1.18.18: Talking with Tracy Heather Strain about Lorraine Hansberry PBS doc

[00:00:08][Music] hey folks what's up today is Thursday and this is of course little Martin on the field trip livestream as well as podcast glad to be with you on this day I've got a fantastic show for you today and we're talking Lorraine Hansberry are on tomorrow Friday PBS is going to debut across the country the film it is called American masters Lorraine Hansberry sighting eyes feeling heart and now you can check your local PBS affiliate for the actual airing of that because they depends on the city that you're in but it's going to tell you by the life and legacy of this brilliant playwright his sister who died 30 at the age of 34 from cancer and now of course it was January 12th and not the anniversary of her death and a lot of folks really don't know much about her and so here's a trailer from the upcoming PBS documentary about Lorraine Hansberry serious drama [Music] serious drama drama that has at least the objective of making a large a statement about life I think sooner or later has to become involved in its town Lorraine Hansberry is hugely important for having written a Raisin in the Sun the most celebrated play by an african-american author considered one of the great plays of the 20th century [Music] looking in the mirror this morning I'm thinking I'm 35 years old I'm married 11 years and I got a boy who's got the sleep in the living room because I got nothing aged not gonna give him much stories she was reaching into the essence of who we were who we are where we came from if we got up today and said you know what can we do to irritate America Lorraine was very political person her place that to me is her jumping-off place she's fighting the oppression of women she's fighting against race discrimination poverty class Lorraine wasn't just the conventional mainstream liberal Lorraine was a left-wing radical it really doesn't matter whether you're talking about the oppressed or the oppressor an oppressive society will dehumanize and degenerate everyone involved among all the women I knew she was the most exciting as a middle-class black woman Hansberry was opposed to live a conventional life and certainly in her early years in New York she was not living a conventional life she's living this kind of parallel life and writing about it the rent became a part of my consciousness she seems to know something about everything she was a profound thinker Lorraine was this new moment on the horizon she set a whole new paradigm a whole new stage for what we could now begin to expect of America and what could begin to expect of ourselves [Music] Wow that it's gonna be a powerful powerful documentary so I had a great conversation via Skype earlier today with Tracy Heather strange she is the filmmaker who has worked on this for more than a decade I think you're certainly gonna enjoy our conversation so here's my chat with Tracy first off Tracy what what was so interesting and unique about Lorraine Hansberry that you said you know what this story needed to be told in this bathroom I I was just struck by the fact that no one really knew about previously and I didn't know us obviously now I know a lot more about Lorraine Hansberry than I did when I first said oh there should be a documentary about Lorraine Hansberry which I did before I was even a filmmaker during the 80s after I graduated from high school I'm in college I've seen a lot of movies that there's a big independent film movement in the in the 80s and Spike Lee came out and he was had that called make black film and I you know I was really drawn to the fact that there not a lot of stories about african-americans who are like me out there in the world and Lorraine Hansberry came into my head the reason she was in my head in the first place is when I was 17 years old my grandmother took me and my little sister to see the play to be young gifted and black and I encountered hands berries words for the first time and like almost anyone who encounters Hansberry words no matter if you're black or white or Asian or whatever whoever you are or however you identify they're really powerful and they're often life-changing and I think if you're african-american and a woman they are particularly important and powerful so I became I figured out how to get into filmmaking I became a filmmaker gradually moved up really was struck by the fact that people only knew Raisin in the Sun and some people just out of me because is that if you talk to people and you say Lorraine Hansberry that's the only thing they know that's it I think that was so way that maybe because she died early and then there was this wave of people that were identified as Black Arts Movement and many of those people weren't aware of how radical she was her place subtle and in many ways that in terms of its activism and she was kind of relegated to this integrationist you know if people want to divide african-americans of that time here didn't the King camp and the Malcolm X camp you know she was a kind of in the king camp you know but they didn't realize that she was very outspoken and held very radical ideas and it's perfect this clay and also I think her dying at 34 so so it's not like she had these long runway so the opportunity to sort of build a name over a period of time right and she was she was really interested in a lot of things when she before she died she was working on a variety of plays and they were all about the african-american expansion I need to tell story about a Native American boy she was going to adapt to Charles chestnut novel into a play she was writing about well she did write about people that she knew in Greenwich Village and that's her last Broadway play the silence in the bursting window but she really felt that she wanted to connect with people there's a interview she did with someone named Patricia marks and she said I believe that the highest gift of man is art and I'm not anxious enough to think of myself as an artist and she goes on to say they can share illuminations about each other and ultimately you know based on all the work I've done on camera she wanted to change the world she wanted to make our country live up to its ideals I asked this question of all of the book authors my talk to so I asked you to say question you would do your research really working on this what one thing represented the wild moment where that calls you to vote Wow I have to say this question for me because I've worked on this for so long you know we go for teams here so we this 2004 when I joined this with someone named Chu Schultz and she was one of the original producers of the off-broadway production of over a cup of to be young gifted and black and but he also was the individual who Robert Nomura had granted access for a documentary to use Lorena answered his papers and he'd been looking for someone to direct and in 2004 I was actually looking for this person that I didn't know his name choose short because I wanted to do this so we joined forces so it's you know that's 14 years and it's it's kind of hard to remember the Wow movements because there's and sometimes I just lately been thinking all the frustrating just I just we were always struck back to how organically she was connected to the major movements of her lifetime so interesting to read in her diary she felt like alright this person the letter and people often you know got back especially after a reason than the Sun so I was really struck by her connectedness and so that's well you see it's connected this in terms of obviously being in a family that was extremely involved in your various organization nwq national early but also i guess i guess is hard for many of us to understand this I guess for me when I talked to Harry Belafonte and when he's talking about Paul Robeson and he's talking about Devon he's talking about you know he's these amazing folks who these are also people who what in her life at an early age and so I mean it's sort of wild to think that oh yeah you know Paul Rosen came by the house you need the boy came by the house too and so clearly being among these unbelievable powerhouses had effect on me yes Lynch Lorraine just relived in a very empowering household and she come into our home and discuss ideas put it in this context first of all we have segregation so people can't stay in any hotel and so a lot of times people would stay in other people's homes and sure now carry her cousin talks about the fact that they would sit on the floor and listen they were allowed to listen she said the women didn't talk here but kids listening to the serious-minded adults talking about how to fix things from the african-american community and so this so this is a part of her and she she's a daddy's girl so she really you know was inspired by the things that he was doing he was a successful real estate developer and was trying to continue to change you know the society and then her uncle William Leo Hansberry was a famed African scholar he wasn't I would say that he was a pioneering African scholars he faced a lot of opposition for his research into Africa even from African Americans for a long time but people that became leaders in the independent movement like novelty geeky way he came to the Hansberry home so she was hearing from these people on in their stories and issues early on so she that she goes in New York and she is she's in trying cover ups and she's working for the newspaper he created Dubois is around the corner Alice Childress had been on Broadway in the play and in the cast is working there people who really believe that us didn't had more responsibility than just to their art they had a responsibility to society to think they needed to use their art to try to change things for for you that's length of time working on this for a lot of people they would go Jesus that's literally birthing a child and they're about to graduate from college it's not always obvious to people who have money that money to share it's one thing it's almost like sometimes people can't hear you you know if I say this is a really important story validation because my husband and I have a track record of creating documentaries for public television we have done to our films you know that are archival days that did well for Public Television Joe Schultz has done a lot of work for public television and so you know it was it was it was hard that was what took so long into what we did because we were so nervous about losing people as soon as we got a little bit of money we've run out into a set of interviews so we started interviewing people in 2006 and then we come back maybe it's more do some research some search trips and then we made a sample reel and we tried to use that continue to raise money so four times let's talk about that it's I think for a lot of people they hear about films and they hear old studio did this and did that and then you know all that will fund it but you know like when they park near The Birth of a Nation I mean he went out and raised the eight million dollars and that was I mean having it go door to door talking to people and then selling it and so it's the same way for this it's not I guess people understand it's not like PBS goes oh yeah here you go here's 2 million dollars there you go knock it off no yeah they do not do that and what we had to do was we had to knock on doors we did a Kickstarter campaign we I applied for a lot of grants and the thing about applying for a grant you write a grant they ask her what the schedule is going to be and if you don't get the grant you know you're kind of life is that ended you have to figure out okay the time you carved out that you were hoping to work on Hansberry now you have to fill it with something that's gonna pay you a living so you know it's just a you know process that is very challenging and so in some ways I I wasn't really prepared I thought it was gonna be an easy sell she wrote one of the most rent plays in in North America it's hard and almost every school in the country I thought people of course this isn't a writer you know it wasn't the case the other thing that most people aren't aware of is um you have to pay for the materials most of the materials you see in that documentary you have to create for the people to work on them you know and sometimes people don't get interns well the kind of visualization that's not internal work you need people who have done this work before and time you have to pay for their archival materials a photograph could maybe could cost $400 there are photographs of course that are going to film that we're toward you free they're in the public domain but in the sharing society we have now people aren't over there yeah that will have copyrighted materials have to pay for it including good have the film A Raisin in the Sun in the documentary which is one of the most expensive things we have in that I read a lot of secondary source material I read a lot of primary matter of course in French papers it takes time and and you need a team you can't do a film like this by yourself and so that's why you need all this it's not a lot of times also people just say oh you just got a camera you get your few interviews and sort of like you do for to tell me like I have a television show and it's a different deal when you're talking about you know I've talked to other people you know they're talking about documentaries that are 750 thousand a million dollars two million dollars I mean there are big there are big screen films that have been done for that amount of money I just want to make the trade the cost of it is that but I've talked to Stan Lee Nell to talk to others and they say look I mean really good documentaries even my special town at HBO will go either from seven hundred thousand dollars to two million bucks you have to know the history before you do the interviews so many people that we interview in these kinds of films it's you know instead of could say the same thing they don't quite remember things I mean you know just try to think about where you were in a particular day ten years ago right even more in the case of me asking these questions about Lorraine Hansberry and so while I don't know everything that everyone's gonna say in advance I do have to know I've had I need to job done enough work to know and they've said something wrong and that happened to you in nineteen such and such and I often bring newspaper articles or other things to help them remember take them again and it was really interesting when I interviewed Clarence Jones the timing was really good he had just come from a 50th anniversary down for the March that so he was back in time his head was already there and right I feel so confident that I got a better interview out of him because of that it's been emotional MacLaren's is a great guy had known well and so he's also a great storyteller last question what do you want what would you what do you want for an adult to get out of watching this what do you want 18:18 enjoy try to get ideas I want adults who consider themselves middle class people to see some representation of themselves on the screen I think that that so many documentaries are focused on the challenges of being and well my stories are always about the challenges ok here's a story about someone who's not necessary economically challenged or it's not a story about dealing with addiction and those are very important stories to tell that's not what I'm saying but the range of the african-american experience is not o is not often presented in various documentaries that get produced and so I want adults to see a story that resonates with them on many different levels it's why I included you know those who movie that archival that was somebody's know movie that somehow ended up in an archive except for the the archival pieces that we got from the Lorraine Hansberry properties trust and people have told me it was so wonderful to see women that looks like their mothers and their aunts and their grandmothers you know the screen and so so I wanted that identification to be there and of course I want everyone to feel empowered and inspired but I do have the greatest hopes for younger people I want them to see somebody smart and educated and say I think that being smart and well-educated is part of my heritage there's and I want that like me a lot of books and no stuff like Lorraine so if I have to tangle with Mike Wallace or Otto Preminger David Susskind I'm ready I want them to feel inspired about artistic creation and know the journey is not always easy but in the end there can be great rewards and I'm not talking about her winning you know the near drama Critics Circle Award and that's that's of course a wonderful thing but the reward of having a community see themselves when Lord Richard serves the woman said weren't got around in my community that there was something going on down here for me there was something that concerned me I want I want them to know that bringing stories to the public about our lives can be quite empowering and I'm finding that out firsthand I young people are struggling with issues of identity no matter what kinds of identities to struggle with Lorraine Henry had to wrestle with that herself and not alone and then lastly people young people who want to be activists and feel like their calling is to go out and change the world in a more sort of overt pulling away dot delving into politics or joining organizations that are fighting for social change in fighting against racism and discrimination Lorraine Hansberry ZAR great role much as lots of great quotes and just her life that now that it you know more people will know about it I think a great example good luck with it well I certainly hope you enjoyed that conversation with Tracy of course and again the Lorraine Hansberry film them via the name again of course it is called American masters Lorraine Hansberry sited eyes feeling heart it premieres nationwide on PBS on Friday January 19th at 9 p.m. Eastern please check your local listings for that please and so once you take a look at it folks we should have follow me on snapchat Instagram as well as Twitter a troll that's Martin you can go to my Facebook page as well please like in follow me there always go to my digital website all that TV for more great content and of course you can visit Roland s Martin comm learn more information about me if y'all want to bring me in as a speaker you can just click speaking you can go there you can also of course buy my books as well as well as the books of my wife Reverend dr. Jackie hood Martin okay y'all I've got to go I got a hop on a plane I'm here to the University of Tennessee Chattanooga will be live-streaming my MLK speech tomorrow for a special Roland Martin unfiltered on the road okay y'all be sure to have an absolutely great great day serious drama [Music] serious drama drama that has at least the objective of making a large a statement about life I think sooner or later has to become involved in its town Lorraine Hansberry is hugely important for having written a Raisin in the Sun the most celebrated play by an african-american author considered one of the great plays of the 20th century [Music] looking in the mirror this morning I'm thinking I'm 35 years old I'm married 11 years and I got a boy who's got to sleep in the living room because I got nothing aged nothing to give him at stories she was reaching into the essence of who we were who we are where we came from it isn't as if we got up today and said you know what can we do to irritate America Lorraine was very political person her place that to me is her jumping-off place she's fighting the oppression of women she's fighting against race discrimination poverty class the rain wasn't just a conventional mainstream liberal Lorraine was a left-wing radical it really doesn't matter whether you're talking about the oppressed or the oppressor an oppressive society will dehumanize and degenerate everyone involved [Music] among all the women I knew she was the most exciting as a middle-class black woman hands very was opposed to live a conventional life and certainly in her early years in New York she was not living a conventional life she's living this kind of parallel life and writing about it the rent became a part of Maya consciousness she seemed to know something about everything she was a profound thinker her reign was this new moment on the riedel she set a whole new paradigm a whole new stage for what we could now begin to expect of America and what can begin to expect of ourselves [Music]