults who spoke to children, not down to them. Spoke to them as people. Introduced us to community, culture, creativity. Had difficult but important conversations with us. They were people to learn from but they were also safe. There was so much empathy and emphasis placed on listening to children.

I feel like that is a lost commodity for youth these days…safe adults. Relationships with adults and with all variety and ages of people around us. Is that something that exists in childhood media anymore?

It makes me really sad to think of the loss. But I’m also really grateful I had it growing up.

[blackscarabfilmz]

Finally watching the Reading Rainbow documentary, & they're showing the post-Reading Rainbow roles of LeVar Burton

And if I had a nickel for every time LeVar Burton played a blind man, I'd have two nickels! Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

[surrexi]

shoutout to all my fellow 80s babies who, like me, saw levar burton tweet about there being a documentary about reading rainbow on netflix, metaphorically ran to watch it, and then started crying as soon as they started and it opened with levar burton sitting down reading from the book from his favorite episode of the show.

MY HEART IS SO FULL

[macmanx]

This was such a good documentary, it hit all the right nostalgic notes.

[meret118]

Now on Netflix. :)

[fuchsiaamorouscoils]

Had to revisit this after watching the 'Butterfly in the Sky" documentary

Seriously, this is genius.

[big-mayo-official]

Born too late to watch Reading Rainbow born too early to understand tick tock

[rmdarts]

@technowhatt 

[not-available-for-comment]

Welp, need to go find this documentary and have a little nostalgic weep apparently

(Documentary about LeVar Burton in Reading Rainbow called Butterfly in the Sky.)

[nonfilms]

2022 (the year of “Soylent Green”) began with festival cancellations and general malaise, but ended with an outpouring of great cinema. Here are the favorite films we were lucky enough to catch (mostly) in-person. Seek these out at your local theater or at your earliest convenience. 1. The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sangsoo) 2. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras) 3. The Civil Dead (Clay Tatum) 4. The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg) 5. Butterfly in the Sky (Bradford Thomason, Brett Whitcomb) 6. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou) 7. The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux, David Ernaux-Briot) 8. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg) 9. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 10. Ghost Amber (Tim Grabham) 11. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh) 12. Learn to Swim (Thyrone Tommy) 13. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook) 14. Vortex (Gaspar Noé) 15. Actual People (Kit Zauhar) 16. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells) 17. Funny Pages (Owen Kline) 18. Tár (Todd Field) 19. Cane Fire (Anthony Banua-Simon) 20. Quantum Cowboys (Geoff Marslett) 21. Happer’s Comet (Tyler Taormina) 22. Sr. (Chris Smith) 23. Fire of Love (Sara Dosa) 24. The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes) 25. Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman) 26. Descendant (Margaret Brown) 27. The Cathedral (Ricky D'Ambrose) 28. Eternal Spring (Jason Loftus) 29. Sam Now (Reed Harkness) 

[frenchiefitzhere]

y'all...

stop what you're doing and go watch the reading rainbow documentary

it's so pure

the labor of love these people created to inspire kids to read, to promote diversity, to be real and authentic

everything about they say about the show in the doc is true

I remember it sooooo well 😭♥️

[celiaelise]

Don't look at me I just watched the Reading Rainbow documentary...🥺🥺🥺

[criticarter]

Films Watched in 2024 - (34/???)

Butterfly in the Sky (2024) Bradford Thomason & Brett Whitcomb -- (4.5/5)

The show was on for 26 years; if you're reading this, you probably watched it, which means you will undoubtedly love this history that goes back to the pre-Roots days. My only note: it's sub-90 minutes, and I would have happily indulged in the LeVar mythos for at least another 30 minutes.

This is on Netflix now; hopefully you've already had it promoted on your main screen.