Gordon Parks' Visions

The multi-talented Gordon Parks, author, photographer, composer, and filmmaker (Shaft, The Learning Tree) offers his own story in this fascinating portrait of one black man's perception of the past half century in America. As a boy growing up on the streets of Harlem, Parks eloquently says: "I tended each day the garbage gardens, and climbed to the fatherless rooms," creating a heartbreaking image of the unbroken cycle of poverty in the ghetto. Combining pictures with newsreel footage from the period, Parks recalls his growing love for jazz music during the 30s (and offers his one-word definition of jazz: "Ellington") and his early years as a black journalist and photographer. In later years, he would create a mesmerizing gallery of photographs from the deep South (and later still pictures from Vietnam). Playing the piano, riding the range, remembering life, Parks paints an interesting picture of his life and times. His memorable take on living: "At times I felt like a tattered black flag gone limp above a wasteland; at other times I've felt like a fine horse galloping in the wind. That's the way life keeps you dying an interesting death." A superb documentary. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: Xenon Home Video, 211 Arizona Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90401;1-800-4681913.)