Transcripts

[MUSIC PLAYING] JOHN RABE: Black filmmakers Carl Franklin and Spike Lee may owe their careers to Gordon Parks. Gordon Parks became the first Black man to have control over a Hollywood film when he wrote, directed, scored, and produced The Learning Tree in 1963. That was the start of a four film contract with Warner Brothers, which even today seems a remarkable commitment for a business to make to a member of a minority group most often stereotyped by its product.

Parks' most famous movie is 1971's Shaft, a Black action movie scored by Isaac Hayes set in the ghetto and starring Richard Roundtree. Starting tomorrow, Gordon Parks who is now 83 will be celebrated in the Twin Cities with screenings and a visit from the director himself. He talks about his work Saturday at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, introduces his autobiographical documentary, Sunday, and hosts a youth rap session Monday, the same day the Oak Street Cinema shows Shaft. There's more through next week.

Parks earned his name taking pictures for Life Magazine. But he really began his artistic career in St Paul, taking pictures for Frank Murphy's, the clothing store.

GORDON PARKS: It was such a beautiful store, one of the most beautiful stores in the country. Got my start there in fashion. Murphy's used to celebrate me in the windows on Christmas holidays, putting one of the pictures that I first made there in the window, and putting some memorabilia, a poem that I wrote to Frank when he died and, I think, the poem I wrote for Madeleine when she died.

[SLOW MUSIC] Where grows the learning tree? By rivers that flow in the night.

JOHN RABE: Mr. Parks, I got my first chance to see The Learning Tree when it came through town as part of the Library of Congress film restoration project. And I really liked it. I really liked the understated way that you told that story. Is that a movie that you still watch?

GORDON PARKS: Yes, I'm very touched with the movie when I see it myself. I've never read the book. I wrote the book, I think, in '62. It's close to a 60th printing now in paperback. So it's lasted a long time.

And it's been taught in different schools throughout the country and 12 languages around the world. I still think for some reason that that's my best film and the closest to my heart. Let's put it like that.

SPEAKER 1: I was born into this prairie, to its shifting moods, and its wide emptiness and rugged beauty. And when I was a boy out here, I used to lie in this same Indian grass and watch the clouds race their shadows across the hills and the valleys. I know the coyote's howl and the hawk's cry.

And that river a mile or so back, used to cool my sunburned days. I used it for looking glass sometimes. And I envied it for meandering off to places that I thought I would never see.

JOHN RABE: How much did you have to-- well, was there any conflict about the way you told that story? I know that one person offered to produce it, if you would change all the characters to white. But in the more realistic scope of things, did you get pressure to maybe make the story more sensational or to somehow tone it down, anything like that when you were making it?

GORDON PARKS: No, I got perfect backing from the studio, Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood. Kenneth Hyman, who was the son of Elliott Hyman, who owned the Warner Brothers at the time, practically dumped it all in my lap in the first 15 or 20 minutes that I met him in his office in Hollywood. The first thing Hyman said to me was, well, do you want to do the film? I said, yes, of course.

He said, well, who do you want to do the screenplay? I said, I don't know anyone out here. He said, well, how about you doing it because you wrote the book? I said, fine. And then he said, I hear you're a composer, why don't you compose the music? I said, OK.

And he said, well, you're going to direct it And you're going to need a lot of clout as a director, first Black director in Hollywood. So I suggest that you also produce it, so you'll be the big boss. So I said, why not?

To tell you the truth, I didn't think any of it was going to happen. But I thought this was just Hollywood talk. But when I signed the contract, I knew that I was on my way.

SPEAKER 2: At times, especially in the adolescence of my career, I allowed my camera to pass judgment upon people without first taking time to understand them. I took refuge in the erroneous adage that a photograph never lies. Since then I have learned that what a man does not always show on the face he wears. Usually, there's a deeper truth submerged inside, often imprisoned by his most constant enemy, himself.

GORDON PARKS: Spike Lee sends me a note or calls me. And some of the other young directors call every now and then, especially when one's in trouble, he needs a little advice. And if I can give it to him, I give it to him.

But I think there's a lot of talent out there. And I think things are going to open up even more. I hope that they will attack their work with a sense of universality, rather than just consider themselves as Black directors, film directors. If need be, they should be qualified to direct play from Shakespeare or a play by Dostoevsky. Anyone who presents a good enough project, they should be able to do it, if they prepare themselves.

JOHN RABE: My latest news of you is that you're working on a film project about the British painter, Turner. Who is this person? And why are you interested in this project?

GORDON PARKS: JMW Turner was 19th century painter, who was very well-known around the world, of course. But in England. He's a God. Actually, he was the father of the impressionist.

The English thought he was a little out of his mind, but he was way ahead of himself. And they thought he had trouble with his vision. But I've loved Turner for 44 years. And that's why I want now to do a film about him. I call it The Sun Stalker because he was very, very taken with the effects of the sun upon the Earth, the sky upon people, upon the world in fact.

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