“[Gordon Parks] lived life on his own terms, and tried hard to create a rich and varied artwork that would resonate with people who took just a little time to care and who were craving aspects of their own reflections. . . . or society’s illness.”
—Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) wrote that when he purchased his first camera in a pawnshop, “I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism.” While Parks stands in American memory primarily as a photographer, he chose multiple “weapons” to explore his artistic and humanitarian concerns. A renaissance man in practice and legacy, Parks produced films and musical compositions alongside his powerful photo essays, often with the same desire to raise social awareness. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, this series presents depictions of black American life from slavery into the 1980s, a portrait of an accomplished and multidimensional artist, and an opportunity to experience groundbreaking examples of black filmmaking and storytelling. Parks’s early documentary shorts showcase his photojournalistic technique and commitment to social critique. His first feature, The Learning Tree (1969), is a semiautobiographical account of the lives of black children in Depression-era Kansas. Parks’s 1971 Harlem action-crime drama Shaft essentially invented the blaxploitation genre. Wielded with compassion and a restrained sense of outrage, the film camera proved to be a powerful weapon in Gordon Parks’s hands—both The Learning Tree and Shaft have been named to the National Film Registry. For Spike Lee, “Just the fact of who he was, what he did, that was the inspiration I needed. . . . The odds that he got these films made . . . when there were no black directors, is enough.”
Maya Raiford Cohen
Curatorial Intern
show less
—Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) wrote that when he purchased his first camera in a pawnshop, “I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism.” While Parks stands in American memory primarily as a photographer, he chose multiple “weapons” to explore his artistic and humanitarian concerns. A renaissance man in practice and legacy, Parks produced films and musical compositions alongside his powerful photo essays, often with the same desire to raise social awareness. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, this series presents depictions of black American life from slavery into the 1980s, a portrait of an accomplished and multidimensional artist, and an opportunity to experience groundbreaking examples of black filmmaking and storytelling. Parks’s early documentary shorts showcase his photojournalistic technique and commitment to social critique. His first feature, The Learning Tree (1969), is a semiautobiographical account of the lives of black children in Depression-era Kansas. Parks’s 1971 Harlem action-crime drama Shaft essentially invented the blaxploitation genre. Wielded with compassion and a restrained sense of outrage, the film camera proved to be a powerful weapon in Gordon Parks’s hands—both The Learning Tree and Shaft have been named to the National Film Registry. For Spike Lee, “Just the fact of who he was, what he did, that was the inspiration I needed. . . . The odds that he got these films made . . . when there were no black directors, is enough.”
Maya Raiford Cohen
Curatorial Intern
“[Gordon Parks] lived life on his own terms, and tried hard to create a rich and varied artwork that would resonate with people who took just a little time to care and who were craving aspects of their own reflections. . . . or society’s illness.”
—Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) wrote that when he purchased his first camera in a pawnshop, “I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism.” While Parks stands in American memory primarily as a photographer, he chose multiple “weapons” to explore his artistic and humanitarian concerns. A renaissance man in practice and legacy, Parks produced films and musical compositions alongside his powerful photo essays, often with the same desire to raise social awareness. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, this series presents depictions of black American life from slavery into the 1980s, a portrait of an accomplished and multidimensional artist, and an opportunity to experience groundbreaking examples of black filmmaking and storytelling. Parks’s early documentary shorts showcase his photojournalistic technique and commitment to social critique. His first feature, The Learning Tree (1969), is a semiautobiographical account of the lives of black children in Depression-era Kansas. Parks’s 1971 Harlem action-crime drama Shaft essentially invented the blaxploitation genre. Wielded with compassion and a restrained sense of outrage, the film camera proved to be a powerful weapon in Gordon Parks’s hands—both The Learning Tree and Shaft have been named to the National Film Registry. For Spike Lee, “Just the fact of who he was, what he did, that was the inspiration I needed. . . . The odds that he got these films made . . . when there were no black directors, is enough.”
Maya Raiford Cohen
Curatorial Intern
read more
—Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) wrote that when he purchased his first camera in a pawnshop, “I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism.” While Parks stands in American memory primarily as a photographer, he chose multiple “weapons” to explore his artistic and humanitarian concerns. A renaissance man in practice and legacy, Parks produced films and musical compositions alongside his powerful photo essays, often with the same desire to raise social awareness. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, this series presents depictions of black American life from slavery into the 1980s, a portrait of an accomplished and multidimensional artist, and an opportunity to experience groundbreaking examples of black filmmaking and storytelling. Parks’s early documentary shorts showcase his photojournalistic technique and commitment to social critique. His first feature, The Learning Tree (1969), is a semiautobiographical account of the lives of black children in Depression-era Kansas. Parks’s 1971 Harlem action-crime drama Shaft essentially invented the blaxploitation genre. Wielded with compassion and a restrained sense of outrage, the film camera proved to be a powerful weapon in Gordon Parks’s hands—both The Learning Tree and Shaft have been named to the National Film Registry. For Spike Lee, “Just the fact of who he was, what he did, that was the inspiration I needed. . . . The odds that he got these films made . . . when there were no black directors, is enough.”
Maya Raiford Cohen
Curatorial Intern
show less
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Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
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