Gordon Parks: American Legend and Overlooked Filmmaker (feat. Craig Laurence Rice)
Episode 170
Only in a career as pioneering and storied as Gordon Parks‘ could an achievement like “first Black Hollywood director” fall into the second paragraph. Yet Parks’ significance as a photographer and renaissance man does often overshadow a film career that saw him direct “The Learning Tree” (1969), “Shaft” (1971), and “Leadbelly” (1976). This week, we revisit these too-forgotten cinematic portraits of Black life, joined by director/producer Craig Laurence Rice to discuss the years he spent with Parks making the Emmy-nominated documentary “Half Past Autumn” (2000).
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Be Reel is a movie reviewing & reappraising podcast hosted by Chance Solem-Pfeifer and Noah Ballard.
Each time out, we select three movies based around a genre and call up guests ranging from submarine captains to Oscar winners. Then, we rate the movies, weighing both technical quality and entertainment.
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