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Arts & Entertainment

Film Screening: African American Families – African American Museum and Center for Education and Applied Arts

During a weekend of family activities, you are invited to watch four films selected for your viewing pleasure:

Sounder, is a 1972 film starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, Eric Hooks and Janet MacLachlan. It was adapted by Lonnie Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong and spawned a sequel, Part 2, Sounder (1976). It is the story of an African-American boy living with his sharecropper family. Although the family's difficulties increase when the father is imprisoned for stealing pork sausages and ham, the boy still hungers for an education. "Sounder", the dog's name, is the only character name used in the book. The author refers to the various characters by their relationship or their role in the story. The setting is also ambiguous. The author notes prisoners were hauled in "mule-drawn wagons", and the mention of chain gangs places an upper limit to the story of 1955 when the practice ended. The boy hears his father may be in Bartow and later Gilmer counties but the author does not specify where the boy lives. Since the boy is assured his father wouldn't be taken out of state, and because the ground freezes, we are left to assume the family lives in the counties around northern Georgia or northwestern South Carolina.

Crooklyn, is a 1994 semi-autobiographical film co-written and directed by Spike Lee. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York and the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant during the summer of 1973. Its primary focus is a young girl, Troy (played by Zelda Harris), and her family. Throughout the film, Troy learns life lessons through her four rowdy brothers, her loving but strict mother (Alfre Woodard), and her naive, struggling father (Delroy Lindo).

Ruby Bridges - A Real American Hero, is a 1998 made-for-television movie about the true story of the first black student to attend integrated schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1960. As a six-year old, Ruby Bridges was one of four black first graders, selected on the basis of test scores, to attend previously all-white public schools in New Orleans. Three students were sent to McDonogh 19, and Ruby was sent to William Frantz Public School by herself. Though somewhat formulaic, the movie is a representation of what was a difficult part of New Orleans' history, and is representative of what the southern United States was undergoing during this era. The film was nominated for several awards, including an NAACP Image award. The writer, Toni Ann Johnson, won the 1998 Humanities Prize for her teleplay. The film also won The Christopher Award.

A Raisin in the Sun In 1961, a film version of A Raisin in the Sun was released featuring its original Broadway cast of Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr. and John Fiedler. Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by Daniel Petrie. It was released by Columbia Pictures and Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and MacNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, the film received no Academy Award nominations, presumably to avoid racial tensions.

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