a modern rennaisance man

gordon parks should be a household name. in another time he may have been.
if you don't know the name, you should. if you don't know his work, you should.

a respected author, a great musician, a talented poet, the first african american director and writer of a major motion picture and of "shaft". and then what he became known for a major important photographer.

all of this is covered in the film along with his failures as a husband several times over. the beginnings of his son's success with his own film multimillion dollar making "superfly" before his untimely death. its a bitter sweet autobiography.

i saw this after his death and theres a little more bitter sweet added to it. while gordon had more successes than your average celebrity...hell more than almost all celebrities...., he remains an obscurity that most people don't know of. yet maybe that says something about the man and his life. always amazing but with a bitter blues ending.

a very well done documentary. not my favorite but certainly among the better of all art and photographer films. its a bit slow overall; i've shown it to my classes and they loose interest before its done. still i think it should be required viewing for any would be photographers as well as an inspiration to young african americans.

9/10