Award-winning filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain examines Lorraine Hansberry’s life and work using a remarkable collection of archival footage, home movies, rare photos, and unpublished documents. Don’t miss Lorraine Hansberry: American Masters, premiering Friday, January 19, 2018 at 10 p.m. on CPTV.
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959) changed the face of American theater by depicting the limitations of the American dream through the lives of a black family on Chicago’s South Side. The play’s richly drawn characters and unprecedented subject matter attracted record crowds and earned it the coveted top prize from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.
This two-hour film from American Masters features interviews with Hollywood legends such as Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, and Louis Gossett Jr.; narration by award-winning actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson; and the voice of Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose as Hansberry.
The result is a timely, revealing portrait of an activist and artist whose popular recognition has, until now, remained long overdue.