Directed by William Greaves • 1972 • United States
Best known for his avant-garde meta-documentary SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM, William Greaves was also the director of over one hundred documentary films, the majority focused on African American history, politics, and culture. NATIONTIME is a report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, Isaac Hayes, Richard Roundtree, and H. Carl McCall. Narrated by Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, the film was considered too militant for television broadcast at the time and has since circulated only in an edited fifty-eight-minute version. This new restoration from IndieCollect returns an essential cultural document to its original eighty-minute length and visual quality.
Up Next in Celebrate Black History
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Sounder
Directed by Martin Ritt • 1972 • United States
Starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin HooksCicely Tyson and Paul Winfield received Academy Award nominations for their powerful performances as the heads of a Black sharecropping family whose fierce love keeps them afloat as they struggle to ...
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A Dream Is What You Wake Up From
Directed by Larry Bullard and Carolyn Johnson • 1978 • United States
Through a bold mix of narrative and documentary techniques, directors Carolyn Johnson and Larry Bullard explore the experiences of Black families in American society. Shuffling between day-to-day scenes of life at home, school,...
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. . . But Then, She’s Betty Carter
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 co...