Container of (work): Learning tree (Motion picture) Container of (work): Diary of a Harlem family (Motion picture) Container of (work): World of Piri Thomas (Motion picture)
Notes:
Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar, Mira Waters, Joel Fluellen, Malcolm Atterbury, Richard Ward, Russell Thorson, Peggy Rea. Originally released as a motion picture in 1969. Based on the novel by Gordon Parks. Wide screen (2.35:1 aspect ratio). Title and credits from screen. Accompanied by 37 page booklet with photo-essay and excerpt from director's book. Special features: My father: Gordon Parks (1968 documentary made on the set of The learning tree, narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Gordon Park Sr. and members of the cast and crew); Revisiting The learning tree (2021 documentary on the making of the film and its artistry, featuring curator Rhea L. Combos and filmmakers Ina Diane Archer, Ernest R. Dickerson, and Nelson George); Gordon Parks; artist & activist (2021 conversation, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie between artist Hank Willis Thomas and art historian Deborah Willis); The moviemakers (featurette that shows Gordon Park on location for The learning tree);Two 1968 documentaries (Diary of a Harlem family and The world of Piri Thomas), with a video introduction featuring Rhea L. Combs and Nelson George; trailer -- in booklet: How it feels to be Black (1963 Life magazine photo-essay by Gordon Parks); excerpt from the director's 2005 book, A hungry heart: a memoir.
Summary:
Based on Parks' semi-autobiographical novel, the film follows the journey of Newt Winger, a teenage descendant of Exodusters growing up in rural Kansas in the 1920s, as he experiences the bittersweet flowering of first love, finds his relationship with a close friend tested, and navigates the injustices embedded within a racist legal and educational system. Exquisitely capturing the bucolic splendor of its heartland setting, this landmark film tempers nostalgia with an incisive understanding of the harsh realities, hard-won lessons, and often wrenching moral choices that shape the road to self-determination of the young Black man at its center.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.