California Newsreel (Firm)

Like many industrial centers, Corbin, Kentucky - birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken - attracted African-American sharecroppers looking for better-paying jobs during World War I. But when white veterans returned from the war, economic competition heated up, and on one October night in 1919 black citizens were literally railroaded out of town. The events of that night are reconstructed in this documentary with the help of newsreel clips and interviews...

In this program, one of the most astute observers of contemporary African American life discusses the value and difficulty of maintaining an African American identity in a world dominated by whites, urging viewers "to celebrate voraciously that which is yours. The breadth of her vision-from rural South to urban ghetto to the black middle class-is revealed as she reads from The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, and Mama Day, in the last of these...

Through the eyes of funeral director Isaiah Owens, the beauty and grace of African-American funerals are brought to life. Filmed at the Owens Funeral Home in Harlem and the rural South, Homegoings takes an up-close look at the rarely seen world of undertaking in the black community. It reveals the special status of undertakers; borne out of their permanence, their economic stability, and the necessities of the segregation period. Combining cinéma...

Margaret Walker has been described by Nikki Giovanni as the "most famous person nobody knows." Walker established one of the first Black Studies centers in the nation, was mentored by Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois, and her signature poem, "For My People," set a tone and a level of commitment to which African-American writers have been responding ever since. Narrated by Ruby Dee, this biographical film combines conversations with Walker, readings...

Heqing and Heping Fan are responsible for China's economic miracle - they and millions like them who reluctantly left their homes in the countryside for steady wages in the Cixi Industrial Zone. This program follows the Fans during their seven-day workweek and a rare, difficult trip home to visit the children they had to leave behind. The impact of what is essentially an instant industrial revolution has China coping with social and psychological...

Reporter Jonathan Stack is besieged in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, where president Charles Taylor has just been indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity by the United Nations. James Barbazon is traveling with the LURD rebel army, which has pledged to pillage the country until Taylor steps down. In documenting the end of Taylor's regime, the two journalists provide insights from both sides of the conflict to create an in-depth case study...

Across Africa, a belief in witchcraft continues to terrorize women. "Witches in Exile" tells the story of women in rural northern Ghana accused of witchcraft, and the role of witchcraft in. They are beaten and cast out, sent to special villages that serve as havens and mitigate the brutal side of the culture. "Witches in Exile" examines how belief in witchcraft operates in northern Ghana, the motives and sociology behind accusations, and the lives...

This program presents a biography of Richard Wright, author of Black Boy and Native Son, taking viewers from his impoverished childhood to his involvement in Chicago's Black Renaissance, the Communist Party, and the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, to his exile and death in Paris. Underwritten by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the film skillfully intercuts dramatic excerpts from Wright's work with historical footage and the recollections...

Being black, being a woman, and being a writer is just the most wonderful challenge. It's like having three eyes, three hearts, rather than one, says the author of The Color Purple in this profile, as she relives her journey from an impoverished childhood in rural Georgia to the peace and creativity of her present life in northern California. Alice Walker describes how the Civil Rights movement transformed her life, defines her concept of "womanism,"...

This powerful documentary exposes the practice of multinational banks of lending billions of dollars to brutal dictators throughout the world. Viewers are transported to Argentina, South Africa, and the Philippines for a first-hand look at how the incurred debt impacts daily life as essential social services are cut, resulting in restricted access to food, water, electricity, schooling, and health care. Human rights activists, including representatives...