Film Forum

STILL A BROTHER: INSIDE THE NEGRO MIDDLE CLASS and IN THE COMPANY OF MEN

William Greaves · 1968 · U.S. · 90 min

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STILL A BROTHER: INSIDE THE NEGRO MIDDLE CLASS Written by William B. Branch Narrated by Ossie Davis Completed and originally aired by National Educational Television in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., STILL A BROTHER: INSIDE THE NEGRO MIDDE CLASS continues to resonate as one of the most searching cinematic explorations of African American identity in relation to class in the United States. William Greaves probes the expansion of the Black middle class to uncover enduring social discrimination and economic inequality on the basis of racial difference. In the process, he finds both seismic conflict and hopeful development within a Black community increasingly rejecting the false promises of upward mobility: the emergence of progressivism in the typically apolitical Black bourgeoisie; the strengthening ties between traditional Black Christianity and militant Black power; the rise of the “Black is beautiful” movement to counter racial self-hatred; and the call among activist youth for Black history to enter the academic and cultural mainstream. Narrated by actor Ossie Davis—and featuring trenchant interviews with Black leaders as well as searing footage from the decade’s civil-rights protests and ghetto uprisings—STILL A BROTHER questions the possibility of racial advancement undercapitalism by formulating alternative paths toward a truly egalitarian society. In the Company of Men “Examines racial friction between white management and chronically underemployed African Americans in a Southern auto plant. Greaves’s idea was to use a Moreno-trained psychodramatist, Walter Klavun, to create a sociodrama to deal with racial conflict within the workplace. His approach proved to be novel for a sponsored film.” – J. J. Murphy, William Greaves, Filmmaking as Mission (Columbia University Press, 2021) 4K digital transfer by IndieCollect.