Film Forum

FROM THESE ROOTS and BLACK POWER IN AMERICA: MYTH… OR REALITY?

William Greaves · 1974 · U.S. · 28 min

From These Roots “A return to Greaves’s own roots growing up in Harlem. With little stock footage of Harlem and its intellectuals available, Greaves decided to construct a film composed exclusively of photographs. What emerged was a compelling portrait of a community made strong by relative freedom and opportunity. Within the larger context of documentary practice, the film helped to inaugurate a cycle of city neighborhood films that focused on local communities.” – Adam Knee and Charles Musser, William Greaves, Filmmaking as Mission (Columbia University Press, 2021) Black Power in America: Myth... or Reality? Through interviews with prominent Black leaders including Franklin Thomas, head of the Ford Foundation, and congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, this documentary examines how the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s changed the Black community and the rest of American society.