To Be Young, Gifted, And Black

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An experimental film with the title To Be Young, Gifted, And Black. It consists of three (3) reels of color 16mm acetate film with optical sound. The film, through narration and reenactments, chronicles the life of African American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. In the opening scene, several individuals, including actors/actresses Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Al Freeman, Jr. are seen seated at a table, taking turns reading excerpts from Lorraine Hansberry's work. The footage then cuts to a scene of a car driving on an empty road as a narrator describes Hansberry's experience of driving to Kentucky to visit her grandmother. The rest of the film continues in this manner, where reenactments of Lorraine Hansberry's life are interspersed with readings at the table, with each person at the table taking turns narrating.

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