Movies Til Dawn

I thought I’d write a summary of Booker’s story to state, in a dramatic fashion, what I see as the spine of our movie. Booker’s story is that of an illiterate black man born into a life of poverty in the sharecropping world of 1920's Mississippi who managed to pull himself out of that life despite his limitations. He built himself a life “in the city” as a business person, fulfilling his dream of owning his own business--a restaurant called "Booker's Place" in the black part of town. He managed to do this by working nights as a waiter at the legendary "Lusco's Steak House"--a Mississippi landmark in the white part of town (it was segregated, of course). By walking on two sides of the street, as it were--serving the white master in order to be his own master amongst the black citizens--he was able to function in an uncommonly independent way. You could say that, despite the killing workload, he truly had it made. But people can only remai...

I thought I’d write a summary of Booker’s story to state, in a dramatic fashion, what I see as the spine of our movie. Booker’s story is that of an illiterate black man born into a difficult personal life of poverty in the sharecropping world of the 1920[s and 30’s south who pulled himself out of that life and, despite his limitations, built himself a life “in the city” as a business person. He worked as a waiter (the best job available to him) in order to support his very “all-American” dream of being his own boss and running his own place. He most certainly would have been happy with that arrangement for the rest of his life had not history interfered. Once progress came to the south and once blacks were given the right to protest the conditions under which they lived within white society, Booker Wright—like many others around him—was forced to grow. Initially, though, he watched from the sidelines, wanting no trouble, wanting only to maintain the life he’d carefully built ...

I am currently working on two documentary films in addition to my feature projects. For the past two years I've been shooting interviews of great performers who came out of cabaret and nightclub backgrounds for a documentary on the history of cabaret. The film--titled "Intimate Nights; The Golden Age of Cabaret"--is based on James Gavin's excellent book of the same title and is just about ready to go out to find a buyer in the form of a sizzle reel showing highlights of the interviews. (I've held off editing any footage until we have a buyer as the rights clearances are bound to be expensive). But a few months ago I began work on another doc as well. The emergence of this project is directly attributable to the posting on this blog of my fathers documentary "Mississippi: A Self-Portrait". My producing partner, David Zellerford, was so taken with the film--and specifically with an amazing piece of footage involving a black restaurant owner/worker...