 |
|
Subscribe to the Free Newsletter, BTN E-News
|
|
|
|
News
>
Television
New PBS Doc on Zora Neale Hurston
posted on Apr 9, 2008
|
|
The
life of one of the most celebrated - and most controversial - voices of
the 1920s Harlem Renaissance is profiled when AMERICAN MASTERS "Zora
Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun" premieres Wednesday, April 9 at 9 p.m.
(ET) on PBS (check local listings).
Writer.
Cultural anthropologist. Chronicler of folk roots and ethnic
traditions. Daughter of a former slave. The first black graduate of
Barnard. Zora Neale Hurston attained unique success in many areas, but
during her lifetime her words and conclusions were often surrounded in
contention. Aflamboyant and gregarious woman, she was called
unpredictable, outrageous, bodacious. She collaborated with Langston
Hughes, was criticized by Richard Wright and ultimately died a pauper's
death in total obscurity. Resurrected by Alice Walker, who journeyed to
Hurston's gravesite in 1975 after reading a dog-eared copy of Their
Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston is now considered a lioness of African-
American literature. Her works Dust Tracks on a Road and Their Eyes
Were Watching God are essential reading in American classrooms today.
“Hurston
was truly a maverick,” said Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer
of AMERICAN MASTERS. “As a black woman in the early 20th century, her
accomplishments certainly defied the norm. She was unafraid to speak
her mind, even when her opinions alienated peers. That fearlessness,
along with her gift as an incredible storyteller, defines the legacy of
this
truly remarkable American woman.”
Hurston
grew up the mayor's daughter in Eatonville, Florida, the first
incorporated all- black town in America. Her books, plays and short
stories embraced small town black Southern life, where the oral
tradition of telling tales played out in high drama on front porches
and in back yards. Trained as an anthropologist, Hurston was prescient
in anticipating the importance of black culture in shaping modern and
popular American culture. Along with Alan Lomax during the Works
Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, she recorded folktales,
narratives and music from coastal Georgia into Florida and, later, in
the Caribbean and Central America. "Jump at the Sun" features original
footage she filmed during these expeditions.
Abootstrap Republican and conservative, Hurston became increasingly out
of step with contemporary black thought, moving to the right while most
of black America moved into the Democratic party. Focusing only on
what blacks accomplished without government assistance, she opposed
welfare and forced integration, believing special treatment was
demeaning. At the very height of Jim Crow, segregation and lynchings,
she refuted the notion that blacks were victims. White readers loved
her romantic depictions of the old South, but black intellectuals -
including race champion Richard Wright - trashed them for their blind
eye to racism.
In addition to Hurston's
original anthropological recordings, "Jump at the Sun" includes rare
archival film footage of the rural South, and interviews with Alice
Walker, Dorothy West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Maya Angelou, and
individuals who knew Hurston personally. The film also features
dramatic re-enactments of Hurston's 1943 radio interview by actress Kim
Brockington, who also portrays her in an acclaimed one-woman show
Zora.
“Everyone we talked to about Zora
described how she left a lasting impression, even in the briefest
conversation,” said producer Kristy Andersen. “If they didn't agree
with her, she'd always explain herself and they'd end up seeing her
point of view. So she may not have had the pulpit, but she was
remembered as a great orator. And it's her voice we're trying to
present in our film.”
AMERICAN MASTERS is
produced for PBS by Thirteen/WNETNew York. The film, a co-production
with Bay Bottom News in Tampa, is produced by Kristy Andersen and
directed by Sam Pollard. Narrator is S. Epatha Merkerson. Susan Lacy
is the creator and executive producer of AMERICAN MASTERS. To take
AMERICAN MASTERS beyond the television broadcast and further explore the
themes, stories, and personalities of masters past and present, the
companion Web site (www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters), created by
Thirteen/WNETNew York, offers interviews, essays, photographs,
outtakes, and other resources.
|
|
|
|
