Directed by Michelle Parkerson • 1980 • United States
This lively film is an unforgettable portrait of legendary jazz vocalist Betty Carter. Refusing to bow to commercial demands throughout her long career, Carter forged an alternative criteria for success—including founding her own recording company and raising her two sons as a single parent. Michelle Parkerson’s vivid snapshot captures Carter’s musical genius, her paradoxical relationship with the public, and her fierce dedication to personal and artistic independence.
Up Next in Celebrate Black History
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Remnants of the Watts Festival
Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1980 • United States
In 1972 and ’73, Ulysses Jenkins and the collective from Venice, California, known as Video Venice News documented the Watts Summer Festival—a major Black cultural event established in 1966 to commemorate the Watts Rebellion that jolted the Los ...
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Imagine the Sound
Directed by Ron Mann • 1981 • Canada
The first feature documentary by counterculture chronicler Ron Mann is an eloquent tribute to a group of highly celebrated artists who helped forge the once-controversial free jazz movement of the 1960s. Bringing together interviews with and performances by l...
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Losing Ground
Directed by Kathleen Collins • 1982 • United States
Starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn, Duane JonesOne of the first feature films directed by an African American woman, Kathleen Collins’s LOSING GROUND tells the story of a marriage between two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives...
