The learning tree

Author

Gordon Parks

Call Number

• BLU-RAY DRAMA (CEN)

Edition

Blu-ray special edition.

Languages

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Performers

Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar, Mira Waters, Joel Fluellen, Malcolm Atterbury.

Publication Information

[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2021]

Physical Description

1 videodisc (107 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (37 pages ; color illustrations ; 17 cm)

Audience

MPAA rating: PG.

Summary

"With this tender and clear-eyed coming-of-age odyssey, the renowned photographer turned filmmaker Gordon Parks not only became the first Black American director to make a Hollywood studio film, he also served as writer, producer, and composer, resulting in a deeply personal artistic achievement. Based on Parks's own semi-autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree follows the journey of Newt Winger, a teenage descendant of Exodusters growing up in rural Kansas in the 1920s, as he experiences the bittersweet flowering of first love, finds his relationship with a close friend tested, and navigates the injustices embedded within a racist legal and educational system. Exquisitely capturing the bucolic splendor of its heartland setting, this landmark film tempers nostalgia with an incisive understanding of the harsh realities, hard-won lessons, and often wrenching moral choices that shape the road to self-determination of the young Black man at its center."--Container.

Notes

Based on the novel by Gordon Parks.

Originally produced as motion picture in 1969.

Special features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack ; new documentary on the making of the film and its artistry, featuring curator Rhea L. Combs and filmmakers Ina Dian Archer, Ernest R. Dickerson, and Nelson George ; new conversation, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie between artist Hank Willis Thomas and art historian Deborah Willis about the influence of director Gordon Parks ; The moviemakers, a featurette that shows Parks on location for the film ; My father: Gordon Parks (1969), a documentary made on the set of The learning tree, narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Gordon Parks Sr. and members of the cast and crew ; Diary of a Harlem family and The world of Piri Thomas, two 1968 flims on which Parks played creative roles, with an introduction by Combs and George ; trailer.