MADELINE ANDERSON IN PERSON

Mon 11/7 @HFA
Free!
Google “famous documentary filmmakers” and here’s what you’ll see: a collection of white men, with only a few, marginalized exceptions. Knowing how clouded the film industry is with this lack of diversity, it is without hesitation that we celebrate the work of Madeline Anderson, one of the most influential African-American documentary filmmakers. With much of her work concerning social issues, Anderson is both a veteran of fighting with a whitewashed industry and a firm believer that documentaries wield tremendous power in inspiring social change through powerful representation.

Her first film, Integration Report One (1960), was produced during the Civil Rights movement and meant not only to capture the waves being made during this time, but to provide an explanation for why social change was necessary in crafting a safe world. This film, like others, had difficulty finding distribution, serving as a case study for how the documentary industry has excluded, and continues to exclude, filmmakers of color. Harvard will be screening this on Monday, November 7, along with two of Anderson’s other works—A Tribute To Malcolm X (1967) and I Am Somebody (1970)—and a discussion with Madeline Anderson herself on her revolutionary career.

―Andy Houldcroft