When asked to make an autobiographical film for public television, Gordon Parks constructed a cinematic collage of his music, still photographs, archival news footage, and narration drawn from his lifetime of creative work. A filmic poem, Moments without Proper Names explores themes of childhood, racism, Black self-determination, success, poverty, and war—all subjects that Parks dedicated his life to addressing with his art. (1988, 60 minutes) Preceded by Parks’s final film, Martin, a production of his ballet based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., made for KCET public television, Los Angeles. (1989, 55 minutes)
Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection.