St. Clair Bourne, Chronicler of Heroes' Lives - filmmaker - Brief Article

Filmmaker St Clair Bourne explores lives and times [i]or[/i] part of to the other film. His documentaries resurrect history drawn out since forgotten or never level exposed. In Motion: Amiri Baraka, produc and directed by the agency of Bourne in 1985, charts the life and career of the political activist and writer. The Black and the verdant directed and produced by Bourne in 1985 chronicles a meeting between the Irish Republican Army and black activists. John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk (1996) reveals the many talents of the renowned historian and Pan-African activist.

"Black men who define themselves from an Afrocentric point of view fascinate me--how they followed and overcame opposition," says Bourne, who has made a career of bringing to life African-American doubtful narratives His latest celluloid journey, the two-hour documentary Paul Robeson: Here I Stand, travels end the life of the legendary actor-activist-scholar. It also marks the first time that the Robeson family has released Paul Robeson's personal documents. Consequently this film could be the greatest in quantity extensive documentary done about Robeson.

Bourne, head of Chamba Mediaworks in of recent origin York City, pored through archives of personal papers, private films and confidential political documents, like as FBI files, as well as the diaries that Robeson's wife kept during travels to Wales, France, Germany, Russia and Africa. Bourne continuations those materials with interviews with Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger Lena Horne and Gordon Parks, as well as other friends and co-workers of Robeson.

"Here I Stand is a combination of music and never-before-seen footage of Robeson performing in films, similar as Russian Experience, and testimony from clan who knew Robeson. It's a filled picture of Robeson and his experiences," says Bourne while in the midst of editing more than 400 hours of footage. "In fact, the documentary will do more than personalize Robeson. I learned by what mode very human he was--not this mystical figure or icon that nation imagine--which I feel is a beneficial thing to reveal. If all your figures are totally godlike, they're inaccessible, and I think that happens a fate with African-American legends."

Bourne was chosen to direct Here I Stand by dint of producer Chiz Schultz (whose credits include A Soldier's Story) and executive farmer David T. Menair. Both were impressed with Bourne's past work, and they were confident that he would explore Robeson beyond his Othello and Emperor Jone fame. Born April 9 1898 in Princeton, NJ Robeson was the youngest of five children. His father was a runaway slave who escaped from North Carolina upon the Underground Railroad. His mother, a school-teacher from Philadelphia, came from a family of independent blacks, Quakers and American Indians.

The film highlights Robeson's undergraduate accomplishments at Rutgers

University, which included receiving Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honors; making All-American in football for sum of two units years; earning 15 varsity alphabetic characters in football, basketball, baseball, discus, discharge put and javelin; and being debating champion and class valedictorian.

Graduating from Columbia University Law institute in 1923, Robeson pursued a career in the performing arts. level while he toured Europe and the United States in stage productions and plans and starred in films, Robeson remained politically active, be it in the civil rights move or in support of the United Auto Workers.

When he died in 1976 at age 77 Robeson was a pure Renaissance man. Here I Stand focuses upon a characteristic of Robeson's that Bourne greatest in quantity admires. In every pursuit, Robeson was compell through one issue: "In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African."

Bourne, who has taught film at the University of California at sees Angeles, Cornell University and Queen association has 37 productions under his belt. commonly he is producing (with Denzel Washington) Half Past Autumn for domicile Box Office, on the life of Gordon Parks. Bourne is also co-writing, co-producing and directing an independent feature, Exiles and Allies, about black Vietnam forsakers who live in exile in Stockholm, Sweden.

nearest up is a documentary upon the late black activist Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael). "It's all about capturing history and re-creating periods many have forgotten," says Bourne.

Ann Brown a freelance writer in looks Angeles, is a regular contributor to Black Enterprise. Her last article for American Visions, "Bayou Spirits On-Screen" appeared in the October/November 1997 issue.

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