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Delve deeper into the work of Gordon Parks. Widely known for his work as a photographer, Parks was also a documentary filmmaker.
Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection.
Films by Gordon Parks: Harlem Family and other shorts, Saturday, December 14, 2:00 p.m.
Introduced by Philip Brookman, curator of the exhibition Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection, in person. In June 1961, Life magazine published Parks’s seminal photo essay Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty, a profile of one family living in a favela on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flavio is a portrait of that family’s eldest son and his daily struggle to survive (1964, 18 minutes). Followed by two other journalistic works: Diary of a Harlem Family (1968, 20 minutes) and The World of Piri Thomas (1968, 60 minutes). “Produced by NET (National Educational Television), these three films explore the lives of individuals separated by location — Brazil, Black Harlem, and Spanish Harlem — but are all unified by their impoverished environments and struggles to survive for a better future” — Anton Yu. Special thanks to the University of Indiana Libraries Moving Image Archive.
Films by Gordon Parks: Moments without Proper Names, Sunday, December 15, 2:00 p.m.
When asked to make an autobiographical film for public television, Gordon Parks constructed a cinematic collage of his music, still photographs, archival news footage, and narration drawn from his lifetime of creative work. A filmic poem, Moments without Proper Names explores themes of childhood, racism, Black self-determination, success, poverty, and war—all subjects that Parks dedicated his life to addressing with his art. (1988, 60 minutes) Preceded by Parks’s final film, Martin, a production of his ballet based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., made for KCET public television, Los Angeles. (1989, 55 minutes)
Free. Registration required.
