Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth

Deeply informative and spiritually fulfilling, filmmaker Pratibha Parmar's excellent documentary serves up a profile of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, whose extraordinary journey began in the Jim Crow years of the Deep South, where she was raised in a matchbox house (with paper bags plastered to the walls in lieu of wallpaper) by a mother who stood up to white owners of cotton fields in her determination to educate her children. Alice started writing poems as a means of emotional escape, and ultimately received a scholarship in the early 1960s to Spelman College in Atlanta. There she fretted over whether to jeopardize her standing with the school in order to join Civil Rights marches, but found in historian Howard Zinn—who would be fired from the Spelman faculty for his activism—an early mentor. While still writing, Walker became more active in the Black Power movement. She married white Jewish attorney Melvyn Leventhal (an expansive personality who speaks warmly of his ex-wife in filmed interviews) and had a daughter, feminist writer Rebecca Walker. Walker's years at Ms. magazine in New York were fruitful and she found a black sisterhood of fellow writers. Racial dividing lines at the time were so strong, however, that her marriage to Leventhal did not last. Walker talks about story and poetry collections she wrote before completing the 1982 international bestseller The Color Purple, partially based on her grandparents' experiences. Quincy Jones and Steven Spielberg are on hand to discuss the film version, with some additional time devoted to a backlash in the 1980s against the work for associating spousal violence, rape, lesbianism, and incest with African-American characters. The documentary also covers Walker's activism in America, Africa, Gaza, and elsewhere; her more recent writing; and relationships and love affairs. Walker appears to be a liberated spirit, asking what it truly means to be human and not letting herself be trapped by conventional expectations. Extras include an interview with the director, film premiere Q&A, audio of Walker reading her poem “Remember,” and a study guide. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)