Saturday, April 03, 2010

"powerful history makes for gripping television"

Its basic outlines are familiar to even the most casual student of American history: the marches, the mass arrests, the church bombings.

But seeing the actual footage that makes up "Eyes on the Prize" -- the heralded documentary about the civil rights movement, coming to DVD for the first time -- can still startle for its rawness and drama. The photo above shows ROSA PARKS being fingerprinted.

Seeing a suspender-clad man describe how his 14-year-old nephew, Emmett Till, was kidnapped and killed by Mississippi racists for allegedly whistling at a white woman, or watching teenage girls in cardigans walk past angry mobs to attend their Alabama school makes not only for powerful history, but gripping television.

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