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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:15,083 BBC NARRATOR: He is a famous photographer, 4 00:00:15,166 --> 00:00:18,125 the only Negro cameraman on LIFE magazine. 5 00:00:18,208 --> 00:00:21,875 He's a composer, an author, and a film director. 6 00:00:21,958 --> 00:00:24,416 Among his friends in the world of liberal arts, 7 00:00:24,500 --> 00:00:27,708 he's a success in his own right, accepted on that basis. 8 00:00:29,166 --> 00:00:31,375 But he is still a Negro living in America. 9 00:00:31,458 --> 00:00:33,166 Not every White American has heard 10 00:00:33,250 --> 00:00:35,166 of the famous Gordon Parks. 11 00:00:35,250 --> 00:00:38,708 When I walked into LIFE magazine, that uh, 12 00:00:38,791 --> 00:00:39,958 18 years ago... 13 00:00:41,041 --> 00:00:42,916 You see, a Negro-- Put it like this. 14 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,125 A Negro builds up a double defense. 15 00:00:45,208 --> 00:00:47,625 When you are a kid, you have to prepare 16 00:00:47,708 --> 00:00:50,416 to be able to do much more than a White boy, 17 00:00:50,500 --> 00:00:53,291 so that if the time comes 18 00:00:53,375 --> 00:00:56,208 where your talent is pitted against a White man, 19 00:00:56,291 --> 00:00:59,166 you will get the nod because they can't afford to lose you. 20 00:01:00,958 --> 00:01:03,125 The term, "living in a White man's world" 21 00:01:03,208 --> 00:01:05,083 is one I don't particularly like. 22 00:01:05,166 --> 00:01:08,083 A lot of Negroes use it, a lot of Whites use it. 23 00:01:08,166 --> 00:01:10,583 But I consider this my world. 24 00:01:10,666 --> 00:01:15,750 ♪ ("THIS WORLD" BY CHARLES BRADLEY PLAYING) ♪ 25 00:01:15,833 --> 00:01:21,291 ♪ This world Is going up in flames ♪ 26 00:01:21,375 --> 00:01:25,375 ♪ And nobody Wanna take the blame ♪ 27 00:01:25,458 --> 00:01:29,000 BLM PROTESTERS: Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot! 28 00:01:29,083 --> 00:01:32,500 ♪ Don't tell me How to live my life ♪ 29 00:01:32,583 --> 00:01:37,666 ♪ When you Never felt the pain ♪ 30 00:01:39,583 --> 00:01:43,833 ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ 31 00:01:43,916 --> 00:01:49,333 ♪ Ooh! They don't hear me cry ♪ 32 00:01:49,416 --> 00:01:56,791 ♪ Ooh! Oh, it's killing me ♪ 33 00:01:56,875 --> 00:01:59,791 ♪ A better world, oh baby! ♪ 34 00:01:59,875 --> 00:02:04,333 ♪ Gotta make it baby Gotta make it right ♪ 35 00:02:04,416 --> 00:02:06,500 ♪ Baby! Oh! ♪ 36 00:02:11,625 --> 00:02:13,375 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 37 00:02:14,583 --> 00:02:15,791 (POLICE SIREN WAILING) 38 00:02:15,875 --> 00:02:17,791 COACH: Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. 39 00:02:21,083 --> 00:02:24,541 DEVIN ALLEN: I only can imagine if Gordon Parks was alive now. 40 00:02:24,625 --> 00:02:26,041 What he would be able to do. 41 00:02:26,125 --> 00:02:28,000 You know, to talk about these serious issues. 42 00:02:29,916 --> 00:02:32,833 Always something going on around here. (CHUCKLES) 43 00:02:35,375 --> 00:02:36,541 There you go, shorty. 44 00:02:37,666 --> 00:02:40,125 I had to make a lot of mistakes, you know, 45 00:02:40,208 --> 00:02:41,916 to get to where I am now. 46 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:43,791 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪ 47 00:02:56,666 --> 00:02:59,791 ALLEN: I was hustling, and I was in the streets. 48 00:03:01,916 --> 00:03:03,833 I lost like my first friend at like 16, 17, 49 00:03:03,916 --> 00:03:06,708 due to gun violence, and that kind of, like, changed my world. 50 00:03:07,666 --> 00:03:09,000 I wanted to really pursue art. 51 00:03:09,083 --> 00:03:10,291 So I would go to Barnes & Noble, 52 00:03:10,375 --> 00:03:12,625 and just, like, have all these photography books out. 53 00:03:12,708 --> 00:03:14,750 And I just would, like, sit and look at Gordon's work, 54 00:03:14,833 --> 00:03:16,875 if it was him shooting his stuff in Harlem. 55 00:03:21,708 --> 00:03:24,000 The story, the gang-- 56 00:03:24,083 --> 00:03:25,916 that's still going on to this day. 57 00:03:30,458 --> 00:03:33,208 I was like, "So I can shoot all these things too. 58 00:03:33,291 --> 00:03:34,625 I'ma get me a camera." 59 00:03:37,208 --> 00:03:39,583 So it started off as just a personal journey... 60 00:03:39,666 --> 00:03:41,208 (PROTESTORS CHANTING) 61 00:03:41,291 --> 00:03:43,625 ...but as I got deep into my career, 62 00:03:43,708 --> 00:03:45,125 that's when I really started realizing 63 00:03:45,208 --> 00:03:48,250 how powerful an image can be. 64 00:03:49,958 --> 00:03:51,916 'Cause my career is literally built on 65 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:53,416 the broken back of Freddie Gray. 66 00:03:53,500 --> 00:03:55,541 REPORTER: The 25-year-old falls into a coma 67 00:03:55,625 --> 00:03:57,916 at shock trauma and dies seven days later. 68 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,416 PROTESTERS: Freddie! Freddie! Freddie! 69 00:04:00,500 --> 00:04:02,083 ALLEN: I knew how my city was, 70 00:04:02,166 --> 00:04:04,750 and the energy that was, like, kinda vibrating. 71 00:04:04,833 --> 00:04:06,083 So I just took to the streets. 72 00:04:06,166 --> 00:04:09,750 PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace! No racist police! 73 00:04:09,833 --> 00:04:12,208 ALLEN: When everything really hit the fan 74 00:04:12,291 --> 00:04:14,041 is when we were down in Camden Yards, 75 00:04:14,125 --> 00:04:15,666 and all the police were worried about the fact 76 00:04:15,750 --> 00:04:17,000 that we had an Orioles game. 77 00:04:17,083 --> 00:04:20,500 Some fans at the bars were actually calling us the N-word, 78 00:04:20,583 --> 00:04:22,333 they were calling us monkeys. 79 00:04:22,416 --> 00:04:24,250 And that's what actually started everything. 80 00:04:24,333 --> 00:04:26,041 (CROWD SCREAMING) 81 00:04:26,125 --> 00:04:27,375 (GLASS SMASHING) 82 00:04:27,458 --> 00:04:30,125 ALLEN: And this guy runs past, and he throws something, 83 00:04:30,208 --> 00:04:32,458 and I just snapped the picture. I don't think nothing of it. 84 00:04:33,708 --> 00:04:35,416 I remember just uploading the image 85 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:37,958 while all of this was going on, saying, "We're sick and tired." 86 00:04:40,625 --> 00:04:42,166 And around that time, I get like 87 00:04:42,250 --> 00:04:44,791 a blocked call come through, and he is like, 88 00:04:44,875 --> 00:04:46,458 "This is Olivier from TIME magazine. 89 00:04:46,541 --> 00:04:48,791 I wanted to talk to Devin Allen about his work in Baltimore. 90 00:04:48,875 --> 00:04:50,208 What publication are you with?" 91 00:04:50,291 --> 00:04:52,000 I'm like, "I'm not with no publication." 92 00:04:53,250 --> 00:04:55,583 And I told them my story, and we did a blog from it. 93 00:04:57,291 --> 00:05:00,125 I go to sleep. I wake up, 94 00:05:00,208 --> 00:05:03,541 and I just see all these, like, tweets. And it says, 95 00:05:03,625 --> 00:05:05,416 "Amateur photographer from West Baltimore 96 00:05:05,500 --> 00:05:07,541 snags the cover of TIME magazine." 97 00:05:07,625 --> 00:05:11,666 And I just burst out in tears, and I call my mother, 98 00:05:11,750 --> 00:05:13,166 and she burst out in tears, 99 00:05:13,250 --> 00:05:14,833 and my whole family is just crying. 100 00:05:18,958 --> 00:05:21,750 For the first time, I understood what Gordon was talking about, 101 00:05:21,833 --> 00:05:24,000 that the camera is a real weapon, 102 00:05:24,083 --> 00:05:26,875 and I realized how powerful I am with a camera in my hand. 103 00:05:28,375 --> 00:05:31,166 ♪ (SOFT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 104 00:05:32,333 --> 00:05:34,250 GORDON PARKS: I might have turned eventually 105 00:05:34,333 --> 00:05:38,166 to the gun or the knife as a weapon to survive, 106 00:05:38,250 --> 00:05:40,958 but by then I had chosen the camera. 107 00:05:42,833 --> 00:05:46,916 Photography was the way in which I could express my own feelings 108 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,291 about racism in America, 109 00:05:50,458 --> 00:05:52,833 about the downtrodden. 110 00:05:52,916 --> 00:05:54,750 And somehow or another, I might 111 00:05:54,833 --> 00:05:56,791 transcend my own experience. 112 00:05:59,583 --> 00:06:02,958 I live off of my emotions, perhaps, you know. 113 00:06:03,041 --> 00:06:05,458 And so I had turned those emotions 114 00:06:05,541 --> 00:06:10,416 into some mercenary thing, by which I could survive. 115 00:06:10,500 --> 00:06:12,583 ♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 116 00:06:14,625 --> 00:06:17,250 BRYAN STEVENSON: What distinguishes Gordon Parks 117 00:06:17,333 --> 00:06:20,291 from a lot of other artists is that he had 118 00:06:20,375 --> 00:06:22,916 a quintessentially authentic Black experience. 119 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,166 I mean, he was the child of Black people 120 00:06:25,250 --> 00:06:27,000 who had fled enslavement. 121 00:06:29,250 --> 00:06:31,625 Growing up in Kansas, 122 00:06:31,708 --> 00:06:34,625 to be proximate to lynching and racial terrorism, 123 00:06:34,708 --> 00:06:36,458 to understand the weight 124 00:06:36,541 --> 00:06:39,125 that people of color felt in these spaces 125 00:06:39,208 --> 00:06:42,083 where you had to basically be two people. 126 00:06:42,166 --> 00:06:44,458 One person around White people 127 00:06:44,541 --> 00:06:46,333 that would keep you safe, 128 00:06:46,416 --> 00:06:48,583 and another person with your family. 129 00:06:48,666 --> 00:06:52,583 I think just gave him an insight to the Black narrative. 130 00:06:52,666 --> 00:06:56,666 (INDISTINCT CHATTER) 131 00:06:56,750 --> 00:06:58,583 Boy, they sure are having a good ol' time 132 00:06:58,666 --> 00:07:00,000 over there at that crap game. 133 00:07:00,083 --> 00:07:03,666 PARKS: Kansas itself offered you freedom on one hand, 134 00:07:03,750 --> 00:07:06,583 and on the other hand, it was trying to take it away from you. 135 00:07:06,666 --> 00:07:09,750 Tuck! Tuck! Kirky's coming! 136 00:07:09,833 --> 00:07:12,250 ♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 137 00:07:12,791 --> 00:07:14,250 Run, Tuck, run! 138 00:07:16,583 --> 00:07:18,375 KIRKY: Stop damn it, I'll shoot! 139 00:07:23,041 --> 00:07:24,083 (GUNSHOT) 140 00:07:24,166 --> 00:07:26,041 ♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 141 00:07:26,125 --> 00:07:28,250 PARKS: Four or five of my closest friends 142 00:07:28,333 --> 00:07:30,333 had died through violence. 143 00:07:30,416 --> 00:07:32,291 About four people were shot to death. 144 00:07:34,250 --> 00:07:36,291 My mother wanted me out of there. 145 00:07:36,375 --> 00:07:39,125 She knew it was a dangerous place for me to live. 146 00:07:42,833 --> 00:07:46,541 PHILIP BROOKMAN: Gordon lived a wandering life as a young person. 147 00:07:46,625 --> 00:07:48,500 He gets a job as a waiter 148 00:07:48,583 --> 00:07:50,666 on the dining car of the Northern Pacific. 149 00:07:52,083 --> 00:07:54,041 PARKS: I had great expectations, you know. 150 00:07:54,125 --> 00:07:56,250 I thought I was going to conquer a new world. 151 00:07:56,333 --> 00:07:59,625 He had to go through getting kicked off of the trains. 152 00:07:59,708 --> 00:08:02,125 He had to go through hanging out with the bums. 153 00:08:02,208 --> 00:08:04,875 He had to go through all these different forms of life, 154 00:08:04,958 --> 00:08:06,916 but when you're traveling around the world 155 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,125 and you're in a place where you've never been before, 156 00:08:09,208 --> 00:08:11,708 the first thing that you have to do is observe. 157 00:08:13,541 --> 00:08:14,833 And the more you observe, 158 00:08:14,916 --> 00:08:17,375 the more you understand what's going on around you. 159 00:08:19,083 --> 00:08:21,916 JAMEL SHABAZZ: He would ride the trains and pick up the magazines, 160 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,083 and look at imagery and be informed behind that. 161 00:08:24,166 --> 00:08:26,166 Having an opportunity to go to different cities, 162 00:08:26,250 --> 00:08:28,166 under some really harsh conditions, 163 00:08:28,250 --> 00:08:30,666 just to survive and being amongst the filth 164 00:08:30,750 --> 00:08:33,416 and the drunkenness and addiction. 165 00:08:33,500 --> 00:08:35,583 Luckily for him, he was able to get that camera. 166 00:08:40,958 --> 00:08:42,541 BROOKMAN: He's teaching himself photography 167 00:08:42,625 --> 00:08:45,250 by reading, uh, training manuals. 168 00:08:45,333 --> 00:08:48,041 His studio was the kitchen of his home, 169 00:08:48,125 --> 00:08:51,541 and his lights were made from tin cans. 170 00:08:51,625 --> 00:08:53,500 That's how Gordon Parks started out, you know, 171 00:08:53,583 --> 00:08:56,500 making pictures and then selling them to the newspaper. 172 00:08:57,791 --> 00:08:59,083 ♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 173 00:08:59,166 --> 00:09:01,333 STEVENSON: When Black photographers began 174 00:09:01,416 --> 00:09:03,333 capturing African American life, 175 00:09:03,416 --> 00:09:05,083 it created a new relationship 176 00:09:05,166 --> 00:09:08,083 for Black people to their own identity. 177 00:09:09,416 --> 00:09:14,291 When Gordon Parks came along, he found value and interest 178 00:09:14,375 --> 00:09:17,916 and art in the lives of ordinary people. 179 00:09:20,208 --> 00:09:22,125 AVA DUVERNAY: At a time and in a society 180 00:09:22,208 --> 00:09:24,916 where Black people were told far too often 181 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,958 that we're criminals, that we're ugly, 182 00:09:28,041 --> 00:09:29,333 that we're less worthy 183 00:09:29,416 --> 00:09:32,250 to have the spotlight on us for any reason, 184 00:09:32,333 --> 00:09:37,250 Gordon put a lens and a light on us for ourselves. 185 00:09:37,333 --> 00:09:39,958 And allowed us to see the elegance of the lives 186 00:09:40,041 --> 00:09:41,875 that we live and the places where we are. 187 00:09:43,708 --> 00:09:45,625 ♪ (JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 188 00:09:50,583 --> 00:09:54,250 BROOKMAN: In January 1942, Parks receives word 189 00:09:54,333 --> 00:09:56,000 that he's been awarded a fellowship 190 00:09:56,750 --> 00:09:58,375 to work for a year at 191 00:09:58,458 --> 00:10:01,833 the Farm Security Administration in Washington. 192 00:10:01,916 --> 00:10:06,333 The purpose of the FSA was to resettle American farmers 193 00:10:06,416 --> 00:10:09,208 who had lost their land during the Dust Bowl. 194 00:10:09,291 --> 00:10:13,083 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 195 00:10:13,166 --> 00:10:16,791 BROOKMAN: It set up a unit of photographers and filmmakers 196 00:10:16,875 --> 00:10:19,333 who could help to document what they were doing. 197 00:10:19,416 --> 00:10:23,041 It was run by a man by the name of Roy Stryker. 198 00:10:27,250 --> 00:10:29,083 MICHAL RAZ-RUSSO: Many of the photographers who shot for 199 00:10:29,166 --> 00:10:32,541 the Farm Security Administration become heroes for Gordon Parks, 200 00:10:32,625 --> 00:10:35,458 and he's really interested in the process and their approach. 201 00:10:37,625 --> 00:10:39,500 And so his idea is, "Let me go out there, 202 00:10:39,583 --> 00:10:41,791 and let me mentor under Roy Stryker." 203 00:10:46,833 --> 00:10:48,333 PARKS: He was the one who taught me 204 00:10:48,416 --> 00:10:49,958 that when you are doing a story, 205 00:10:50,041 --> 00:10:51,583 it's not for you to accept the people, 206 00:10:51,666 --> 00:10:52,791 but the people to accept you. 207 00:10:52,875 --> 00:10:56,000 Because you are going into their presence, 208 00:10:56,083 --> 00:10:58,291 asking them to help you. 209 00:10:58,375 --> 00:11:01,416 BROOKMAN: Roy Stryker actually introduces Gordon Parks 210 00:11:01,500 --> 00:11:02,666 to the cleaning woman, 211 00:11:02,750 --> 00:11:06,125 who cleans the offices in the Agriculture Department. 212 00:11:09,083 --> 00:11:10,875 A woman by the name of Ella Watson. 213 00:11:12,166 --> 00:11:14,208 He photographs her at work, 214 00:11:14,291 --> 00:11:16,833 sweeping floors, cleaning the offices. 215 00:11:18,750 --> 00:11:21,333 In one office, there's an American flag 216 00:11:21,416 --> 00:11:22,583 hanging on the wall. 217 00:11:25,750 --> 00:11:27,625 LONNIE BUNCH: Here is a woman 218 00:11:27,708 --> 00:11:30,375 who in some ways is the backbone of America... 219 00:11:32,583 --> 00:11:35,208 yet she is standing in front of a flag, 220 00:11:35,291 --> 00:11:38,208 in front of an America that didn't believe in her. 221 00:11:40,958 --> 00:11:43,125 SPIKE LEE: Gordon Parks is one of my heroes. 222 00:11:46,125 --> 00:11:47,500 Ella Watson. 223 00:11:47,583 --> 00:11:50,500 This photograph, to me, talks about 224 00:11:50,583 --> 00:11:51,958 how our ancestors, 225 00:11:53,125 --> 00:11:55,625 from 1619, 226 00:11:55,708 --> 00:11:59,958 when that first slave ship hit Jamestown, Virginia. 227 00:12:00,041 --> 00:12:03,208 We have fought and died for this country. 228 00:12:03,291 --> 00:12:08,500 We have loved this country, but the love has not been returned. 229 00:12:08,583 --> 00:12:11,166 That's what this photograph says to me. 230 00:12:13,708 --> 00:12:16,791 Then I thought of Grant Wood and American Gothic. 231 00:12:18,916 --> 00:12:20,625 I said, "Take this broom in one hand, 232 00:12:20,708 --> 00:12:22,125 take this mop in the other, 233 00:12:22,208 --> 00:12:24,125 and stand before that American flag." 234 00:12:26,166 --> 00:12:27,250 I blew it up the next morning, 235 00:12:27,333 --> 00:12:29,250 put it on Stryker's desk, and he nearly fainted. 236 00:12:29,333 --> 00:12:31,791 He said, "Oh my God, you're going to get us all fired." 237 00:12:35,250 --> 00:12:38,583 LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER: She's standing in front of the American flag... 238 00:12:40,041 --> 00:12:42,666 in a society, a nation, and a government 239 00:12:42,750 --> 00:12:48,541 that doesn't recognize her as a full human being. 240 00:12:48,625 --> 00:12:52,958 PARKS: I made a very innocent, bold, outrageous statement. 241 00:12:57,541 --> 00:13:00,583 FRAZIER: You know, it reminds me of the Malcolm X quote, 242 00:13:00,666 --> 00:13:02,791 "The most hated, the most mistreated, 243 00:13:02,875 --> 00:13:06,833 and the most abused person in America is the Black woman." 244 00:13:06,916 --> 00:13:09,541 There it is right there, written on her face. 245 00:13:11,041 --> 00:13:14,166 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC FADES) ♪ 246 00:13:14,250 --> 00:13:16,541 BROOKMAN: Parks continues to photograph Ella Watson. 247 00:13:16,625 --> 00:13:18,166 ♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYS) ♪ 248 00:13:18,250 --> 00:13:21,125 BROOKMAN: He worked with her for a period of weeks. 249 00:13:21,208 --> 00:13:24,875 He photographs her at church, he photographs her neighborhood. 250 00:13:24,958 --> 00:13:26,708 There is one amazing photograph 251 00:13:26,791 --> 00:13:28,916 that he makes of Ella Watson at home. 252 00:13:30,291 --> 00:13:32,208 The photograph is divided right down the middle, 253 00:13:32,291 --> 00:13:34,958 and you see Ella Watson on the left side, 254 00:13:35,041 --> 00:13:37,916 helping to feed one of the young kids. 255 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,666 On the right side of the picture there is a mirror, 256 00:13:40,750 --> 00:13:44,208 and her adopted daughter is reflected in the mirror. 257 00:13:45,583 --> 00:13:47,666 You can see, also a photograph, 258 00:13:47,750 --> 00:13:51,083 it's a photograph of Ella Watson's parents. 259 00:13:51,166 --> 00:13:54,166 So you're actually seeing four generations of this family, 260 00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:55,541 all in one photograph 261 00:13:55,625 --> 00:13:58,541 that's composed in a very sophisticated way. 262 00:14:01,125 --> 00:14:03,250 RAZ-RUSSO: That's the turning point for him. 263 00:14:03,333 --> 00:14:05,708 It's there, through this project, 264 00:14:05,791 --> 00:14:08,125 that he understands how important it is 265 00:14:08,208 --> 00:14:10,000 to get to know his subject. 266 00:14:10,083 --> 00:14:12,416 To really try and depict the humanity 267 00:14:12,500 --> 00:14:14,000 of the subjects that he is photographing. 268 00:14:14,083 --> 00:14:17,541 ♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 269 00:14:25,541 --> 00:14:28,291 -(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) -(BIRDS CHIRPING) 270 00:14:29,583 --> 00:14:31,375 MR. SMILEY: This is his way of holding on to me, 271 00:14:31,458 --> 00:14:34,166 and I don't spend enough time with him. (CHUCKLES) 272 00:14:35,541 --> 00:14:38,750 He says, "I got you now, can't go nowhere." (CHUCKLES) 273 00:14:38,833 --> 00:14:41,291 -FRAZIER: "What do you mean?" -MR. SMILEY: Yeah, what you been doing? 274 00:14:41,375 --> 00:14:43,250 Leave me out here all by myself. 275 00:14:44,208 --> 00:14:46,625 FRAZIER: Look this way, Mr. Smiley. 276 00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:50,583 When I read Gordon's autobiography, A Choice of Weapons, 277 00:14:50,666 --> 00:14:52,833 I mean, everything that he went through 278 00:14:52,916 --> 00:14:56,750 to define himself on his own terms 279 00:14:56,833 --> 00:14:58,750 and to say with the camera, 280 00:14:58,833 --> 00:15:01,416 "This is how I am going to make my mark and change 281 00:15:01,500 --> 00:15:04,916 all the things that I don't like about America, right." 282 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,625 It stays with me because I grew up 283 00:15:08,708 --> 00:15:13,000 living in a dilapidated house next to the railroad 284 00:15:13,083 --> 00:15:15,250 in an industrial small town, 285 00:15:15,333 --> 00:15:19,000 watching everyone kind of disappear and the city shrink 286 00:15:19,083 --> 00:15:22,625 and have all our basic human rights stripped from us. 287 00:15:22,708 --> 00:15:25,208 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 288 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:34,166 FRAZIER: I found the ability to cope and move forward through art. 289 00:15:34,250 --> 00:15:36,708 Right, it started out being drawings and paintings 290 00:15:36,791 --> 00:15:39,083 and then eventually moving into photography. 291 00:15:44,875 --> 00:15:47,750 Those photographs are what enabled me 292 00:15:47,833 --> 00:15:49,666 to save my own life. 293 00:15:59,125 --> 00:16:03,791 In 2016, I was commissioned by ELLE magazine 294 00:16:03,875 --> 00:16:08,208 and Hearst Corporation to produce a photo essay 295 00:16:08,291 --> 00:16:10,541 about the Flint water crisis. 296 00:16:10,625 --> 00:16:13,750 REPORTER 1: It's not safe to drink the water in Flint, Michigan. 297 00:16:13,833 --> 00:16:16,375 REPORTER 2: Flint disconnected its water supply through Detroit 298 00:16:16,458 --> 00:16:19,250 and began drawing water from the Flint River instead. 299 00:16:19,333 --> 00:16:23,000 REPORTER 3: Highly corrosive river water flowed through the city's lead pipes, 300 00:16:23,083 --> 00:16:26,458 leaching lead into the water supply. 301 00:16:26,541 --> 00:16:29,833 FRAZIER: That's how Shea Cobb and I met 302 00:16:29,916 --> 00:16:33,666 and how I've built this very robust friendship. 303 00:16:33,750 --> 00:16:37,750 It was for several months that I was photographing Shea 304 00:16:37,833 --> 00:16:39,875 and her eight-year-old daughter, Zion. 305 00:16:42,333 --> 00:16:45,916 And Shea was faced with having to decide 306 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,458 to protect her daughter's health, 307 00:16:48,541 --> 00:16:52,500 and the issue with lead is, in an eight-year-old child, 308 00:16:52,583 --> 00:16:54,958 it's going to leach into their brain. 309 00:16:56,333 --> 00:16:57,708 It couldn't have been more than a week 310 00:16:57,791 --> 00:17:00,833 that I was photographing Shea in Flint. 311 00:17:00,916 --> 00:17:02,958 She said her father sent her something. 312 00:17:04,541 --> 00:17:07,416 And it's a picture of her at the age of 12, 313 00:17:07,500 --> 00:17:11,375 taking her first sip of water from a freshwater spring 314 00:17:11,458 --> 00:17:15,375 on the land where her father lives in Mississippi, 315 00:17:16,750 --> 00:17:18,375 with a message that said, 316 00:17:18,458 --> 00:17:21,083 "This water won't kill you. Come home." 317 00:17:22,833 --> 00:17:26,541 And so she makes the decision to leave her mother 318 00:17:26,625 --> 00:17:31,083 and make the reverse migration back to the South, 319 00:17:31,166 --> 00:17:32,791 where her father lives, 320 00:17:32,875 --> 00:17:36,666 on land that his family has always owned. 321 00:17:36,750 --> 00:17:39,333 Oh wow! He's gotten so much bigger. 322 00:17:39,416 --> 00:17:42,791 This is the one that I was seeing that was a baby? 323 00:17:42,875 --> 00:17:47,041 When I started doing karate moves, like to practice, he thinks he can do it, 324 00:17:47,125 --> 00:17:50,333 so he holds onto stuff and then fell flat on his butt. 325 00:17:50,416 --> 00:17:52,041 FRAZIER: So I returned to Mississippi 326 00:17:52,125 --> 00:17:53,916 to continue a body of work 327 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,708 that I'm committed to with Shea Cobb, 328 00:17:57,791 --> 00:18:01,375 her daughter Zion, who's now 12, 329 00:18:01,458 --> 00:18:06,125 and Shea's father, Mr. Doug Smiley. 330 00:18:07,916 --> 00:18:11,416 MR. SMILEY: Thank you, Lord, for this food and all of our many blessings. 331 00:18:11,500 --> 00:18:14,833 -Thank you. -ALL: Amen. 332 00:18:14,916 --> 00:18:19,625 FRAZIER: And so it was a tumultuous time to enter into Shea's life, 333 00:18:19,708 --> 00:18:21,625 and she didn't have to trust me, 334 00:18:21,708 --> 00:18:24,166 but I think it goes back to Gordon. 335 00:18:24,250 --> 00:18:26,791 You need to be present 336 00:18:26,875 --> 00:18:30,541 and talk to people for as long as it takes. 337 00:18:32,375 --> 00:18:36,625 I get to know the person that is the main subject of the work, 338 00:18:36,708 --> 00:18:39,291 and I learn to empathize... 339 00:18:40,500 --> 00:18:45,250 and also allow their feelings to guide me through 340 00:18:45,333 --> 00:18:47,333 the landscape that they inhabit. 341 00:18:49,208 --> 00:18:51,791 This was, you know, a real lesson 342 00:18:51,875 --> 00:18:53,291 about not only empathizing 343 00:18:53,375 --> 00:18:57,333 but listening and taking the instructions and allowing the images 344 00:18:57,416 --> 00:18:59,083 to be authored by someone else. 345 00:18:59,166 --> 00:19:01,583 Like, that's a real collaboration. 346 00:19:01,666 --> 00:19:04,083 And I also knew to take those cues 347 00:19:04,166 --> 00:19:08,958 because I had been closely looking at Ralph Ellison 348 00:19:09,041 --> 00:19:13,666 and Gordon Parks's collaboration in the late '40s. 349 00:19:13,750 --> 00:19:18,541 ♪ (UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 350 00:19:18,625 --> 00:19:21,541 PARKS: Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man. 351 00:19:21,625 --> 00:19:25,958 I did a story on the need of psychiatric treatment in Harlem. 352 00:19:31,375 --> 00:19:33,833 Ellison actually writes a manifesto 353 00:19:33,916 --> 00:19:36,750 for Gordon Parks titled the "Pictorial Problem." 354 00:19:38,583 --> 00:19:41,041 He wants the photographs to function 355 00:19:41,125 --> 00:19:43,833 as both document and symbol. 356 00:19:43,916 --> 00:19:47,208 And this phrase becomes a kind of guiding principle 357 00:19:47,291 --> 00:19:49,208 for Gordon Parks's entire career. 358 00:19:53,125 --> 00:19:57,666 This idea that photographs can transcend what is just being depicted. 359 00:19:59,750 --> 00:20:04,750 FRAZIER: Ellison details a list of certain kinds of images 360 00:20:04,833 --> 00:20:07,250 that he would like Parks to make. 361 00:20:09,166 --> 00:20:13,916 Images that psychologically impact the viewer. 362 00:20:16,541 --> 00:20:17,625 The feeling of a place 363 00:20:17,708 --> 00:20:21,333 and the feeling of being robbed and dehumanized... 364 00:20:23,166 --> 00:20:26,500 in an undulating poetic visual way. 365 00:20:29,875 --> 00:20:33,500 RAZ-RUSSO: Later in 1952, Parks approaches Ralph Ellison. 366 00:20:33,583 --> 00:20:36,083 Ellison had just published Invisible Man, 367 00:20:36,166 --> 00:20:38,750 and he says, "Let's create another collaboration 368 00:20:38,833 --> 00:20:40,666 to celebrate the publication." 369 00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:46,333 They go out on the streets once again and they create photographs 370 00:20:46,416 --> 00:20:49,250 that represent nearly every single scene in the book. 371 00:20:55,333 --> 00:20:58,000 LEE: This picture could have been taken during slavery. 372 00:20:58,083 --> 00:20:59,625 We're all tryna watch out 373 00:20:59,708 --> 00:21:01,791 for the motherfuckin' slave catchers. 374 00:21:02,833 --> 00:21:07,041 And my brother here ran off the plantation. 375 00:21:08,250 --> 00:21:10,625 And he's running for his life. 376 00:21:14,708 --> 00:21:17,958 ♪ (UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC FADES) ♪ 377 00:21:18,041 --> 00:21:21,791 Parks takes the portfolio of images that he shot 378 00:21:21,875 --> 00:21:25,333 for his collaboration with Ralph Ellison in 1948 379 00:21:25,416 --> 00:21:26,958 to LIFE magazine, 380 00:21:27,041 --> 00:21:29,708 to pitch them a story about a Harlem gang leader. 381 00:21:32,625 --> 00:21:34,958 BUNCH: LIFE magazine was the Bible. 382 00:21:36,625 --> 00:21:39,291 People read the newspapers, listened to the radio. 383 00:21:39,375 --> 00:21:44,208 But for many people, it really was LIFE magazine that helped them understand 384 00:21:44,291 --> 00:21:46,041 what was going on in America. 385 00:21:46,125 --> 00:21:47,416 PARKS: I met the picture editor, 386 00:21:47,500 --> 00:21:50,416 who offered me the great sum of 500 dollars 387 00:21:50,500 --> 00:21:52,000 to do the Harlem gang story. 388 00:21:53,750 --> 00:21:55,708 When I walked out of there, I was frightened. 389 00:21:55,791 --> 00:21:59,333 How do you walk in and ask the gang leader to let me photograph your life 390 00:21:59,416 --> 00:22:00,875 when he's hiding from the police? 391 00:22:03,291 --> 00:22:04,833 I used the broad approach 392 00:22:04,916 --> 00:22:06,875 when I first went up to the police precinct 393 00:22:06,958 --> 00:22:09,875 and asked one of the detectives if they knew such a gang leader. 394 00:22:09,958 --> 00:22:11,708 And they said, "Yeah, we know plenty of them, 395 00:22:11,791 --> 00:22:13,625 but none of them gonna let you photograph them." 396 00:22:15,208 --> 00:22:17,708 While I was in the precinct, a young man walked in, 397 00:22:17,791 --> 00:22:21,750 and he literally cursed the desk sergeant out about something. 398 00:22:21,833 --> 00:22:25,166 And so I said to my detective friend, "Who is that guy?" 399 00:22:25,250 --> 00:22:29,625 He said, "That is the most notorious gang leader in all of Harlem." 400 00:22:32,375 --> 00:22:33,750 His name was Red Jackson. 401 00:22:33,833 --> 00:22:35,625 I told him I was from LIFE magazine. 402 00:22:35,708 --> 00:22:38,083 I want to do a story on him, very bluntly, you know. 403 00:22:38,166 --> 00:22:40,125 That's the way I got into that story. 404 00:22:45,708 --> 00:22:47,250 I didn't take pictures in the beginning. 405 00:22:47,333 --> 00:22:49,875 I just sort of sat with them on the stoop in Harlem 406 00:22:49,958 --> 00:22:53,541 in the hot summer days and listened to their talk. 407 00:22:53,625 --> 00:22:55,541 ♪ (SOFT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 408 00:22:58,041 --> 00:23:00,458 PARKS: So one day he just said, 409 00:23:00,541 --> 00:23:02,666 "When are you going to use your camera?" 410 00:23:02,750 --> 00:23:07,208 I said, "Oh, you know, anytime something happens." 411 00:23:10,708 --> 00:23:14,666 This is like what he learned from the Farm Security Administration project 412 00:23:14,750 --> 00:23:16,416 he does with Ella Watson. 413 00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:19,250 He knows that he has to get to know somebody really well 414 00:23:19,333 --> 00:23:20,250 and spend time with them. 415 00:23:20,333 --> 00:23:21,916 Red was a little apprehensive, 416 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,250 but they built this great bond with each other, 417 00:23:24,333 --> 00:23:27,166 and Gordon recognized his leadership ability, 418 00:23:27,250 --> 00:23:30,625 and they developed a really unique relationship. 419 00:23:30,708 --> 00:23:33,666 PARKS: I stayed with his gang about three months. 420 00:23:36,791 --> 00:23:40,333 MAURICE BERGER: He photographed Red in his everyday life. 421 00:23:40,416 --> 00:23:42,875 Being with his mother in the kitchen cooking, 422 00:23:42,958 --> 00:23:44,375 washing the dishes, 423 00:23:46,166 --> 00:23:49,041 sitting with his brother while his brother was reading. 424 00:23:50,083 --> 00:23:53,333 RAZ-RUSSO: His goal was to create a story 425 00:23:53,416 --> 00:23:55,291 from an insider point of view. 426 00:23:57,666 --> 00:23:59,958 BUNCH: He added levels of complexity 427 00:24:00,041 --> 00:24:04,125 and levels of understanding, that you might not have gotten in other photography. 428 00:24:06,916 --> 00:24:09,250 No one's a gangster 24 hours a day. 429 00:24:10,958 --> 00:24:12,916 Everyone who is a gangster has a family. 430 00:24:17,541 --> 00:24:19,875 BROOKMAN: He also photographs him out on the streets... 431 00:24:21,041 --> 00:24:22,166 with members of his gang. 432 00:24:24,833 --> 00:24:26,958 He photographs fights and violence. 433 00:24:28,833 --> 00:24:32,708 So it's a really interesting look at the life of a young, 434 00:24:32,791 --> 00:24:34,291 you know, gang leader. 435 00:24:36,375 --> 00:24:39,375 PARKS: Two boys were killed while I was with him. 436 00:24:39,458 --> 00:24:43,958 There's one picture in the LIFE story of Herbie lying in his coffin. 437 00:24:44,041 --> 00:24:46,708 He'd been stabbed in the neck and parts of his head. 438 00:24:48,708 --> 00:24:52,666 And Red picked Herbie's head up and felt the wounds, 439 00:24:52,750 --> 00:24:55,208 and said, "We're going to do the same thing to them." 440 00:24:56,916 --> 00:24:59,500 SHABAZZ: I think that Gordon saw himself in Red Jackson. 441 00:24:59,583 --> 00:25:01,541 Because if Gordon didn't pick up the camera, 442 00:25:01,625 --> 00:25:03,416 he could have easily been Red Jackson. 443 00:25:04,750 --> 00:25:07,416 He just saw a young man that had a lot of potential. 444 00:25:07,500 --> 00:25:10,083 He was a leader. He saw he didn't have a father. 445 00:25:10,166 --> 00:25:13,750 At the same time, trying to show him in a light 446 00:25:13,833 --> 00:25:17,208 that will illuminate some of the problems that existed in Harlem 447 00:25:17,291 --> 00:25:20,666 in regards to poverty and gang warfare and injustice. 448 00:25:28,166 --> 00:25:29,791 SHABAZZ: How y'all feeling today? 449 00:25:29,875 --> 00:25:31,541 I like that outfit there, young man. 450 00:25:31,625 --> 00:25:34,625 Can I borrow that jacket? Wow, I like that haircut too, troop. 451 00:25:34,708 --> 00:25:36,500 Who hooked you up? All right, here we go. 452 00:25:36,583 --> 00:25:38,125 I'm gonna say showtime, and let's do it. 453 00:25:38,208 --> 00:25:39,208 You guys are ready? 454 00:25:39,291 --> 00:25:40,708 'Cause I think you guys are gonna be famous. 455 00:25:40,791 --> 00:25:42,250 All right, here we go. Ready? 456 00:25:42,333 --> 00:25:44,666 -All right, look at me. I think you guys got it. -(CAMERA CLICKING) 457 00:25:44,750 --> 00:25:47,833 Gordon spoke about the power of photography and imagery 458 00:25:47,916 --> 00:25:51,250 and how you could use the camera as a weapon. 459 00:25:51,333 --> 00:25:55,000 It's through the photography that I want to really express myself. 460 00:25:55,083 --> 00:25:58,791 That gave me a voice 'cause prior to that I was lost. 461 00:25:58,875 --> 00:26:01,916 I fell victim to the streets, but once I picked up the camera, 462 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,291 it became my compass. 463 00:26:04,875 --> 00:26:06,375 I have a tool that I can use, 464 00:26:06,458 --> 00:26:08,000 not only to document the community 465 00:26:08,083 --> 00:26:09,708 but to save lives at the same time. 466 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,250 Gordon spoke about the 35 millimeter 467 00:26:13,333 --> 00:26:15,541 and how it could be a more effective weapon. 468 00:26:15,625 --> 00:26:17,083 And that really resonated with me 469 00:26:17,166 --> 00:26:18,666 because I grew up in a gun culture, 470 00:26:18,750 --> 00:26:21,250 you know with the nine millimeters. 471 00:26:21,333 --> 00:26:23,500 It was the empathy that he had for his subjects 472 00:26:23,583 --> 00:26:25,500 that I thought was really powerful. 473 00:26:25,583 --> 00:26:28,375 You had Red Jackson, his difficult life coming up. 474 00:26:29,916 --> 00:26:31,958 Gordon just wanted to be like a mentor and a guide. 475 00:26:34,333 --> 00:26:36,916 I spent 20 years in the Department of Corrections. 476 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,041 When the opportunity came to work on Rikers Island, 477 00:26:40,125 --> 00:26:42,083 I accepted it as my new assignment. 478 00:26:42,166 --> 00:26:46,375 NEWS REPORTER: Crack is causing an increase in murder and other violent crime. 479 00:26:46,458 --> 00:26:48,625 SHABAZZ: This is right around the same time 480 00:26:48,708 --> 00:26:50,166 that the crack epidemic hit. 481 00:26:51,375 --> 00:26:52,625 So now I'm in this space, 482 00:26:52,708 --> 00:26:55,041 and I'm seeing the impact of drugs 483 00:26:55,125 --> 00:26:56,875 and the lack of rehabilitation. 484 00:26:58,208 --> 00:27:00,500 I'm taking my camera to the job every day. 485 00:27:00,583 --> 00:27:02,125 I'm documenting the world inside. 486 00:27:02,208 --> 00:27:04,875 I'm witnessing brutality and hatred. 487 00:27:04,958 --> 00:27:08,208 I felt it was my responsibility to talk to young people 488 00:27:08,291 --> 00:27:09,333 about what was going on 489 00:27:09,416 --> 00:27:11,000 because a lot of young men were dying 490 00:27:11,083 --> 00:27:12,833 at the hands of other young men. 491 00:27:12,916 --> 00:27:15,708 And I was very troubled by what I was seeing. 492 00:27:15,791 --> 00:27:18,208 So I would place myself in different positions 493 00:27:18,291 --> 00:27:20,833 where young people would be at, and I would approach them. 494 00:27:23,250 --> 00:27:26,291 If I saw a group, I would look at the leader and say, 495 00:27:26,375 --> 00:27:28,708 "You know, with all due respect, I'm a photographer, 496 00:27:28,791 --> 00:27:30,250 when I look at you, I see greatness. 497 00:27:30,333 --> 00:27:32,500 If you don't mind, I'd like to take a photograph 498 00:27:32,583 --> 00:27:33,791 of you and your crew." 499 00:27:36,083 --> 00:27:37,666 And then I would start posing them. 500 00:27:37,750 --> 00:27:39,125 And then they would create poses. 501 00:27:39,208 --> 00:27:40,708 and the poses gave it life. 502 00:27:41,916 --> 00:27:44,125 ♪ (JOYFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 503 00:27:45,791 --> 00:27:49,250 SHABAZZ: Once the film roll was completed, I would put the film in the shop, 504 00:27:49,333 --> 00:27:52,291 I would come back in an hour, and I would go back to the location, 505 00:27:52,375 --> 00:27:53,791 I would give out prints. 506 00:27:57,500 --> 00:27:59,916 It let them know that they weren't invisible. 507 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,500 As kids, we could just tear each other down. 508 00:28:02,583 --> 00:28:04,500 I use the camera to build people up 509 00:28:04,583 --> 00:28:06,125 and let people feel special. 510 00:28:15,041 --> 00:28:16,500 A lot of them were really receptive 511 00:28:16,583 --> 00:28:18,875 to hearing what I was saying 'cause I'm speaking in real time. 512 00:28:18,958 --> 00:28:21,041 Just a few hours ago, I was on Rikers Island, 513 00:28:21,125 --> 00:28:23,125 and I witnessed, you know, people getting stabbed 514 00:28:23,208 --> 00:28:25,208 and individuals that thought that they can handle it, 515 00:28:25,291 --> 00:28:26,958 and they couldn't. And they would listen. 516 00:28:27,041 --> 00:28:31,000 So I was trying to encourage them to be better. You know, I didn't want to see 517 00:28:31,083 --> 00:28:33,708 no more of these young men incarcerated. 518 00:28:34,708 --> 00:28:37,625 ♪ (JOYFUL MUSIC FADES) ♪ 519 00:28:37,708 --> 00:28:40,958 I owe a lot of where I'm at right now to Gordon 520 00:28:41,041 --> 00:28:43,916 because we didn't have a lot of Black photographers to mirror, 521 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,333 you know, when I was coming up. Gordon was that pathfinder. 522 00:28:49,833 --> 00:28:51,916 NARRATOR: LIFE magazine is the headquarters 523 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,708 for photographer Gordon Parks 524 00:28:53,791 --> 00:28:55,250 on the staff of the popular 525 00:28:55,333 --> 00:28:58,291 pictorial news magazine since 1949. 526 00:28:58,375 --> 00:29:01,583 And a man who stands at the top of his profession. 527 00:29:01,666 --> 00:29:03,375 BROOKMAN: Because of the success of 528 00:29:03,458 --> 00:29:06,916 "Harlem Gang Leader", Parks was hired onto the staff 529 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,041 as the first African American photographer at LIFE, 530 00:29:10,125 --> 00:29:12,750 which was a really big deal. 531 00:29:12,833 --> 00:29:17,166 This was entry into the media that was seen internationally. 532 00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:19,833 NARRATOR: Parks's work is amongst the finest in a magazine, 533 00:29:19,916 --> 00:29:21,833 noted for photographic excellence. 534 00:29:21,916 --> 00:29:25,166 BERGER: By the mid-1950s, Parks had already become, 535 00:29:25,250 --> 00:29:28,500 for want of a better word, very established. 536 00:29:28,583 --> 00:29:32,916 JELANI COBB: He really does have that internally solid 537 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,375 perseverance kind of quality to him. 538 00:29:37,541 --> 00:29:39,708 PARKS: I've tried to use the camera 539 00:29:39,791 --> 00:29:41,750 to sort of correct the things that 540 00:29:41,833 --> 00:29:45,541 I experienced as a young Black man coming up in America. 541 00:29:46,916 --> 00:29:49,250 COBB: And then with all that 542 00:29:49,333 --> 00:29:52,333 Black people were confronting at that point, 543 00:29:52,416 --> 00:29:55,333 it requires a great deal of temerity 544 00:29:55,416 --> 00:29:59,000 to say that you're going to change that with your camera. 545 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,541 BERGER: In 1956, LIFE sent Gordon to Alabama 546 00:30:07,625 --> 00:30:12,000 to do a story about segregation in the Jim Crow South. 547 00:30:14,666 --> 00:30:17,375 KHALIL MUHAMMAD: Dispatches coming out of the south 548 00:30:17,458 --> 00:30:21,500 are the usual reporting on racial violence. 549 00:30:23,750 --> 00:30:27,000 COBB: In 1955, just months before 550 00:30:27,083 --> 00:30:29,500 Gordon Parks traveled to Alabama, 551 00:30:29,583 --> 00:30:33,250 Emmett Till was brutally tortured and killed 552 00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:34,833 in Money, Mississippi. 553 00:30:37,416 --> 00:30:39,958 If the death of my son can mean something 554 00:30:40,041 --> 00:30:43,250 to the other unfortunate people all over the world, 555 00:30:43,333 --> 00:30:46,708 then for him to have died a hero 556 00:30:46,791 --> 00:30:50,666 would mean more to me than for him just to have died. 557 00:30:50,750 --> 00:30:54,250 COBB: His mother Mamie allowed Jet magazine to publish 558 00:30:54,333 --> 00:30:58,833 the images of his defiled, desecrated body. 559 00:31:02,083 --> 00:31:04,708 I saw Emmett Till's photograph in Jet magazine. 560 00:31:07,541 --> 00:31:08,958 I'll never forget it. 561 00:31:10,750 --> 00:31:12,208 I still get very emotional. 562 00:31:14,625 --> 00:31:17,500 I was eight years old when Emmett Till was murdered 563 00:31:17,583 --> 00:31:19,458 and I didn't... I-- Wh-- What-- 564 00:31:19,541 --> 00:31:21,833 What was that all about? I couldn't understand it. 565 00:31:24,541 --> 00:31:26,625 COBB: That photograph was really evidence 566 00:31:26,708 --> 00:31:27,875 of what could happen to you 567 00:31:27,958 --> 00:31:30,416 as a Black person in the deep South, 568 00:31:30,500 --> 00:31:32,708 and that was the world that Gordon Parks 569 00:31:32,791 --> 00:31:35,208 was stepping into in 1956. 570 00:31:41,708 --> 00:31:45,083 Gordon liked to embody whatever subject 571 00:31:45,166 --> 00:31:47,208 he had been asked by his editors 572 00:31:47,291 --> 00:31:50,666 to represent in a family. 573 00:31:50,750 --> 00:31:53,125 Because he knew that the readers of LIFE magazine 574 00:31:53,208 --> 00:31:56,916 would be innately sympathetic to the circumstances of a child, 575 00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,708 of a family, and of a community. 576 00:32:01,208 --> 00:32:03,583 Those photographs had tremendous impact 577 00:32:03,666 --> 00:32:05,333 partly because of the color. 578 00:32:08,750 --> 00:32:12,041 At that time, a searing photo essay in the pages of LIFE 579 00:32:12,125 --> 00:32:14,458 was practically expected to be in black and white. 580 00:32:19,166 --> 00:32:23,666 STEVENSON: He wanted that color to implicate people seeing this, 581 00:32:23,750 --> 00:32:28,125 so that they would understand this is your America right now. 582 00:32:31,625 --> 00:32:34,333 People were told that segregation was benign. 583 00:32:34,416 --> 00:32:36,500 It's okay, Black people want it. 584 00:32:36,583 --> 00:32:37,916 That's not what you see 585 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,125 when you see his images and the hurt and the exclusion 586 00:32:41,208 --> 00:32:42,916 that these families present. 587 00:32:45,208 --> 00:32:48,333 These children are literally excluded by this fence 588 00:32:48,416 --> 00:32:50,833 that they cannot pass. 589 00:32:50,916 --> 00:32:52,125 STEVENSON: Even from behind, 590 00:32:52,208 --> 00:32:54,375 he's able to convey their sense of longing 591 00:32:54,458 --> 00:32:56,166 to be able to go into that space. 592 00:33:00,833 --> 00:33:03,125 ALLEN: He can take something that's so negative, 593 00:33:03,208 --> 00:33:05,041 but when you first digest it and look at it, 594 00:33:05,125 --> 00:33:06,750 before you start to unpack everything, 595 00:33:06,833 --> 00:33:09,416 it's like super warm, and it just like blows you away. 596 00:33:09,500 --> 00:33:11,916 I think he was really good at even things 597 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:13,416 that might have been 598 00:33:13,500 --> 00:33:16,875 uncomfortable for, as a Black person to capture 599 00:33:16,958 --> 00:33:18,833 but he has this thing where the way he frames stuff, 600 00:33:18,916 --> 00:33:22,000 it draws you in, and it makes you wanna have a conversation. 601 00:33:24,375 --> 00:33:26,291 There's an elegance. Even, there's an elegance, 602 00:33:26,375 --> 00:33:29,291 even to his depictions of evil, basically. 603 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,125 DUVERNAY: It's her dress that does it for me 604 00:33:33,208 --> 00:33:38,208 and the earring, and the purse, and the perfectly matched shoes. 605 00:33:38,833 --> 00:33:40,166 She's a queen, 606 00:33:40,250 --> 00:33:42,625 and yet she has to have a separate entrance 607 00:33:42,708 --> 00:33:44,875 from the White woman in the red dress 608 00:33:44,958 --> 00:33:46,708 that's further down the street. 609 00:33:48,375 --> 00:33:53,166 BERGER: Mrs. Joanne Wilson was walking with her young niece 610 00:33:53,250 --> 00:33:55,666 by a segregated movie theatre, 611 00:33:55,750 --> 00:33:59,208 and the little girl smelled popcorn. 612 00:33:59,291 --> 00:34:03,541 I interviewed Mrs. Wilson 60 years after that photograph was taken. 613 00:34:03,625 --> 00:34:07,791 And she said, "I was feeling a sense of almost panic of what to do. 614 00:34:07,875 --> 00:34:10,000 I wasn't going to take my niece 615 00:34:10,083 --> 00:34:13,208 into a segregated back entrance. I wouldn't do it." 616 00:34:15,458 --> 00:34:16,791 So I asked Mrs. Wilson 617 00:34:16,875 --> 00:34:19,000 about the experience of the shoot, 618 00:34:19,083 --> 00:34:22,083 and I said, "Was there anything about it that upset you 619 00:34:22,166 --> 00:34:23,500 or bothered you?" and she said, 620 00:34:23,583 --> 00:34:24,750 and she loved Gordon, 621 00:34:24,833 --> 00:34:26,916 and she said, "Yes. 622 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,458 When I looked at the photograph, I realized that 623 00:34:29,541 --> 00:34:31,750 the strap of my slip had fallen. 624 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,708 I was a proud Black woman in Alabama, 625 00:34:35,791 --> 00:34:39,250 and I never left my house not being dressed perfectly." 626 00:34:41,500 --> 00:34:42,791 I understand how she felt, 627 00:34:42,875 --> 00:34:45,083 but I don't think that Gordon would have told her 628 00:34:45,166 --> 00:34:47,291 to adjust the strap because for him 629 00:34:47,375 --> 00:34:49,666 it represented something remarkable. 630 00:34:50,958 --> 00:34:52,666 She was distracted. 631 00:34:52,750 --> 00:34:56,250 You cannot be a mother or even human 632 00:34:56,333 --> 00:34:59,916 and not see that little moment of drama in a photograph 633 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000 and not feel a sense of affiliation with Mrs. Wilson. 634 00:35:08,666 --> 00:35:13,125 DARREN WALKER: Gordon Parks's photography demanded 635 00:35:13,208 --> 00:35:16,750 that America look at itself. 636 00:35:16,833 --> 00:35:22,416 His work did what art does at its very best. 637 00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:28,500 It makes the viewer engage deeply in the subject. 638 00:35:28,583 --> 00:35:32,541 And to see narratives about life, 639 00:35:32,625 --> 00:35:34,500 about our history. 640 00:35:34,583 --> 00:35:38,041 So when you look at those beautiful photographs, 641 00:35:38,125 --> 00:35:40,833 what you saw was dignity 642 00:35:40,916 --> 00:35:46,833 in the face of remarkable discrimination and bigotry. 643 00:35:48,291 --> 00:35:52,500 ♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 644 00:35:52,583 --> 00:35:54,041 And rising... 645 00:35:56,833 --> 00:35:58,708 You got to wait for him to rise, folks. 646 00:36:00,083 --> 00:36:02,500 Okay, now rise behind him. You got to look for him. 647 00:36:03,500 --> 00:36:04,875 One of the things about Mr. Parks 648 00:36:04,958 --> 00:36:08,916 that had been really inspiring and informative 649 00:36:09,041 --> 00:36:12,416 is the idea that if I pick up my camera, 650 00:36:12,500 --> 00:36:14,500 I can say something and show something, 651 00:36:14,583 --> 00:36:16,041 and that I will be heard, 652 00:36:16,125 --> 00:36:18,916 and that it will be seen, and a story will be told. 653 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:20,083 Action! 654 00:36:20,166 --> 00:36:22,416 And that my camera gives me the power to do that. 655 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,375 To think of the camera as a weapon is a strong way 656 00:36:26,458 --> 00:36:29,041 to think about it and something that I have come to embrace. 657 00:36:31,958 --> 00:36:34,791 Some of my favorite work of his is in color. 658 00:36:34,875 --> 00:36:37,541 There's something about the color that feels very painterly 659 00:36:37,625 --> 00:36:40,875 in a way that's different from the black and white. 660 00:36:40,958 --> 00:36:44,625 I remember looking at those photos, and I look at them often. 661 00:36:44,708 --> 00:36:47,375 They inform, even choices that I make in cinematography 662 00:36:47,458 --> 00:36:48,541 for my films. 663 00:36:49,791 --> 00:36:51,083 There's a photo that I love. 664 00:36:51,166 --> 00:36:52,791 It's a little boy sitting in a field, 665 00:36:52,875 --> 00:36:54,833 and he has an "X" on his head 666 00:36:54,916 --> 00:36:56,375 that's like a target. 667 00:36:58,375 --> 00:36:59,958 That image just says so much. 668 00:37:02,375 --> 00:37:06,083 The rest, the relaxation, the intimacy, 669 00:37:06,166 --> 00:37:08,041 juxtaposed against the poverty. 670 00:37:12,208 --> 00:37:13,583 We think of photography, I think, 671 00:37:13,666 --> 00:37:16,250 as like a solitary art practice. 672 00:37:19,666 --> 00:37:21,000 It's the photographer and their camera, 673 00:37:21,083 --> 00:37:24,208 but really, they're in relationship with their subject. 674 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,916 When I look at his work, I think, "God! How'd he get that?" 675 00:37:30,041 --> 00:37:31,875 The ease and the intimacy 676 00:37:31,958 --> 00:37:34,333 that comes through in so much of his work. 677 00:37:36,500 --> 00:37:38,958 The process with actors is you're trying to achieve 678 00:37:39,041 --> 00:37:41,083 the same ends of intimacy, of a connection... 679 00:37:41,166 --> 00:37:42,250 Action! 680 00:37:42,333 --> 00:37:44,500 ...of an understanding of the material and each other, 681 00:37:44,583 --> 00:37:47,125 so that you can get to those true places. 682 00:37:47,208 --> 00:37:49,625 Pent up emotions and inattention 683 00:37:49,708 --> 00:37:51,958 would have led to an uncontrollable, 684 00:37:52,041 --> 00:37:53,791 retaliatory situation. 685 00:37:53,875 --> 00:37:57,958 Well done. We're good. Looking good. Thank you. 686 00:37:58,041 --> 00:38:00,125 DUVERNAY: The thing for Black filmmakers is 687 00:38:00,208 --> 00:38:02,708 for far too long we've been relegated to 688 00:38:02,791 --> 00:38:04,875 one set of tools, if any. 689 00:38:04,958 --> 00:38:07,916 One of the things about Mr. Parks is the ability 690 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:13,041 to work within many boxes and to use many tools. 691 00:38:13,833 --> 00:38:17,833 ♪ (CALM MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 692 00:38:26,125 --> 00:38:28,125 RAZ-RUSSO: If one were to look at the entirety 693 00:38:28,208 --> 00:38:29,333 of Gordon Parks's career, 694 00:38:29,416 --> 00:38:31,666 you would be struck by the range of work that he did. 695 00:38:33,125 --> 00:38:36,708 It's absolutely fascinating how he's able to bounce around 696 00:38:36,791 --> 00:38:39,166 from photojournalism to fashion photography, 697 00:38:39,250 --> 00:38:43,416 to portraiture, to abstraction, and everything in between. 698 00:38:43,500 --> 00:38:48,125 And yet somehow, it's all tied together by his approach, 699 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,000 the idea that he's fully invested 700 00:38:52,083 --> 00:38:54,125 in every single one of his subjects. 701 00:38:57,958 --> 00:39:00,166 NELSON GEORGE: His whole thing was to be there 702 00:39:00,250 --> 00:39:02,833 and have a point of view. Definitely had a point of view 703 00:39:02,916 --> 00:39:05,541 about Black liberation, Black freedom, 704 00:39:05,625 --> 00:39:08,083 White oppression, uh, fashion. 705 00:39:12,500 --> 00:39:14,458 But not to impose that in the environment, 706 00:39:14,541 --> 00:39:16,166 to be able to be there 707 00:39:16,250 --> 00:39:19,750 and find those moments where, "Boom, boom, boom." 708 00:39:30,208 --> 00:39:31,541 My mom and Gordon Parks met 709 00:39:31,625 --> 00:39:33,375 on a photo shoot for LIFE magazine. 710 00:39:35,458 --> 00:39:38,041 She was gonna be in a play called The Swan 711 00:39:38,125 --> 00:39:41,875 and Gordon was the photographer assigned to it. 712 00:39:41,958 --> 00:39:43,666 They just instantly sort of clicked. 713 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,583 My mom, I mean, you couldn't have more different circumstances, 714 00:39:49,666 --> 00:39:51,875 she grew up obviously surrounded by great wealth. 715 00:39:55,833 --> 00:39:58,416 She said that this was the first African American person 716 00:39:58,500 --> 00:39:59,833 she really became friends with. 717 00:40:01,833 --> 00:40:03,916 I think they did connect as artists. 718 00:40:05,833 --> 00:40:08,291 That was the beginning of what would become 719 00:40:08,375 --> 00:40:10,250 this extraordinary lifelong friendship. 720 00:40:12,500 --> 00:40:15,250 I always knew there was more to their relationship 721 00:40:15,333 --> 00:40:16,916 than he was just a family friend 722 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,750 who would spend weekends out in Long Island with us. 723 00:40:22,500 --> 00:40:23,833 But I knew Gordon's work 724 00:40:23,916 --> 00:40:25,791 from the time I was a kid. I followed it. 725 00:40:28,333 --> 00:40:30,791 He had the ability to tell other people's stories 726 00:40:30,875 --> 00:40:33,833 and the ability to enmesh yourself in somebody else's life 727 00:40:33,916 --> 00:40:35,541 and to document it. 728 00:40:35,625 --> 00:40:37,083 I just found that amazing. 729 00:40:39,791 --> 00:40:42,625 GEORGE: Gordon was this guy who could connect with all of these people, 730 00:40:42,708 --> 00:40:45,208 and not necessarily be everyone's best friend, 731 00:40:45,291 --> 00:40:48,041 but gain respect enough to move in their spaces. 732 00:40:49,791 --> 00:40:52,916 As a photographer, and I learned myself as a journalist, 733 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,083 the ability to be there and be present 734 00:40:55,166 --> 00:40:56,375 but not to interfere. 735 00:40:57,250 --> 00:40:59,291 To be able to sit back, 736 00:40:59,375 --> 00:41:02,375 let it happen, observe closely what's going on, 737 00:41:02,458 --> 00:41:04,083 and find out what's interesting about it. 738 00:41:04,166 --> 00:41:05,833 He had that ability, and it comes through 739 00:41:05,916 --> 00:41:07,375 in all of his photography. 740 00:41:08,958 --> 00:41:15,916 ♪ (MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 741 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,541 BERGER: In 1957, LIFE sent Gordon 742 00:41:19,625 --> 00:41:22,625 to photograph the American crime crisis. 743 00:41:23,750 --> 00:41:28,250 ♪ (JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 744 00:41:28,333 --> 00:41:32,333 He represented crime as an ambiguity. 745 00:41:38,041 --> 00:41:40,500 It deracialized the story of crime. 746 00:41:42,125 --> 00:41:45,125 There were White criminals. There were Black criminals. 747 00:41:48,750 --> 00:41:52,541 He also showed the humanity around crime. 748 00:41:53,791 --> 00:41:56,291 STEVENSON: It challenges this notion 749 00:41:56,375 --> 00:41:58,791 that a criminal is someone who is 750 00:41:58,875 --> 00:42:01,333 entirely loathsome, entirely evil. 751 00:42:07,666 --> 00:42:10,958 There's an incredible photograph of a prison cell. 752 00:42:11,041 --> 00:42:15,958 You see a hand leaning over one of the bars with a cigarette, 753 00:42:16,041 --> 00:42:19,250 but on the bottom, you see the hand grabbing the bar. 754 00:42:22,625 --> 00:42:25,333 What you see is the anxiety 755 00:42:26,708 --> 00:42:28,416 of the person behind bars. 756 00:42:30,375 --> 00:42:33,208 ALLEN: Gordon was able to tell both sides of the story. 757 00:42:33,291 --> 00:42:35,458 Being able to go into a police station 758 00:42:35,541 --> 00:42:37,666 and shooting from that perspective. 759 00:42:39,541 --> 00:42:43,958 As an artist, we are the medium between opposing sides, 760 00:42:44,041 --> 00:42:45,833 and we are the only ones that can actually 761 00:42:45,916 --> 00:42:48,458 create that narrative to even start a conversation. 762 00:42:58,500 --> 00:43:00,250 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 763 00:43:01,500 --> 00:43:03,250 STEVENSON: You cannot be a person of color 764 00:43:03,333 --> 00:43:04,916 growing up in the urban north 765 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,000 and not be mindful of the way in which 766 00:43:08,083 --> 00:43:10,083 police officers were symbols. 767 00:43:10,166 --> 00:43:12,416 They represented threat and menace. 768 00:43:12,500 --> 00:43:14,458 My cousins lived in North Philadelphia, 769 00:43:14,541 --> 00:43:16,125 and when we would go spend time with them, 770 00:43:16,208 --> 00:43:17,875 there was a completely foreign environment. 771 00:43:17,958 --> 00:43:19,875 And my cousin would say, 772 00:43:19,958 --> 00:43:22,083 "If you see a gang coming down one street 773 00:43:22,166 --> 00:43:24,666 and you see the police coming down another street, 774 00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:26,166 both of them are dangerous, 775 00:43:26,250 --> 00:43:28,916 but run toward the gang, not toward the police." 776 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,583 And it wasn't because people didn't want law and order. 777 00:43:31,666 --> 00:43:35,500 They did. They just didn't want it imposed through abuse. 778 00:43:36,458 --> 00:43:38,458 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 779 00:43:38,541 --> 00:43:41,625 STEVENSON: And Parks got it, you know, in the images presented. 780 00:43:50,958 --> 00:43:53,541 That image where he shows those police officers 781 00:43:53,625 --> 00:43:57,041 crashing down a door, gun in hand. 782 00:43:57,125 --> 00:43:58,708 There's a kind of violence. 783 00:43:58,791 --> 00:44:02,125 Can you imagine being on the other side of this door? 784 00:44:04,083 --> 00:44:07,958 So it's a really powerful image to contradict this idea 785 00:44:08,041 --> 00:44:10,541 that these are the people who make us safe. 786 00:44:10,625 --> 00:44:12,416 You know, I see this and I think, 787 00:44:12,500 --> 00:44:15,291 "Keep me as far away from these guys as possible." 788 00:44:17,500 --> 00:44:20,625 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC FADES) ♪ 789 00:44:28,333 --> 00:44:32,458 STEVENSON: Using the rule of law is certainly a way 790 00:44:32,541 --> 00:44:36,541 to fight against inequality and injustice. 791 00:44:40,666 --> 00:44:44,125 But I have recognized that that's not enough. 792 00:44:44,208 --> 00:44:46,958 Now I see myself very much engaged in... 793 00:44:48,250 --> 00:44:51,541 in narrative work and using narrative tools 794 00:44:51,625 --> 00:44:54,500 to fight against inequality and injustice, 795 00:44:54,583 --> 00:44:58,125 and that's the reason why it makes perfect sense to us 796 00:44:58,208 --> 00:44:59,333 to build a museum. 797 00:45:01,458 --> 00:45:05,333 The primary goal is to tell a story about our history 798 00:45:05,416 --> 00:45:07,083 that shakes people sufficiently. 799 00:45:07,166 --> 00:45:09,083 You're motivated to say, "Never again" 800 00:45:09,166 --> 00:45:12,291 to racial bigotry and bias. 801 00:45:16,208 --> 00:45:18,625 Gordon Parks became central 802 00:45:18,708 --> 00:45:20,791 to the way we wanted to talk about our imagery 803 00:45:20,875 --> 00:45:23,208 and storytelling through photography. 804 00:45:28,500 --> 00:45:33,125 Narrative work is how Parks changed hearts and minds. 805 00:45:37,875 --> 00:45:38,833 You can change laws, 806 00:45:38,916 --> 00:45:41,250 but if you don't, kind of, work on people 807 00:45:41,333 --> 00:45:45,250 and the psychology behind bigotry and exclusion, 808 00:45:45,333 --> 00:45:46,833 then you're not gonna make any progress. 809 00:45:51,750 --> 00:45:55,291 And Parks understood early that he had a role to play 810 00:45:55,375 --> 00:45:57,083 if we were gonna kind of shape the things 811 00:45:57,166 --> 00:45:59,375 that people believe about equality. 812 00:46:04,625 --> 00:46:07,583 You know, as a photographer for LIFE, 813 00:46:07,666 --> 00:46:10,250 you look at publications like that. 814 00:46:15,291 --> 00:46:18,416 And in this very subtle way, this notion of 815 00:46:18,500 --> 00:46:21,458 who is an American was being reinforced. 816 00:46:21,541 --> 00:46:23,791 Week after week, month after month. 817 00:46:23,875 --> 00:46:29,041 ♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 818 00:46:29,125 --> 00:46:32,375 STEVENSON: And so Parks's images really disrupted that. 819 00:46:35,541 --> 00:46:37,541 If you had to see this Black family 820 00:46:37,625 --> 00:46:38,833 in one of his photos 821 00:46:38,916 --> 00:46:41,041 juxtaposed with these White families 822 00:46:41,125 --> 00:46:42,541 in these ads, 823 00:46:42,625 --> 00:46:45,416 it caused you to kind of think just a little differently. 824 00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:51,500 It raised questions about who is an American. 825 00:46:57,458 --> 00:47:00,125 Gordon Parks was often criticized 826 00:47:00,208 --> 00:47:01,625 as much as he was applauded 827 00:47:01,708 --> 00:47:03,375 for his position at LIFE magazine, 828 00:47:03,458 --> 00:47:08,166 and he was very aware of being in a conflicted position. 829 00:47:08,250 --> 00:47:13,166 He talks about how he was seen as often going in 830 00:47:13,250 --> 00:47:15,500 as LIFE's, quote, "Black photographer," 831 00:47:15,583 --> 00:47:18,500 and creating stories that were meant to appeal 832 00:47:18,583 --> 00:47:20,125 to a White audience. 833 00:47:20,208 --> 00:47:22,083 At the same time, he understood that 834 00:47:22,166 --> 00:47:25,416 when he was covering stories that had to do with race, 835 00:47:25,500 --> 00:47:27,416 that he was in a unique position 836 00:47:27,500 --> 00:47:30,041 to tell those stories from his point of view. 837 00:47:30,125 --> 00:47:34,500 And a great example of that was in 1963, when he was sent 838 00:47:34,583 --> 00:47:36,416 to do a story about the Nation of Islam. 839 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,333 MALCOLM X: America is a White man's country. 840 00:47:40,416 --> 00:47:42,833 A country that was stolen by the White man 841 00:47:42,916 --> 00:47:44,500 from the dark-skinned Indians, 842 00:47:44,583 --> 00:47:49,041 who then kidnapped our people and brought us here in chains. 843 00:47:49,125 --> 00:47:52,208 PARKS: I saw Malcolm for the very first time in person 844 00:47:52,291 --> 00:47:55,500 on the corner of 125th Street and 7th Avenue. 845 00:47:55,583 --> 00:47:58,708 MALCOLM: There's no such thing as justice in this country 846 00:47:58,791 --> 00:48:00,000 for a Black man. 847 00:48:00,083 --> 00:48:02,666 And there's no such thing as equality in this country 848 00:48:02,750 --> 00:48:04,291 for a Black man. 849 00:48:04,375 --> 00:48:07,291 This is a White man's country! 850 00:48:07,375 --> 00:48:10,541 PARKS: The first thing I asked him was about the possibility 851 00:48:10,625 --> 00:48:13,000 of my covering the Black Muslims. 852 00:48:13,083 --> 00:48:15,250 And he said, "Well, the honorable Elijah Muhammad 853 00:48:15,333 --> 00:48:16,791 would have to decide that." 854 00:48:18,791 --> 00:48:20,958 Malcolm and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona. 855 00:48:21,041 --> 00:48:23,041 The first thing Elijah Muhammad said to me was, 856 00:48:23,125 --> 00:48:25,000 "Why are you working for the White devils?" 857 00:48:26,333 --> 00:48:29,458 I said, "Well, you know, you've heard of 858 00:48:30,500 --> 00:48:32,208 getting behind the iron horse 859 00:48:32,291 --> 00:48:33,625 and finding out what's going on?" 860 00:48:33,708 --> 00:48:35,458 He said, "I don't buy that." 861 00:48:35,541 --> 00:48:36,625 (LAUGHS) 862 00:48:36,708 --> 00:48:39,750 Well, in any case, he said, "We'll give you a try. 863 00:48:39,833 --> 00:48:42,166 Brother Malcolm is gonna escort you through 864 00:48:42,250 --> 00:48:45,291 the world of Islam, and if I like what you do, 865 00:48:45,375 --> 00:48:47,958 I'll send you a big box of cigars. 866 00:48:48,041 --> 00:48:51,500 If I don't like what you do, we'll be out to visit you." 867 00:48:51,583 --> 00:48:53,000 (LAUGHS) 868 00:48:53,083 --> 00:48:55,750 And that's the way Malcolm and I got started. 869 00:48:55,833 --> 00:48:58,333 MALCOLM: In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful, 870 00:48:58,416 --> 00:48:59,916 to whom all praise is due. 871 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,458 Whom we forever thank for giving us 872 00:49:02,541 --> 00:49:03,958 the honorable Elijah Muhammad 873 00:49:04,041 --> 00:49:05,916 as our leader, teacher, and guide. 874 00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,375 PARKS: I found in the mosques such order, 875 00:49:09,458 --> 00:49:12,416 uniformity in just about everything. 876 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:14,458 Malcolm would walk with a long stick 877 00:49:14,541 --> 00:49:18,375 and point to a blackboard and explain what Elijah Muhammad 878 00:49:18,458 --> 00:49:19,916 expected of Muslims. 879 00:49:23,500 --> 00:49:27,583 I was surprised to see them training German Shepherd dogs. 880 00:49:27,666 --> 00:49:29,458 Malcolm would look at me and smile. 881 00:49:29,541 --> 00:49:31,500 He says, "If they can face that dog 882 00:49:31,583 --> 00:49:32,875 with its vicious fangs, 883 00:49:32,958 --> 00:49:34,625 they can face a lot of other things." 884 00:49:36,791 --> 00:49:39,000 I went into some of the Muslim families. 885 00:49:39,083 --> 00:49:41,375 I asked one father in Brooklyn, 886 00:49:41,458 --> 00:49:43,791 I said, "Suppose your son came home one day 887 00:49:43,875 --> 00:49:47,083 and told you that he was renouncing the Muslim religion." 888 00:49:47,166 --> 00:49:49,208 He said, "I would turn him from my door 889 00:49:49,291 --> 00:49:51,666 and would never allow him in again." 890 00:49:51,750 --> 00:49:54,000 It was amazing, the faith that they had 891 00:49:54,083 --> 00:49:56,291 in Elijah Muhammad and in Malcolm. 892 00:49:57,708 --> 00:49:59,750 RAZ-RUSSO: Gordon Parks spends several months 893 00:49:59,833 --> 00:50:02,291 with members of the Nation of Islam. 894 00:50:02,375 --> 00:50:04,250 It becomes a true collaboration 895 00:50:04,333 --> 00:50:08,250 where Gordon Parks is allowed unprecedented access. 896 00:50:14,666 --> 00:50:17,541 I was in New York when I got a call from Malcolm. 897 00:50:17,625 --> 00:50:21,375 He had just reached the Los Angeles Airport. 898 00:50:22,458 --> 00:50:24,333 He said, "Can you get out here?" 899 00:50:24,416 --> 00:50:26,333 MALCOLM: The person, whom you have come 900 00:50:26,416 --> 00:50:30,541 to know as Ronald Stokes, we know him as brother Ronald. 901 00:50:30,625 --> 00:50:34,375 And an innocent man when he was murdered. 902 00:50:34,458 --> 00:50:36,833 PARKS: That's when Ronald Stokes was shot. 903 00:50:36,916 --> 00:50:38,583 Police had gone to the mosque, 904 00:50:38,666 --> 00:50:40,083 and there'd been some confrontation 905 00:50:40,166 --> 00:50:42,583 with the young Muslims out in front of the mosque. 906 00:50:42,666 --> 00:50:44,875 MALCOLM: These are the victims of police bullets. 907 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,208 And it is the police who should be on trial here in Los Angeles. 908 00:50:48,291 --> 00:50:50,375 PARKS: Malcolm wanted to show the rest of the world 909 00:50:50,458 --> 00:50:52,375 that these guys were using brutality, 910 00:50:52,458 --> 00:50:54,416 especially against Muslims. 911 00:50:54,500 --> 00:50:57,750 MALCOLM: They can go in and murder unarmed, 912 00:50:57,833 --> 00:50:59,208 innocent Negroes, 913 00:50:59,291 --> 00:51:03,000 and the White public is gullible enough to back them up. 914 00:51:03,083 --> 00:51:04,500 PARKS: Malcolm was terribly angry, 915 00:51:04,583 --> 00:51:07,416 as were a lot of Black people who were not Muslims. 916 00:51:07,500 --> 00:51:09,541 I was angry myself, terribly angry. 917 00:51:10,958 --> 00:51:12,708 It was very tense out there. 918 00:51:12,791 --> 00:51:15,041 Cops were patrolling the streets. 919 00:51:15,125 --> 00:51:19,625 I knew if something happened, I would be in the firing line. 920 00:51:19,708 --> 00:51:22,083 I never separated myself from them 921 00:51:22,166 --> 00:51:24,041 in terms of being a reporter. 922 00:51:25,458 --> 00:51:29,000 I felt, frankly, like a Muslim. 923 00:51:36,708 --> 00:51:39,125 Malcolm and I really felt like brothers. 924 00:51:39,208 --> 00:51:41,750 (CHUCKLES) He was not the fiery monster 925 00:51:41,833 --> 00:51:44,083 that he was on the street corner. 926 00:51:44,166 --> 00:51:47,333 He was a gentle, sweet guy. 927 00:51:47,416 --> 00:51:49,875 Coming between Los Angeles and New York, 928 00:51:49,958 --> 00:51:51,458 we took a night plane. 929 00:51:51,541 --> 00:51:53,791 And he leaned over on my shoulder and said to me, 930 00:51:53,875 --> 00:51:55,958 "Brother, you know I have a lot of respect for you." 931 00:51:56,041 --> 00:51:57,166 Things of that sort. 932 00:51:57,250 --> 00:51:59,333 And I said, "Well, I have a lot of respect for you." 933 00:51:59,416 --> 00:52:02,125 He dropped his head on my shoulder and went to sleep. 934 00:52:06,208 --> 00:52:08,708 When we reached New York, I said, "You called me 'brother' 935 00:52:08,791 --> 00:52:10,375 for the first time." He said, 936 00:52:10,458 --> 00:52:12,791 "Well, for the first time, you deserved it." 937 00:52:12,875 --> 00:52:13,875 (LAUGHS) 938 00:52:13,958 --> 00:52:20,500 ♪ (EMOTIONAL MUSIC PLAYS) ♪ 939 00:52:24,125 --> 00:52:26,375 When the story came out in LIFE, 940 00:52:26,458 --> 00:52:30,500 the headline and the disposition of the text to photographs 941 00:52:30,583 --> 00:52:33,208 turned it into something very inflammatory. 942 00:52:34,416 --> 00:52:36,333 The text is quite critical. 943 00:52:36,416 --> 00:52:39,500 It presents this, you know, what was the popular view 944 00:52:39,583 --> 00:52:41,541 of the Nation of Islam at the time. 945 00:52:41,625 --> 00:52:45,291 As an outsider group, as a somewhat violent group. 946 00:52:46,583 --> 00:52:48,541 What's fascinating is that Gordon Parks 947 00:52:48,625 --> 00:52:51,833 actually contributes his own separate text 948 00:52:51,916 --> 00:52:54,375 saying, "These are systemic problems 949 00:52:54,458 --> 00:52:55,875 across the United States. 950 00:52:55,958 --> 00:52:59,125 These are problems that are relevant to everyone's life. 951 00:52:59,208 --> 00:53:03,083 These are problems that you should see from this point of view." 952 00:53:03,166 --> 00:53:05,375 And that's where he becomes an activist. 953 00:53:13,666 --> 00:53:16,875 -ASSISTANT CAMERAMAN: B-mark. -Backward action! 954 00:53:16,958 --> 00:53:18,958 LAURA HARRIER: Are you down for the liberation of Black people? 955 00:53:19,041 --> 00:53:21,000 JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: Do we always have to talk politics? 956 00:53:21,083 --> 00:53:22,583 What's more important? 957 00:53:22,666 --> 00:53:24,083 LEE: Cut! Check the gate. 958 00:53:24,166 --> 00:53:25,708 I love Gordon. 959 00:53:25,791 --> 00:53:28,166 We just have great respect for each other. 960 00:53:28,250 --> 00:53:29,333 Action! 961 00:53:32,125 --> 00:53:35,583 He's one of the guys, without them, 962 00:53:35,666 --> 00:53:38,916 I would not be the filmmaker I am. 963 00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:41,625 OSSIE DAVIS: Harlem has come to bid farewell 964 00:53:41,708 --> 00:53:44,166 to one of its brightest hopes. 965 00:53:44,250 --> 00:53:48,000 LEE: At the end of Malcolm X, we had my brother, Ossie Davis, 966 00:53:48,083 --> 00:53:50,916 re-record the eulogy 967 00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:54,041 which he gave at Malcolm's Muslim funeral. 968 00:53:55,250 --> 00:53:57,333 And there's a montage. 969 00:53:57,416 --> 00:54:02,375 Many of the pictures were taken by my brother, Gordon Parks. 970 00:54:02,458 --> 00:54:03,708 We were very happy that 971 00:54:03,791 --> 00:54:06,166 Gordon gave us the permission to use those 972 00:54:06,250 --> 00:54:08,583 historic photographs of Malcolm X. 973 00:54:10,833 --> 00:54:14,041 That camera in his hands was a weapon. 974 00:54:15,458 --> 00:54:17,250 That was a motherfuckin' bazooka! 975 00:54:17,333 --> 00:54:18,333 (LAUGHS) 976 00:54:18,416 --> 00:54:23,000 That wasn't no six shooter or rifle. 977 00:54:23,083 --> 00:54:28,375 When Mr. Gordon Parks had that camera in his hand, 978 00:54:28,458 --> 00:54:29,708 that was a bazooka. 979 00:54:34,083 --> 00:54:36,458 But you're not gonna get the great photographs 980 00:54:36,541 --> 00:54:39,583 if you don't establish trust. 981 00:54:41,375 --> 00:54:43,916 Gordon come in, light up a room, 982 00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:46,791 gave everybody respect. No matter if you were 983 00:54:46,875 --> 00:54:49,541 Gloria Vanderbilt or some bum on the street. 984 00:54:49,625 --> 00:54:56,375 It's only when people feel safe that they open themselves up. 985 00:54:56,458 --> 00:54:59,791 And then, the camera will capture the essence. 986 00:55:03,166 --> 00:55:04,833 At least with the films I'm doing, 987 00:55:04,916 --> 00:55:07,083 especially more for documentaries I think, 988 00:55:07,166 --> 00:55:09,791 you gotta ask people personal questions 989 00:55:09,875 --> 00:55:12,875 about very painful moments in their life. 990 00:55:12,958 --> 00:55:16,166 For example, 4 Little Girls was about the bombing 991 00:55:16,250 --> 00:55:18,625 of the 16th Street Birmingham Baptist Church. 992 00:55:19,750 --> 00:55:22,416 And when you're talking to someone 993 00:55:22,500 --> 00:55:24,500 whose kid was-- 994 00:55:24,583 --> 00:55:26,666 dynamite blew their body apart. 995 00:55:28,416 --> 00:55:30,541 That's not easy. 996 00:55:30,625 --> 00:55:34,250 When did you find out that Carole had been in the blast? 997 00:55:34,333 --> 00:55:37,666 When- when my husband and my mother-in-law came back- 998 00:55:37,750 --> 00:55:39,125 came in to tell me. 999 00:55:42,166 --> 00:55:43,333 Oh, boy. 1000 00:55:45,958 --> 00:55:48,041 It was just-- It was awful. 1001 00:55:49,583 --> 00:55:51,458 It's the job of the artist 1002 00:55:51,541 --> 00:55:53,000 to have your subject comfortable. 1003 00:55:54,875 --> 00:55:57,750 And Gordon had that gift. 1004 00:56:05,833 --> 00:56:09,208 Freedom, freedom. 1005 00:56:09,291 --> 00:56:12,166 KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: Gordon's photography forms a foundation 1006 00:56:12,250 --> 00:56:14,833 for a visual narrative of Black Americans 1007 00:56:15,666 --> 00:56:17,833 seen through Black eyes. 1008 00:56:20,375 --> 00:56:23,125 If you look at it and date it, 1009 00:56:23,208 --> 00:56:26,875 you see the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement. 1010 00:56:26,958 --> 00:56:29,375 ANNOUNCER: I have the pleasure to present to you 1011 00:56:29,458 --> 00:56:32,125 -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -(CROWD CHEERS) 1012 00:56:32,208 --> 00:56:35,250 ABDUL-JABBAR: If you look at his photographs, it's a great chronological record 1013 00:56:35,333 --> 00:56:38,375 of what the 20th century was about for Black Americans. 1014 00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:43,666 Gordon made us visible to people in a way that 1015 00:56:43,750 --> 00:56:45,833 no other photographer could have done it. 1016 00:56:45,916 --> 00:56:48,958 He came from the community, and that was always obvious. 1017 00:56:55,416 --> 00:56:58,750 WALKER: The hold of White supremacy 1018 00:56:58,833 --> 00:57:03,083 on the Black psyche was profound. 1019 00:57:03,166 --> 00:57:04,291 And it was when we started 1020 00:57:04,375 --> 00:57:08,083 to see the images that lifted us up, 1021 00:57:08,166 --> 00:57:12,125 that made us feel that we were worthy, 1022 00:57:12,208 --> 00:57:15,083 that we began to really demand justice. 1023 00:57:23,041 --> 00:57:28,333 And so Gordon Parks was a warrior for justice. 1024 00:57:28,416 --> 00:57:33,916 ♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1025 00:57:35,583 --> 00:57:37,958 Cassius Clay is your name no more, is that right? 1026 00:57:38,041 --> 00:57:39,708 Yes, sir, it's Muhammad Ali. 1027 00:57:39,791 --> 00:57:41,666 Muhammad means worthy of all praises, 1028 00:57:41,750 --> 00:57:45,000 and Ali means most high in the Asian-African language. 1029 00:57:45,083 --> 00:57:46,291 How long have you had the name? 1030 00:57:46,375 --> 00:57:49,375 Well, for about um- two weeks now. 1031 00:57:49,458 --> 00:57:51,166 Is there anybody special who gave you the name? 1032 00:57:51,250 --> 00:57:54,333 Yes, sir, my leader and teacher, the most honorable Elijah Muhammad. 1033 00:57:56,583 --> 00:57:59,125 BERGER: Muhammad Ali began as a reluctant assignment. 1034 00:57:59,208 --> 00:58:02,541 I mean, Parks wasn't quite sure who Muhammad Ali was, 1035 00:58:02,625 --> 00:58:05,083 his conversion to Islam. 1036 00:58:05,166 --> 00:58:06,833 The fact that he sort of transformed from 1037 00:58:06,916 --> 00:58:10,333 Cassius Clay into a much more radical political figure. 1038 00:58:10,416 --> 00:58:14,500 I just don't understand yet how I can be reclassified as 1-A 1039 00:58:14,583 --> 00:58:16,250 without testing me in no way, 1040 00:58:16,333 --> 00:58:19,125 just calling me like this, and I just don't understand it. 1041 00:58:19,208 --> 00:58:21,083 In other words, you think they called you 1042 00:58:21,166 --> 00:58:23,166 only because you're the heavyweight champion of-- 1043 00:58:23,250 --> 00:58:24,250 And a Muslim too! 1044 00:58:24,333 --> 00:58:26,166 Ever since I've joined the Muslim religion, 1045 00:58:26,250 --> 00:58:27,708 I've been catching hell from here, 1046 00:58:27,791 --> 00:58:29,916 they've been trying to ail me, and trick me into this... 1047 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:34,750 At the time that Muhammad Ali was opposing the Vietnamese War, 1048 00:58:34,833 --> 00:58:37,708 he was very controversial. 1049 00:58:37,791 --> 00:58:40,000 He really surprised people when he said that 1050 00:58:40,083 --> 00:58:43,250 he was taking a stand for himself and for all Americans 1051 00:58:43,333 --> 00:58:45,083 who did not support the war, 1052 00:58:45,166 --> 00:58:47,541 and that blew a lot of people's minds. 1053 00:58:47,625 --> 00:58:50,291 "Ain't no Vietcong ever called me nigger." 1054 00:58:50,708 --> 00:58:52,583 Wow. 1055 00:58:52,666 --> 00:58:55,833 That crystalized it for all Black Americans. 1056 00:58:55,916 --> 00:58:57,625 REPORTER 1: Are you gonna resume your boxing career? 1057 00:58:57,708 --> 00:58:59,041 REPORTER 2: Are you talking to us, champ? 1058 00:58:59,125 --> 00:59:01,333 No, I will not say nothing. It is all in here. 1059 00:59:01,416 --> 00:59:03,041 PARKS: When I met Muhammad Ali, 1060 00:59:03,125 --> 00:59:06,208 he was getting in trouble a lot with the press. 1061 00:59:06,291 --> 00:59:08,500 I then took it upon myself 1062 00:59:08,583 --> 00:59:10,958 to say, "Hey don't let the reporters rile you, 1063 00:59:11,041 --> 00:59:13,041 you know, be cooler about it." 1064 00:59:13,125 --> 00:59:15,666 (INDISTINCT CLAMOR) 1065 00:59:21,250 --> 00:59:24,500 When Parks began to speak with Ali 1066 00:59:24,583 --> 00:59:25,958 and follow him around, 1067 00:59:26,041 --> 00:59:28,458 the two of them realized they had a tremendous amount in common. 1068 00:59:30,666 --> 00:59:32,916 MUHAMMAD: In Gordon Parks's understanding 1069 00:59:33,000 --> 00:59:37,041 of Muhammad Ali, was the continuation 1070 00:59:37,125 --> 00:59:41,583 of being in the presence of a genius 1071 00:59:41,666 --> 00:59:47,416 whose art was just his hands and his attitude, 1072 00:59:47,500 --> 00:59:49,375 as compared to Langston Hughes, 1073 00:59:51,583 --> 00:59:52,875 or Richard Wright, 1074 00:59:54,291 --> 00:59:55,750 or Ralph Ellison. 1075 00:59:57,333 --> 01:00:00,000 That was the Malcolm X story too. 1076 01:00:00,083 --> 01:00:03,666 Parks could see, in these people, 1077 01:00:03,750 --> 01:00:05,375 a version of himself. 1078 01:00:06,500 --> 01:00:11,416 And was also trying to say, "If you can see me, 1079 01:00:12,541 --> 01:00:15,125 then you should also be able to see them as well." 1080 01:00:19,958 --> 01:00:24,000 I wish I was there to see, like, how he really shot. 1081 01:00:31,416 --> 01:00:32,666 Even the action moments, 1082 01:00:32,750 --> 01:00:34,666 you could tell he slowed the shutter down a little bit 1083 01:00:34,750 --> 01:00:36,166 to get that blur. 1084 01:00:37,625 --> 01:00:39,333 You could tell his hands were so steady, 1085 01:00:39,416 --> 01:00:42,500 where he could just focus on Ali's face, and you can see that emotion, 1086 01:00:42,583 --> 01:00:44,333 but you can see the speed of Ali. 1087 01:00:48,333 --> 01:00:50,458 Those things that I emulate in my own photography 1088 01:00:50,541 --> 01:00:53,666 is about knowing when to speed up that shutter speed 1089 01:00:53,750 --> 01:00:55,041 to get that locked-in focus. 1090 01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:58,875 When I was starting, I just was always worrying about, 1091 01:00:58,958 --> 01:01:00,916 is the image clear? Is the ISO perfect? 1092 01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:02,083 Is everything just perfect? 1093 01:01:02,166 --> 01:01:04,666 But sometimes, some of the most imperfect pictures 1094 01:01:04,750 --> 01:01:05,875 is how you relay that emotion, 1095 01:01:05,958 --> 01:01:08,041 and that's what I think he was so good at too. 1096 01:01:11,833 --> 01:01:15,250 This image is just, like, one of my favorite pictures of Ali. 1097 01:01:15,333 --> 01:01:17,833 The look in his eyes, you see, like that glare. 1098 01:01:17,916 --> 01:01:20,708 He's not even looking at Gordon. He's, like, gazing off. 1099 01:01:20,791 --> 01:01:22,833 And it's just, like, a beautiful portrait. 1100 01:01:30,041 --> 01:01:33,458 He really captured Ali at every moment. 1101 01:01:34,458 --> 01:01:36,208 You saw the goofiness of him. 1102 01:01:37,375 --> 01:01:38,791 You saw the seriousness. 1103 01:01:40,541 --> 01:01:44,000 Many of us know Muhammad Ali as this loudmouthed boxer, 1104 01:01:44,083 --> 01:01:47,750 but Gordon brought out the humanitarian side of him. 1105 01:01:47,833 --> 01:01:51,083 ABDUL-JABBAR: This to me talks about the peace and serenity 1106 01:01:51,166 --> 01:01:53,791 that you get from your spiritual discipline. 1107 01:01:55,458 --> 01:01:57,291 Muhammad Ali got a lot from that. 1108 01:02:01,791 --> 01:02:05,250 Even though an image is quick, it's quick, 1109 01:02:05,333 --> 01:02:08,041 but the time you put in with that person, 1110 01:02:08,125 --> 01:02:09,750 you can tell in the image. 1111 01:02:09,833 --> 01:02:12,500 You can tell if a person just came in and just snapped and then kept moving. 1112 01:02:12,583 --> 01:02:14,125 But you-- if you can see it in their eyes, 1113 01:02:14,208 --> 01:02:16,166 it was a real human connection right there. 1114 01:02:17,458 --> 01:02:18,666 Muhammad Ali and Gordon, 1115 01:02:18,750 --> 01:02:21,666 that relationship that was able to build, 1116 01:02:21,750 --> 01:02:23,458 you can tell that it was genuine, 1117 01:02:23,541 --> 01:02:25,166 and it was real, and it was authentic. 1118 01:02:31,791 --> 01:02:32,958 COACH CALVIN: Switch! 1119 01:02:33,500 --> 01:02:35,125 There you go. 1120 01:02:35,208 --> 01:02:38,375 You working all that. Give it the same. 1121 01:02:38,458 --> 01:02:40,791 ALLEN: Right now, I've been focusing on sports a lot. 1122 01:02:40,875 --> 01:02:42,500 With everything that's going on in my city, 1123 01:02:42,583 --> 01:02:45,375 a lot of kids are dying because they're in the streets. 1124 01:02:45,458 --> 01:02:46,666 CALVIN: Switch. 1125 01:02:46,750 --> 01:02:48,333 ALLEN: So what I want to do is to change that narrative 1126 01:02:48,416 --> 01:02:50,875 around the youth and give them something to inspire them. 1127 01:02:50,958 --> 01:02:53,291 CALVIN: Change up. Where's Rico at? 1128 01:02:54,916 --> 01:02:57,208 All y'all still gotta train. 1129 01:02:57,291 --> 01:02:59,625 ALLEN: We have this amazing boxing coach 1130 01:02:59,708 --> 01:03:00,958 by the name of Calvin. 1131 01:03:01,041 --> 01:03:03,541 CALVIN: See how fast that was? (GIGGLES) 1132 01:03:03,625 --> 01:03:06,333 ALLEN: I wanted to use my photography to highlight him. 1133 01:03:07,166 --> 01:03:08,250 CALVIN: Box! 1134 01:03:08,958 --> 01:03:10,708 Good, no backing up. 1135 01:03:10,791 --> 01:03:12,625 Side to side. Good. 1136 01:03:14,458 --> 01:03:17,083 If Kenny tell him to work the jab, you work your jab. 1137 01:03:18,875 --> 01:03:20,083 There you go! 1138 01:03:20,166 --> 01:03:22,333 Whoever says work the jab, you beat him to the punch. 1139 01:03:22,416 --> 01:03:24,375 ALLEN: Capturing someone getting punched in the face is pretty easy... 1140 01:03:24,458 --> 01:03:26,166 (CHUCKLES) ...but it's those 1141 01:03:26,250 --> 01:03:27,875 intimate moments, those down moments, 1142 01:03:27,958 --> 01:03:31,750 that I really, I love, like, just seeing people be human. 1143 01:03:34,833 --> 01:03:38,416 When a coach is giving a pep talk or he hugs a kid. 1144 01:03:40,291 --> 01:03:42,000 I like seeing people be vulnerable. 1145 01:03:44,583 --> 01:03:47,666 I've been documenting Coach Calvin for a while now. 1146 01:03:47,750 --> 01:03:49,875 He's saving lives in West Baltimore. 1147 01:03:50,916 --> 01:03:52,333 So what I've been doing is like, 1148 01:03:52,416 --> 01:03:54,916 taking a page out of Gordon Parks's book. 1149 01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:58,458 I've been embedding myself at the gym with these kids, 1150 01:03:58,541 --> 01:04:01,500 and kids love images of themselves. 1151 01:04:01,583 --> 01:04:03,958 And that's when I really started realizing how important 1152 01:04:04,041 --> 01:04:06,291 my imagery was to my city. 1153 01:04:06,375 --> 01:04:09,333 CALVIN: When your hands up, the hands up, go to the body! 1154 01:04:09,416 --> 01:04:11,833 He ain't listening. Oh, he listening. Okay! 1155 01:04:13,166 --> 01:04:14,416 Oh, good right hand! 1156 01:04:15,500 --> 01:04:18,000 Stop wrestling. Punch. Box! 1157 01:04:25,458 --> 01:04:27,708 "Gordon Parks's personal history includes 1158 01:04:27,791 --> 01:04:30,666 a Kansas Farm, a Minneapolis brothel, 1159 01:04:30,750 --> 01:04:33,750 a flophouse in Chicago, a St. Paul jail. 1160 01:04:33,833 --> 01:04:36,833 The story of one American who overcame loneliness, 1161 01:04:36,916 --> 01:04:38,875 the Depression, poverty, 1162 01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:41,458 and his color to find security 1163 01:04:41,541 --> 01:04:43,541 and the beginnings of a success." 1164 01:04:43,625 --> 01:04:47,125 His book is titled A Choice of Weapons. 1165 01:04:47,208 --> 01:04:48,458 Here is Gordon Parks. 1166 01:04:48,541 --> 01:04:49,916 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) 1167 01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:53,125 RAZ-RUSSO: By this point, he's a larger-than-life figure. 1168 01:04:53,208 --> 01:04:55,125 You know, he's an incredibly well known, 1169 01:04:55,208 --> 01:04:57,250 well respected, powerful figure. 1170 01:04:57,333 --> 01:05:01,708 Your pictures of the story of the little boy... 1171 01:05:01,791 --> 01:05:02,958 -Flavio? -Flavio. 1172 01:05:03,041 --> 01:05:04,375 Flavio, they pronounce it. 1173 01:05:04,458 --> 01:05:07,333 ...in Rio de Janeiro will long be remembered. 1174 01:05:12,916 --> 01:05:15,958 PAUL ROTH: Gordon was asked to make an effective photo essay 1175 01:05:16,041 --> 01:05:18,250 that would help Americans understand 1176 01:05:18,333 --> 01:05:21,458 the scale of the problem of poverty in Latin America. 1177 01:05:21,541 --> 01:05:23,125 MERV GRIFFIN: And here's Flavio? 1178 01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:25,333 Yes, that's Flav. 1179 01:05:25,416 --> 01:05:27,208 GRIFFIN: Oh, you got so, you called him "Flav." 1180 01:05:27,291 --> 01:05:30,208 PARKS: Yes, I called him Flav. He called me Gordo. 1181 01:05:30,291 --> 01:05:34,083 ANDERSON COOPER: I remember as a kid looking at pictures of Flavio in Brazil, 1182 01:05:34,166 --> 01:05:38,083 and it absolutely sparked an interest in going places 1183 01:05:38,166 --> 01:05:41,041 and telling stories, and seeing things with your own eye 1184 01:05:41,125 --> 01:05:43,041 and through your own lens. 1185 01:05:43,125 --> 01:05:46,333 I wouldn't be a reporter today if it wasn't for Gordon Parks. 1186 01:05:47,333 --> 01:05:49,291 BERGER: Those photographs would not just 1187 01:05:49,375 --> 01:05:50,958 inspire a response, 1188 01:05:51,041 --> 01:05:53,000 they saved Flavio's life. 1189 01:05:53,916 --> 01:05:55,375 ROTH: Gordon actually took Flavio 1190 01:05:55,458 --> 01:05:57,958 to a doctor for the first time, and that doctor said 1191 01:05:58,041 --> 01:06:00,041 that he had very little time left to live, 1192 01:06:00,125 --> 01:06:03,250 no more than two years and probably much less than that. 1193 01:06:03,333 --> 01:06:04,958 GRIFFIN: Have you heard from him since? 1194 01:06:05,041 --> 01:06:07,458 Well, yes, I brought him to America, uh. 1195 01:06:07,541 --> 01:06:10,250 People, many of you possibly out there, 1196 01:06:10,333 --> 01:06:13,333 sent in money, over 100,000 dollars, 1197 01:06:13,416 --> 01:06:15,541 and demanded that I go back and get Flavio 1198 01:06:15,625 --> 01:06:18,458 and bring him to the United States to be cured, which I did. 1199 01:06:18,541 --> 01:06:20,041 I brought him to the Denver Clinic. 1200 01:06:20,125 --> 01:06:21,791 LESLIE PARKS-BAILEY: All of these donations started coming in, 1201 01:06:21,875 --> 01:06:25,333 and he took it upon himself to get this child help 1202 01:06:25,416 --> 01:06:26,958 for his asthma. 1203 01:06:27,041 --> 01:06:30,375 They built a new house for them, and, you know, it's just... 1204 01:06:31,125 --> 01:06:32,500 Who does that? 1205 01:06:32,583 --> 01:06:36,333 ♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC FADES) ♪ 1206 01:06:39,791 --> 01:06:43,166 Will you welcome please, Mr. Gordon Parks. 1207 01:06:43,250 --> 01:06:46,083 COBB: I think there's an interesting trade off 1208 01:06:46,166 --> 01:06:50,083 that Gordon makes as he becomes more prominent. 1209 01:06:50,166 --> 01:06:53,916 What, looking back, was the very first 1210 01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:56,291 photographic story you ever covered? 1211 01:06:56,375 --> 01:06:59,083 Well, the very first photographic story I covered for LIFE 1212 01:06:59,166 --> 01:07:03,416 was, I think the 1948, was the Harlem gang story. 1213 01:07:03,500 --> 01:07:08,958 COBB: He had previously been able to observe uninterrupted, 1214 01:07:09,041 --> 01:07:10,500 you know, with his camera 1215 01:07:10,583 --> 01:07:13,083 and, you know, capture the unguarded moment. 1216 01:07:15,041 --> 01:07:18,125 To be this Negro man with a camera, 1217 01:07:18,208 --> 01:07:21,208 you know, who's going around taking images. 1218 01:07:21,291 --> 01:07:24,208 You can't quite do that, you know, when everyone knows you, 1219 01:07:24,291 --> 01:07:26,791 where you're showing up on television. 1220 01:07:26,875 --> 01:07:29,125 We're talking to Gordon Parks about The Learning Tree, 1221 01:07:29,208 --> 01:07:31,250 his brilliant new novel. Poetic. 1222 01:07:32,333 --> 01:07:34,708 He has a song about it. 1223 01:07:34,791 --> 01:07:37,000 Gordon, I couldn't put it down from the very first page, 1224 01:07:37,083 --> 01:07:39,083 and of course, the obvious question comes first, 1225 01:07:39,166 --> 01:07:40,666 is it autobiographical? 1226 01:07:41,375 --> 01:07:43,625 Well, that's often asked, uh, 1227 01:07:43,708 --> 01:07:47,333 I have a-- I must say that it's fictional. 1228 01:07:47,416 --> 01:07:50,791 LIFE magazine calls it "Fictional Autobiographical." 1229 01:07:50,875 --> 01:07:53,625 (CHUCKLES) It's a tricky one. But I will admit 1230 01:07:53,708 --> 01:07:55,583 that I know most of the characters in it. 1231 01:07:55,666 --> 01:07:58,541 COBB: At this point, Gordon's personal bearing 1232 01:07:58,625 --> 01:08:01,708 begins to become much more distinct and distinguished. 1233 01:08:03,208 --> 01:08:07,750 If celebrity was a language, Gordon spoke it fluently. 1234 01:08:07,833 --> 01:08:09,458 Have you got anything else in preparation? 1235 01:08:09,541 --> 01:08:11,916 Yes, I have an autobiographical book 1236 01:08:12,000 --> 01:08:14,166 coming up for Harper's, and a novel, 1237 01:08:14,250 --> 01:08:16,125 and there's great talk now 1238 01:08:16,208 --> 01:08:17,666 of a movie for The Learning Tree, 1239 01:08:17,750 --> 01:08:20,875 and I will be asked to direct that. (CHUCKLES) 1240 01:08:20,958 --> 01:08:23,000 I hope certainly, because you know it so much better, 1241 01:08:23,083 --> 01:08:25,166 and I hope also that they're going to let you shoot it 1242 01:08:25,250 --> 01:08:26,541 just about in the same location. 1243 01:08:26,625 --> 01:08:29,750 We hope to go right back to Kansas and shoot this there. 1244 01:08:35,833 --> 01:08:38,541 BERGER: I think he gravitated to film 1245 01:08:38,625 --> 01:08:42,041 because he understood the immense audience. 1246 01:08:42,791 --> 01:08:44,750 Gordon was so interested 1247 01:08:44,833 --> 01:08:47,875 in reaching as many people as possible. 1248 01:08:47,958 --> 01:08:52,166 The Learning Tree was the first major studio film 1249 01:08:52,250 --> 01:08:54,791 directed by an African American director. 1250 01:08:54,875 --> 01:08:57,708 So he broke tremendous ground with the film. 1251 01:08:57,791 --> 01:08:59,166 All of these things are clues. 1252 01:08:59,250 --> 01:09:01,416 Each one should know exactly what they're coming to do, 1253 01:09:01,500 --> 01:09:02,625 and what they're gonna do. 1254 01:09:02,708 --> 01:09:05,541 DUVERNAY: He demanded that Black crew members 1255 01:09:05,625 --> 01:09:06,833 be around him. 1256 01:09:07,625 --> 01:09:09,583 He really lifted as he climbed. 1257 01:09:09,666 --> 01:09:12,125 With The Learning Tree, they took 1258 01:09:12,208 --> 01:09:15,833 a thoroughly integrated crew and cast. 1259 01:09:15,916 --> 01:09:18,416 They could work together. They could live together. 1260 01:09:18,500 --> 01:09:21,958 They created a feeling of goodwill, you might say. 1261 01:09:22,041 --> 01:09:23,583 PARKS: All right, let's shoot it now. 1262 01:09:24,708 --> 01:09:25,833 Action! 1263 01:09:25,916 --> 01:09:28,000 DUVERNAY: He was not only able to direct the film, 1264 01:09:28,083 --> 01:09:31,375 but to, you know, play direct parts in a lot of 1265 01:09:31,458 --> 01:09:33,916 the other art practice and disciplines 1266 01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:35,375 that went into making the film. 1267 01:09:35,458 --> 01:09:38,416 PARKS: I wrote the screenplay, I directed it, 1268 01:09:38,500 --> 01:09:40,333 I wrote the music, 1269 01:09:40,416 --> 01:09:42,791 and I produced it for Warner Brothers. 1270 01:09:42,875 --> 01:09:45,166 COBB: Parks is kind of like the guy in the band 1271 01:09:45,250 --> 01:09:46,916 who's gonna play all the instruments. 1272 01:09:47,000 --> 01:09:51,375 That would still be a pretty uncommon thing 1273 01:09:51,458 --> 01:09:53,791 to see one person do all those things. 1274 01:09:53,875 --> 01:09:57,208 But I also think it falls into the same sort of paradox 1275 01:09:57,791 --> 01:09:59,666 of his career, 1276 01:09:59,750 --> 01:10:02,541 which is that in order to be the first Black person to do something, 1277 01:10:02,625 --> 01:10:04,875 you have to be this exceptional talent. 1278 01:10:04,958 --> 01:10:08,000 NARRATOR: The 15th and youngest child of a Kansas farmer, 1279 01:10:08,083 --> 01:10:10,291 he told of how it was growing up 1280 01:10:10,375 --> 01:10:12,875 in his bestselling novel, The Learning Tree. 1281 01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:16,125 And now Gordon Parks has returned to the town 1282 01:10:16,208 --> 01:10:18,708 where he lived it. And there, made that story 1283 01:10:18,791 --> 01:10:20,083 into a motion picture. 1284 01:10:20,166 --> 01:10:21,125 (GUNSHOT) 1285 01:10:21,208 --> 01:10:22,125 ♪ My baby's gone ♪ 1286 01:10:22,208 --> 01:10:24,166 DUVERNAY: It is an essential film, 1287 01:10:24,250 --> 01:10:26,458 certainly in understanding the Black cinematic canon, 1288 01:10:26,541 --> 01:10:28,750 but it should be a part of the conversation 1289 01:10:28,833 --> 01:10:31,291 as we talk about the American cinematic canon. 1290 01:10:32,500 --> 01:10:34,833 And to make something as lyrical and intimate 1291 01:10:34,916 --> 01:10:36,416 as The Learning Tree, 1292 01:10:36,500 --> 01:10:38,250 and then create a cultural phenomenon 1293 01:10:38,333 --> 01:10:40,083 like Shaft is remarkable! 1294 01:10:40,166 --> 01:10:42,041 -PARKS: Now the sequence we saw this morning... -Right. 1295 01:10:42,125 --> 01:10:44,750 Times Square, panned on off the skyscrapers 1296 01:10:44,833 --> 01:10:46,958 along 42nd Street where the marquis is, 1297 01:10:47,041 --> 01:10:49,250 and when Shaft pops up out of that subway, 1298 01:10:49,333 --> 01:10:51,458 -that's when it should really come on. -Right. 1299 01:10:51,541 --> 01:10:54,375 And there should be a driving savage beat, 1300 01:10:54,458 --> 01:10:57,166 you know, so that we'll be right with him all the time. 1301 01:10:57,250 --> 01:10:59,958 -Mm-hmm. -What I heard you working on earlier 1302 01:11:00,041 --> 01:11:01,833 seems great for that Shaft walk. 1303 01:11:01,916 --> 01:11:03,666 -Can we hear it now? -HAYES: Yeah, okay. 1304 01:11:03,750 --> 01:11:05,791 Now watch the rhythm, man. Just let it flow, you know? 1305 01:11:05,875 --> 01:11:09,666 One, two, three, four. 1306 01:11:09,750 --> 01:11:13,833 ♪ ("THEME FROM SHAFT" BY ISAAC HAYES PLAYING) ♪ 1307 01:11:22,166 --> 01:11:24,583 COBB: How many detectives have we seen? 1308 01:11:24,666 --> 01:11:27,791 From The Maltese Falcon, you know, all the way up. 1309 01:11:27,875 --> 01:11:30,000 We have never seen it like this. 1310 01:11:30,083 --> 01:11:32,041 -Up yours! -CAB DRIVER: Get out of the way. 1311 01:11:32,125 --> 01:11:35,625 COBB: Richard Roundtree was like this swaggering figure. 1312 01:11:35,708 --> 01:11:38,291 As they called him back then, the "Black James Bond." 1313 01:11:40,250 --> 01:11:41,583 I thought we were gonna get to. 1314 01:11:41,666 --> 01:11:43,333 We did, but you wanted me to fidget. 1315 01:11:43,416 --> 01:11:45,583 I just said, "Up yours, baby." 1316 01:11:45,666 --> 01:11:48,250 The whole point of Shaft is he wasn't part of the system, 1317 01:11:48,333 --> 01:11:50,083 that he had agency outside of that. 1318 01:11:50,166 --> 01:11:53,208 Don't get wise with me, Shaft. I'll put your goddamn ass in. 1319 01:11:53,291 --> 01:11:55,375 I'll sue your goddamn ass for false arrest. 1320 01:11:55,458 --> 01:11:58,166 When Shaft interacts with the police, he talks to them 1321 01:11:58,250 --> 01:12:01,166 the way that all Black people wanted to talk to the police. 1322 01:12:01,250 --> 01:12:03,000 -Cool it, man. -You cool it, boy. 1323 01:12:03,083 --> 01:12:05,500 GEORGE: He talked the way he wanted to talk to whoever he wanted to, 1324 01:12:05,583 --> 01:12:06,958 and that included the Black radicals, 1325 01:12:07,041 --> 01:12:08,541 that included the Harlem gangsters. 1326 01:12:09,666 --> 01:12:11,458 And the idea of Black power 1327 01:12:11,541 --> 01:12:13,833 became very, very popular with younger people. 1328 01:12:13,916 --> 01:12:15,625 You were seeing that in the streets. 1329 01:12:15,708 --> 01:12:18,083 You were seeing that in the pop culture. 1330 01:12:18,166 --> 01:12:21,916 And it comes through his work as a photographer. 1331 01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:24,750 DUVERNAY: When you think about what was going on in the country at that time, 1332 01:12:24,833 --> 01:12:30,000 you know, really the country was at war in many ways with itself. 1333 01:12:30,083 --> 01:12:33,208 GEORGE: Shaft was the movie that kind of mainstreamed 1334 01:12:33,291 --> 01:12:34,708 a lot of that rebellion 1335 01:12:34,791 --> 01:12:36,875 through this sort of detective character. 1336 01:12:36,958 --> 01:12:38,000 Listen, Snow White, 1337 01:12:38,083 --> 01:12:39,791 me and you gonna tangle sooner or later. 1338 01:12:39,875 --> 01:12:41,916 We ain't gonna do shit. 1339 01:12:42,000 --> 01:12:46,125 LEE: John Shaft represented Black manhood. 1340 01:12:46,208 --> 01:12:49,000 We're kicking ass, and we got the ladies too. 1341 01:12:49,083 --> 01:12:50,708 (LAUGHS) 1342 01:12:50,791 --> 01:12:53,375 We got it covered on all sides! 1343 01:12:53,458 --> 01:12:56,916 (LAUGHING) 1344 01:12:57,000 --> 01:12:58,625 I didn't see Shaft until much later. 1345 01:12:58,708 --> 01:13:00,416 My mother didn't want me watching that. 1346 01:13:00,500 --> 01:13:03,166 She thought it was a little too risqué for her baby. 1347 01:13:04,291 --> 01:13:06,500 GEORGE: He had White and Black women. 1348 01:13:06,583 --> 01:13:09,000 Shaft is in a shower having sex with a White chick 1349 01:13:09,083 --> 01:13:10,166 he met at a bar. 1350 01:13:10,625 --> 01:13:11,916 That was, whoa. 1351 01:13:15,041 --> 01:13:16,958 LEE: I saw it on 42nd Street. 1352 01:13:17,041 --> 01:13:18,166 SHAFT: (WHISPERING) No noise. 1353 01:13:18,250 --> 01:13:21,583 That motherfuckin' theater was jam packed. 1354 01:13:21,666 --> 01:13:24,833 And Black folks were going berserk. 1355 01:13:24,916 --> 01:13:28,416 It's like, we ain't never seen no shit like this before. 1356 01:13:28,750 --> 01:13:29,791 Open it! 1357 01:13:29,875 --> 01:13:31,750 -(DOOR OPENS) -(WOMAN GASPS) 1358 01:13:31,833 --> 01:13:35,041 We loved it! Because on the screen 1359 01:13:35,125 --> 01:13:38,000 we're looking at a Black superhero. 1360 01:13:38,083 --> 01:13:39,583 -(GUN FIRING) -(SCREAMS) 1361 01:13:39,666 --> 01:13:40,916 (GUNFIRE) 1362 01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:43,500 Shaft is a guy, he has an office in Times Square. 1363 01:13:43,583 --> 01:13:45,416 He has a place in the Village, 1364 01:13:45,500 --> 01:13:48,625 but he's able to move in Harlem and other spaces as well. 1365 01:13:48,708 --> 01:13:50,250 Hey, man. What's goin' on? 1366 01:13:50,333 --> 01:13:52,375 GEORGE: He has a relationship with the police and the authorities, 1367 01:13:52,458 --> 01:13:55,166 but he also has a relationship with the radical element. 1368 01:13:55,916 --> 01:13:57,416 That's Gordon! 1369 01:13:57,500 --> 01:14:00,458 And be sure, after you hit him over the head with the bottle, 1370 01:14:00,541 --> 01:14:02,875 and you see the blood gush out of his face, 1371 01:14:02,958 --> 01:14:06,291 that you maintain the cool that Shaft should maintain. 1372 01:14:06,375 --> 01:14:11,041 Gordon introduced me to Morty Sills, his tailor. 1373 01:14:11,125 --> 01:14:16,666 He says, um, "He will put it all together for you." 1374 01:14:18,875 --> 01:14:22,041 He never told me this, and it was only years after 1375 01:14:22,125 --> 01:14:24,916 that I looked back on it in retrospect, 1376 01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:27,166 it was Gordon Parks. 1377 01:14:27,250 --> 01:14:30,083 PARKS: Gentlemen, do your scene as you did it in the master. 1378 01:14:30,166 --> 01:14:32,041 No mistakes, because this is the type 1379 01:14:32,125 --> 01:14:33,958 we don't like to retake. 1380 01:14:34,041 --> 01:14:35,458 GENEVIEVE YOUNG: The swaggering guy 1381 01:14:35,541 --> 01:14:39,166 with that black leather jacket, which became an icon. 1382 01:14:39,250 --> 01:14:42,416 This was Gordon's other personality. 1383 01:14:44,125 --> 01:14:45,333 That was beautiful, sweetheart. 1384 01:14:47,208 --> 01:14:49,375 BERGER: The movie was a critical success 1385 01:14:49,458 --> 01:14:50,791 and a box office success. 1386 01:14:51,875 --> 01:14:53,833 It won an Oscar for Isaac Hayes's 1387 01:14:53,916 --> 01:14:56,166 extraordinary song for the opening credits. 1388 01:14:59,041 --> 01:15:01,125 It literally set into motion the idea that 1389 01:15:01,208 --> 01:15:04,083 if you make Black films, people will come and see them. 1390 01:15:06,958 --> 01:15:08,666 NARRATOR: Shaft is back! 1391 01:15:10,166 --> 01:15:11,333 Drop the guns and freeze! 1392 01:15:11,416 --> 01:15:15,166 NARRATOR: He's super hood, super high, super dude, 1393 01:15:15,833 --> 01:15:16,958 super fly. 1394 01:15:17,041 --> 01:15:18,708 COBB: The arrival of Blaxploitation 1395 01:15:18,791 --> 01:15:21,500 really shored up Hollywood's fortunes. 1396 01:15:21,583 --> 01:15:23,416 Those films were inexpensive to make 1397 01:15:23,500 --> 01:15:26,416 and guaranteed really significant box offices. 1398 01:15:26,500 --> 01:15:29,375 -Don't crowd me, boy. -You better put that down before I make you eat it. 1399 01:15:31,208 --> 01:15:32,708 COBB: But after being kind of a source 1400 01:15:32,791 --> 01:15:36,000 of a great deal of revenue, there wasn't anything beyond that. 1401 01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:40,000 Very few times would the story deviate 1402 01:15:40,083 --> 01:15:42,875 from the same old, same old thing. 1403 01:15:42,958 --> 01:15:46,708 And eventually, the Black audience got tired 1404 01:15:46,791 --> 01:15:48,708 and the genre died out because 1405 01:15:48,791 --> 01:15:51,291 they went to the well way too often. 1406 01:15:51,375 --> 01:15:54,750 (EXPLOSIONS) 1407 01:15:54,833 --> 01:15:58,291 That whole wave of Black film, that Gordon helped create, 1408 01:15:58,375 --> 01:16:01,125 crested, and Hollywood moved on. 1409 01:16:01,208 --> 01:16:02,958 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1410 01:16:03,041 --> 01:16:05,250 COBB: When Blaxploitation began to fade out, 1411 01:16:05,333 --> 01:16:08,791 there was no avenue to say, "Okay, we want Gordon Parks 1412 01:16:08,875 --> 01:16:12,000 to direct this World War II epic." 1413 01:16:12,083 --> 01:16:15,333 Or like any of the kind of natural progressions 1414 01:16:15,416 --> 01:16:17,416 that you would've seen, especially kind of the heyday 1415 01:16:17,500 --> 01:16:20,291 of the 1970s American director. 1416 01:16:20,375 --> 01:16:22,416 You don't see him get entrée into that. 1417 01:16:25,416 --> 01:16:27,250 PARKS: I've never been offered some of the films 1418 01:16:27,333 --> 01:16:29,583 that would have been offered to me had I been White. 1419 01:16:29,666 --> 01:16:31,500 Let's put it very simply like that. 1420 01:16:36,083 --> 01:16:38,458 YOUNG: He really wanted to keep on being a director, 1421 01:16:38,541 --> 01:16:41,541 but nobody asked him anymore. That grieved him a lot. 1422 01:16:43,958 --> 01:16:47,958 He had not achieved what he wanted to in the movie world. 1423 01:16:50,583 --> 01:16:53,458 LEE: No matter who you are, as an artist, 1424 01:16:53,541 --> 01:16:57,458 and you're not able to expand and grow, 1425 01:16:57,541 --> 01:16:59,041 it's gonna hurt your soul. 1426 01:16:59,125 --> 01:17:01,000 Because your soul is what... 1427 01:17:02,208 --> 01:17:03,416 is what your art is. 1428 01:17:06,875 --> 01:17:09,250 ROTH: He was not a comfortable fit. 1429 01:17:09,333 --> 01:17:11,791 While he had been able to walk a tightrope 1430 01:17:11,875 --> 01:17:12,958 at LIFE magazine, 1431 01:17:13,041 --> 01:17:15,500 he couldn't quite walk the tightrope in Hollywood. 1432 01:17:17,500 --> 01:17:20,250 So it was a brief meteoric career, 1433 01:17:20,333 --> 01:17:21,666 and then it was all over. 1434 01:17:24,416 --> 01:17:27,208 DUVERNAY: Of course, Hollywood has changed from the late '60s, 1435 01:17:27,291 --> 01:17:29,208 when he started making films, 1436 01:17:29,291 --> 01:17:32,166 but it's changed because he changed it, you know. 1437 01:17:32,250 --> 01:17:35,083 It's changed because, you know, he opened the door. 1438 01:17:35,166 --> 01:17:38,833 ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ 1439 01:17:41,583 --> 01:17:44,750 All the years that I knew Gordon, 1440 01:17:44,833 --> 01:17:46,958 over 20 years that I worked with him... 1441 01:17:48,500 --> 01:17:51,375 the next project is what was important. 1442 01:17:51,458 --> 01:17:54,250 How was this going to affect the future? 1443 01:17:54,333 --> 01:17:55,708 And that's where he wanted to go. 1444 01:17:55,791 --> 01:17:57,666 He was always moving forward. 1445 01:17:57,750 --> 01:18:01,166 PARKS: I want to compose more. I want to compose differently. 1446 01:18:01,250 --> 01:18:03,791 I want to write more. I want to write differently. 1447 01:18:03,875 --> 01:18:07,041 This all takes time, and I know I don't have 1448 01:18:07,125 --> 01:18:08,333 that much time. 1449 01:18:09,541 --> 01:18:11,250 LESLIE: He would stay up until, you know, 1450 01:18:11,333 --> 01:18:12,750 six o'clock in the morning, typing. 1451 01:18:12,833 --> 01:18:14,291 I remember when I would stay with him, 1452 01:18:14,375 --> 01:18:16,458 just hearing the typewriter going, 1453 01:18:16,541 --> 01:18:19,625 like, he just never stopped working. 1454 01:18:19,708 --> 01:18:21,875 Being creative was just something 1455 01:18:21,958 --> 01:18:23,291 he couldn't help doing. 1456 01:18:24,875 --> 01:18:27,791 YOUNG: He just had this drive to work all the time. 1457 01:18:27,875 --> 01:18:30,291 Expression of his talent was his religion. 1458 01:18:32,791 --> 01:18:37,250 PARKS: At 85, I really feel that I'm just ready to start. 1459 01:18:40,750 --> 01:18:43,708 SHABAZZ: I met him at the Leica Gallery in the '90s. 1460 01:18:43,791 --> 01:18:46,833 I had just had a really difficult day at jail 1461 01:18:46,916 --> 01:18:49,375 where a young man tried to kill himself. 1462 01:18:49,458 --> 01:18:51,416 You know, like maybe two hours earlier, 1463 01:18:51,500 --> 01:18:53,250 and now I'm at an opening. 1464 01:18:53,333 --> 01:18:57,291 I was downstairs about to leave, and Gordon had come down. 1465 01:18:58,666 --> 01:19:00,916 And I asked him, you know, with all due respect, sir, 1466 01:19:01,000 --> 01:19:03,250 may I take a photograph of you? 1467 01:19:03,333 --> 01:19:06,583 And he had a really bad toothache, and he couldn't speak. 1468 01:19:06,666 --> 01:19:08,750 He looked me in my eyes, and he raised his right hand, 1469 01:19:08,833 --> 01:19:12,333 and he shook his fist about three times as he looked at me. 1470 01:19:12,416 --> 01:19:15,458 He must have saw the pain inside me at that point. 1471 01:19:15,541 --> 01:19:17,625 Through his body language, he let me know that 1472 01:19:17,708 --> 01:19:19,291 you are in a sense, 1473 01:19:19,375 --> 01:19:21,458 carry on that torch, like, hang in there. 1474 01:19:25,750 --> 01:19:28,791 GEORGE: I had friends who knew him, so I was able to be around him. 1475 01:19:29,916 --> 01:19:32,166 He wasn't just a guy who photojournalists knew 1476 01:19:32,250 --> 01:19:35,125 or other people in the photo art world knew. 1477 01:19:35,208 --> 01:19:39,166 Gordon was able to leap out of the world of photography 1478 01:19:39,250 --> 01:19:41,083 into the world of popular culture. 1479 01:19:45,875 --> 01:19:48,583 In the summer of 1998, 1480 01:19:48,666 --> 01:19:52,250 XXL magazine, which was then a fledgling hip-hop magazine, 1481 01:19:52,333 --> 01:19:54,500 decided to do a photograph reenacting 1482 01:19:54,583 --> 01:19:57,833 the Great Day in Harlem photo that he had taken in '58. 1483 01:19:57,916 --> 01:20:00,375 ♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1484 01:20:00,458 --> 01:20:03,166 GEORGE: But the big deal was, who was going to shoot it? 1485 01:20:03,250 --> 01:20:05,750 And they were desperately trying to get Gordon, 1486 01:20:05,833 --> 01:20:07,250 and he finally agreed to do it. 1487 01:20:13,125 --> 01:20:17,166 And him doing that photo made the photo really important. 1488 01:20:17,250 --> 01:20:19,083 Legendary, legendary. 1489 01:20:19,166 --> 01:20:20,541 GEORGE: Connecting the generations 1490 01:20:20,625 --> 01:20:22,541 between the hip-hop world and the jazz world. 1491 01:20:22,625 --> 01:20:25,125 RAKIM: I watched footage on the Great Day in Harlem 1492 01:20:25,208 --> 01:20:27,000 and what that meant to them, man. 1493 01:20:27,083 --> 01:20:29,166 And how Thelonious Monk came down. 1494 01:20:29,250 --> 01:20:31,875 And then, I mean, yo, it means something to me. 1495 01:20:35,208 --> 01:20:36,958 (INDISTINCT CHATTER) 1496 01:20:37,041 --> 01:20:38,625 I came out to do my part, 1497 01:20:38,708 --> 01:20:40,625 to represent my culture, you know what I mean. 1498 01:20:40,708 --> 01:20:42,958 GEORGE: A wide range of artists all say part of the reason 1499 01:20:43,041 --> 01:20:44,750 for being there was Gordon Parks. 1500 01:20:44,833 --> 01:20:47,375 When they called, I said, "Yo, who's doing it man?" I had to be here man. 1501 01:20:47,458 --> 01:20:50,375 GEORGE: Hip-hop was not the number one pop culture in '98. 1502 01:20:50,458 --> 01:20:53,291 So for Gordon to be there, for them was a validation. 1503 01:20:53,375 --> 01:20:55,083 -There's times when he walks up... -(APPLAUSE) 1504 01:20:55,166 --> 01:20:57,250 ...to try and move people around during the photoshoot, 1505 01:20:57,333 --> 01:21:00,500 and people are applauding because he's there. 1506 01:21:00,583 --> 01:21:02,291 ADGER COWANS: I think he was really touched by that. 1507 01:21:02,375 --> 01:21:04,041 And when he got ready to get in the car, 1508 01:21:04,125 --> 01:21:05,166 he was like... (GASPS) 1509 01:21:05,250 --> 01:21:06,791 I mean, I was right behind him and I'm, 1510 01:21:06,875 --> 01:21:08,708 "Get in the car, man. Quit fuckin' around." 1511 01:21:08,791 --> 01:21:12,333 ♪ (UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1512 01:21:28,791 --> 01:21:31,625 FRAZIER: Zion, go to your papa's shoulder. 1513 01:21:31,708 --> 01:21:32,958 Stand by him. 1514 01:21:33,041 --> 01:21:35,166 -Me? -FRAZIER: You're taking a portrait with me. 1515 01:21:35,250 --> 01:21:38,000 ZION: Lights, camera, action! 1516 01:21:38,083 --> 01:21:40,041 FRAZIER: So, here, let me show you. 1517 01:21:40,125 --> 01:21:43,958 So wrap your arm around, and don't be stiff. 1518 01:21:44,041 --> 01:21:46,916 Come on. This is the shot. This is an important shot. 1519 01:21:47,000 --> 01:21:49,166 -Yeah. -FRAZIER: Because I don't have this one, okay? 1520 01:21:49,250 --> 01:21:53,041 FRAZIER: What Gordon Parks's legacy in life has showed me 1521 01:21:53,125 --> 01:21:56,041 is that I am visually representing people 1522 01:21:56,125 --> 01:21:59,791 like how a lawyer represents the plaintiff 1523 01:21:59,875 --> 01:22:03,541 and their client, right. And that is a real fight. 1524 01:22:05,583 --> 01:22:07,666 Do you always wear your glasses? 1525 01:22:07,750 --> 01:22:09,250 MR. SMILEY: I see better without them. 1526 01:22:09,333 --> 01:22:12,500 FRAZIER: Oh, yeah. Look at those eyes. All right, Mr. Smiley. 1527 01:22:13,125 --> 01:22:14,625 These aren't projects. 1528 01:22:14,708 --> 01:22:18,666 There is real blood depending on that work circulating, 1529 01:22:18,750 --> 01:22:20,541 and being out in the world. 1530 01:22:20,625 --> 01:22:24,375 I get to tell this narrative nobody wanted to tell. 1531 01:22:24,458 --> 01:22:27,208 FRAZIER: So Zion, you're going to be focused and concentrating 1532 01:22:27,291 --> 01:22:28,583 on me and the lens. 1533 01:22:28,666 --> 01:22:32,166 And I want you to be like, you know, proud. 1534 01:22:32,250 --> 01:22:34,083 Bring your chin down just a little bit. 1535 01:22:36,583 --> 01:22:38,875 (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) 1536 01:22:38,958 --> 01:22:42,416 FRAZIER: I think it's important to create this visual narrative 1537 01:22:42,500 --> 01:22:46,041 that pays homage to Gordon's legacy 1538 01:22:46,125 --> 01:22:47,875 of understanding how to take 1539 01:22:47,958 --> 01:22:50,875 the trauma behind institutional racism, 1540 01:22:50,958 --> 01:22:54,000 or constantly being under siege in America 1541 01:22:54,083 --> 01:22:55,250 because you're Black, 1542 01:22:55,333 --> 01:22:58,750 and convey that to a viewer with an evocative feeling. 1543 01:23:09,041 --> 01:23:12,083 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1544 01:23:13,416 --> 01:23:16,208 RAZ-RUSSO: Looking at Gordon Parks's photographs today, 1545 01:23:16,291 --> 01:23:19,333 what's incredible about them is that they're timeless. 1546 01:23:19,416 --> 01:23:22,250 They're as relevant today as they were, you know, 1547 01:23:22,333 --> 01:23:24,375 thirty, 40, 50 years ago. 1548 01:23:24,458 --> 01:23:26,791 STEVENSON: He's created this catalogue of images 1549 01:23:26,875 --> 01:23:29,916 that today now tell an important story 1550 01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:32,333 that we're still trying to understand, 1551 01:23:32,416 --> 01:23:36,083 and if we're willing to look at that story, we'll gain an appreciation 1552 01:23:36,166 --> 01:23:39,250 of some truths that we've been slow to recognize. 1553 01:23:41,125 --> 01:23:44,833 COBB: Gordon resonates because life 1554 01:23:44,916 --> 01:23:51,083 has continually reminded us of things that he tried to tell us. 1555 01:23:52,541 --> 01:23:55,083 We have seen in Minneapolis, 1556 01:23:55,166 --> 01:23:57,208 you know, a city that Gordon had personal connection to, 1557 01:23:57,291 --> 01:23:59,333 there's a high school named for him there, 1558 01:23:59,416 --> 01:24:02,583 the most brutal depictions of racism. 1559 01:24:04,500 --> 01:24:06,833 And you know, we've seen 1560 01:24:06,916 --> 01:24:11,625 just how crucial images are to us 1561 01:24:11,708 --> 01:24:13,500 understanding our own humanity. 1562 01:24:15,208 --> 01:24:17,291 I don't think that we really get to understand 1563 01:24:17,375 --> 01:24:19,458 the world that we operate in 1564 01:24:19,541 --> 01:24:22,291 in the same way that we understand it now without Gordon. 1565 01:24:25,208 --> 01:24:27,791 BERGER: His influence is now legendary. 1566 01:24:27,875 --> 01:24:31,250 And I think it's because he represented something 1567 01:24:31,333 --> 01:24:34,250 that was both dynamic in its own time 1568 01:24:34,333 --> 01:24:36,208 and years ahead of its time. 1569 01:24:37,541 --> 01:24:38,791 DUVERNAY: When you look at him 1570 01:24:38,875 --> 01:24:41,791 and the many disciplines and tools he was using. 1571 01:24:42,833 --> 01:24:45,375 Photography, he was writing books, 1572 01:24:45,458 --> 01:24:48,333 he was making movies. I mean, he was doing it all. 1573 01:24:48,416 --> 01:24:51,166 That kind of gave me permission to think, 1574 01:24:51,250 --> 01:24:53,166 you can do more. 1575 01:24:53,250 --> 01:24:56,000 SHABAZZ: As a photographer and as photographers, 1576 01:24:56,083 --> 01:24:58,000 I think that we have a responsibility 1577 01:24:58,083 --> 01:24:59,458 to kind of, like, lend our voice 1578 01:24:59,541 --> 01:25:01,166 and use our cameras as weapons 1579 01:25:01,250 --> 01:25:03,333 to counterbalance a lot that's going on out there. 1580 01:25:04,375 --> 01:25:05,625 You know, so like Gordon, 1581 01:25:05,708 --> 01:25:08,833 what I'm just trying to do now is offer a counter narrative 1582 01:25:08,916 --> 01:25:10,791 to a lot of the negative images 1583 01:25:10,875 --> 01:25:13,000 that we are so accustomed to seeing. 1584 01:25:13,083 --> 01:25:15,333 Of course, the photographs can make a difference. 1585 01:25:17,041 --> 01:25:19,625 BUNCH: What Parks reminds us is 1586 01:25:19,708 --> 01:25:22,625 that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. 1587 01:25:22,708 --> 01:25:25,916 That vigilance only comes from a visual way 1588 01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:28,083 of understanding what we're experiencing 1589 01:25:28,166 --> 01:25:29,958 and what needs to be confronted. 1590 01:25:30,041 --> 01:25:32,000 And I think contemporary photographers 1591 01:25:32,083 --> 01:25:34,333 are really standing on his shoulders when they do that. 1592 01:25:37,208 --> 01:25:39,333 ALLEN: When you think about Gordon Parks and his legacy, 1593 01:25:39,416 --> 01:25:41,625 yes, we love the work, this is our passion, 1594 01:25:41,708 --> 01:25:43,083 but it's also about the people you touch 1595 01:25:43,166 --> 01:25:45,875 and how we change their lives using this art form 1596 01:25:45,958 --> 01:25:47,791 to bring people together. 1597 01:25:54,916 --> 01:25:57,333 FRAZIER: When I'm shooting images of people, 1598 01:25:57,416 --> 01:26:01,166 I will see a Gordon Parks image, and I'll know 1599 01:26:01,250 --> 01:26:03,500 that I'm making that portrait 1600 01:26:03,583 --> 01:26:06,666 that's in conversation with all of that legacy. 1601 01:26:06,750 --> 01:26:12,125 ♪ (ORCHESTRAL MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪ 1602 01:26:18,875 --> 01:26:22,291 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 1603 01:26:22,375 --> 01:26:24,750 FRAZIER: Whenever I get lost, or stumble, or trip, 1604 01:26:24,833 --> 01:26:28,833 I'll never tire of always looking to Gordon. 1605 01:26:31,458 --> 01:26:36,000 ♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1606 01:27:40,125 --> 01:27:44,583 ♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1607 01:28:25,750 --> 01:28:28,625 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 135458

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