The story, set in Kansas during the 1920's, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood. The family relationships and enmities, the fears, frustrations and ambitions of the black teenager in small-town America are explored with a strong statement about human values.
Direction
Gordon Parks' painterly eye turns Kansas into poetry.
Cinematography
Every frame looks like a museum photograph come alive.
Writing
Semi-autobiographical honesty that stings decades later.
Director
Gordon Parks
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was literally the first Hollywood studio film directed by a Black American. Parks financed it himself when studios balked, then Warner Bros. distributed. Without this, there's no Sweet Sweetback, no Do the Right Thing.
Parks shot the movie in his actual Kansas hometown, Fort Scott. The courthouse where Newt testifies? That's where 14-year-old Gordon Parks was once denied entry to a theater because of his race.
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