SYNOPSIS
ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH tells the compelling story of an extraordinary woman. Alice Walker made history as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her groundbreaking novel, The Color Purple. Her early life unfolded in the midst of violent racism and poverty during some of the most turbulent years of profound social and political changes in North American history during the Civil Rights Movement. Mixing powerful archival footage with moving testimonials from friends and colleagues such as Howard Zinn, Angela Y. Davis, Gloria Steinem, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Quincy Jones, Steven Spielberg and Danny Glover, ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH offers audiences a penetrating look at the life and art of an artist, intellectual, self-confessed renegade and human rights activist.
PRESS
"...a much needed contribution to the slow but ever growing archive of African-American women who have indelibly shaped our discourses of race, gender, sexuality, class, and oppressive regimes of power."
"An intimate, exquisitely rendered portrait of one of the great artists of our time."
"Parmar has given us all an opportunity to gain both understanding and encouragement from one of humanism’s great exemplars."
"Alice Walker is one of the great thinkers of our time, and has changed the lives of so many women with her ideas - this rich and honest film tells a story that we all need to hear."
" The ultimate impression left by Pratibha Parmar’s eloquent film is of a courageous life full of risk but full of joy too."
"...inspiring and informative… Parmar presents audiences with a detailed landscape of the “beauty” and “truth” of Walker’s life"
"A compelling and inspirational documentary."
"Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth is a dazzling, courageous portrait of the extraordinary life of a living legend. "
"Parmar's film masterfully presents Alice Walker's revolutionary story as integral to American history."
“Pratibha Parmar’s documentary on the life’s work of Alice Walker is the director’s invitation to exalt with connected, layered complexity the artist, the activist, the woman, the person of colour as cultural icon..."
"...a perfect piece of filmmaking. Worthy of the sold-out screening and standing ovations it received."
"...attractively made doc will delight those who are passionate about Walker..."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Napa Valley Film Festival, Jury Prize for Best Documentary
- Qfest Philadelphia, Jury Prize for Best Documentary
- QReel, Audience Award for Best Documentary
- African Diaspora Int’l Film Festival, Public Award for Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color
- Vancouver International Film Festival
- Cleveland International Film Festival
- Seattle International Film Festival
- Melbourne Queer Film Festival
- Athena Film Festival
- International Women’s Film Festival Seoul
- Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival
- River Run International Film Festival
- Mardi Gras Film Festival
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Pratibha Parmar is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, video artist and professor. Awarded The Visionary Award from the One in Ten Film Festival and the Frameline Film Festival Life Time Achievement Award, Pratibha is Writer/Director/Producer of over 16 documentaries and her films are included in THE PLACE IS HERE (2017) retrospective on 1980's British Black Arts movement, which highlighted issues of race, gender and the politics of representation. Her film SARI RED is retained in the permanent collection at MOMA, NYC and Pompidou Center, Paris. She is the author and editor of several ground breaking books notably, "The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 1970s Britain," and editor and publisher at Sheba Feminist Press (1980's), the first UK publishers of Audre Lorde. Pratibha was Visiting Artist at Stanford University, Theatre & Performance Studies Department (2013) and is currently an Associate Professor in the film department at California College of the Arts, San Francisco. (07/19)
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