“All of us know a great deal about their music and the culture and the fashion and the films. But I didn’t realize how really groundbreaking they were in terms of their careers,” explains Dr. Mehret Mandefro, who is Emmy-nominated for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Series for the “American Masters” documentary “How it Feels to Be Free”; she produced it along with Michael Kantor, Lacey Schwartz Delgado, Elliott Halpern, Elizabeth Trojian, Julie Sacks and Grammy winner Alicia Keys. Based on the book of the same name by Ruth Feldstein, the film chronicles the art and activism of Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Pam Grier, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson. Watch our exclusive video interview with Mandefro above.
SEESee chats with 5 Emmy-nominated TV showrunners: ‘The Boys,’ ‘Black-ish,’ ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,’ ‘Mahalia,’ ‘Black Lady Sketch Show’
The six artists profiled in the film represent the progress made by...
SEESee chats with 5 Emmy-nominated TV showrunners: ‘The Boys,’ ‘Black-ish,’ ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,’ ‘Mahalia,’ ‘Black Lady Sketch Show’
The six artists profiled in the film represent the progress made by...
- 8/13/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
In 2002, when Halle Berry won the Oscar for her performance in “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first African American to take home the Academy Award for best actress, after 30 seconds of convulsive tears she said, “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll…And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance, because this door tonight has been opened.” To achieve something by standing on the shoulders of others is a profound feeling. And what Halle Berry’s speech hit home is that where those earlier performers had allowed her to become a giant, they were giants too — more than contemporary audiences often know.
“How It Feels to Be Free” is a documentary, at once sobering and enchanting, that interweaves portraits of six legendary stars, all of them Black women, telling the story of the trails they blazed,...
“How It Feels to Be Free” is a documentary, at once sobering and enchanting, that interweaves portraits of six legendary stars, all of them Black women, telling the story of the trails they blazed,...
- 4/18/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
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