Directed by Gordon Parks • 1969 • United States
Starring Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans
The first film directed by an African American for a major American studio, THE LEARNING TREE is a personal triumph for director-producer-writer-composer Gordon Parks. Adapted from his own autobiographical novel, this deeply moving coming-of-age saga trace the journey of Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson), a young Black man growing up in small-town Kansas during the 1920s as he learns about love, fear, violent racial injustice, and, during an emotional murder trial, his own capacity for honor.
Directed by Gordon Parks • 1984 • United States
Starring Avery Brooks, Rhetta Greene, Petronia Paley
Gordon Parks directs the original film adaptation of abolitionist Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography “Twelve Years a Slave,” later the basis for the Academy Award–winning drama by Steve McQueen...
Directed by Gordon Parks • 1987 • United States
Gordon Parks turns his camera on his own life and art in this gorgeous, elegiac essay film, in which he interweaves his photography, music, and poetry into a lyrical self-portrait of a modern-day Renaissance man. Recounting his life’s journey—from ...
