August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand

In his too brief career, Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American playwright August Wilson was hailed as a storyteller, truth teller, and poet and chronicler of everyday life in Pittsburgh's black community. Filmmaker Sam Pollard's PBS-aired American Masters documentary profile traces how Wilson was shaped by his racially mixed upbringing and early life in Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. The offspring of a white mother and a black father (who was both alcoholic and abusive), Wilson experienced prejudice from both his teachers and schoolmates. He would basically become self-educated, spending most of his time in Pittsburgh's Carnegie libraries, where he developed a fascination with words, eventually culling new vocabulary from diverse sources such as barber shops and diners. Wilson scribbled notes in bars and restaurants, but only after he moved to Minneapolis was he able to look back and transform his poetry into plays. Music was a common theme for him, especially blues (the "sacred book"), and the price paid by black people for "being deprived of their song." In addition to interviews with actors Viola Davis, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne, and others, generous clips from Wilson's works (including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Fences) are included to illustrate the playwright's style and themes, ranging from his complex characterization of women to the pain of a deferred "expectation of justice." Wilson died in 2005 at the age of 60 from liver cancer, but his voice is present throughout the documentary in archival interviews. Extras include additional scenes, and an interview with Pollard. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)