Film Forum

VOICE OF LA RAZA and THE FIRST WORLD FESTIVAL OF NEGRO ARTS

William Greaves · 1972 · U.S. · 39 min

Voice of La Raza Written by William Greaves and Jose Garcia Torres “The film appeals, beginning with the term la raza, or ‘the people,’ in its title, to the spirit of the radical movements that had emerged in Mexican-American and Puerto Rican communities during the late 1960s... Shot in 16mm on the streets of Los Angeles, New York, and Albuquerque, Voice of La Raza focuses on everyday people, with significant portions devoted to sequences of Quinn engaged in conversation with young people on the street. In heavily accented English, street slang, or with traces of regional accents, these men (and one young woman), shown in close-up, recount their experiences of being discriminated against by employers or educators.” – Laura Isabel Serna, William Greaves, Filmmaking as Mission (Columbia University Press, 2021) The First World Festival of Negro Arts The official documentary film of the festival held in Dakar, Senegal in 1966, in which over 2,000 writers, artists, and performers from Africa and the African Diaspora participated. Featuring Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Alvin Ailey, Aimé Césaire, Leopold Senghor, and many other artists, performers, and dignitaries from thirty countries. “You have to realize that the reason why I went into motion pictures was to make films like The First World Festival of Negro Arts. It was the first opportunity I had to make films that expressed a black perspective on reality. Until then I had not had access to financing which would permit that.” – William Greaves 4K restoration by IndieCollect