...But Then, She's Betty Carter

A film by Michelle Parkerson

1980 | 53 minutes | Color | 16mm/DVD | Order No. 99075

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SYNOPSIS

This lively film is an unforgettable portrait of legendary vocalist Betty Carter, one of the greatest living exponents of jazz. Uncompromised by commercialism throughout her long career, she has forged alternative criteria for success — including founding her own recording company and raising her two sons as a single parent. Parkerson's special film captures Carter's musical genius, her paradoxical relationship with the public and her fierce dedication to personal and artistic independence.

PRESS

"An exciting film from which the audience walks away exhilarated."

Dare Thompson Kirkland Arts Center

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

Berlin Film Festival
Films de Femmes, Creteil, France
Maysles Cinema
Mill Valley Film Festival
Black Independents Film Festival, Paris
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Michelle Parkerson

Michelle Parkerson is an award-winning independent film/video maker based in Washington, DC. Her work has been shown widely in festivals and on public television including the documentaries "A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde", "But Then, She's Betty Carter" and "Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock". Ms. Parkerson has received grants from the Independent Television Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Film Institute as well as a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Her work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and "Gotta Make this Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock" was nominated for a Local Emmy in the category of Public Affairs Documentary. She was awarded the Prix du Public at the Festival International de Creteil Films de Femmes and the Audience and Best Biography Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Michelle Parkerson has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, the University of Delaware, Howard University and Temple University. She has also lectured at Yale University, the National Film Board of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Flaherty Film Seminar, Harvard University, and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the DC Mayor's Office of LGBTQI Affairs. (7/19)

Subject Areas

African American History Music & Performance

Gotta Make This Journey

This vibrant and engaging film profiles the a capella activist group, Sweet Honey in the Rock. Singing to end the oppression of Black people world wide, SWEET HONEY embraces musical styles from spirituals and blues to calypso, and concerns ranging from feminism to ecology, peace and justice. This dynamic film features individual portraits, powerful concert footage and commentary by Angela Davis, Alice Walker and Holly Near.

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Storme

“It ain’t easy…being green” is the favorite expression of Storme DeLarverie, a woman whose life flouted prescriptions of gender and race. During the 1950’s and 60’s she toured the black theater circuit as a mistress of ceremonies and the sole male impersonator of the legendary Jewel Box Revue, America’s first integrated female impersonation show and forerunner of La Cage aux Folles. The multiracial revue was a favorite act of the Black theater circuit and attracted mixed mainstream audiences from the 1940s through the 1960s, a time marked by the violence of segregation. Parkerson finds Storme in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, now working as a bodyguard at a women’s bar and still singing in her deep silky voice with an “all girl” band. Through archival clips from the past, STORME looks back on the grandeur of the Jewel Box Revue and its celebration of pure entertainment in the face of homophobia and segregation. Storme herself emerges as a remarkable woman, who came up during hard times but always “kept a touch of class.”

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Sarabah

Rapper, singer and activist, Sister Fa is hero to young women in Senegal and an unstoppable force for social change. A childhood victim of female genital cutting (FGC), she decided to tackle the issue by starting a grassroots campaign, “Education Without Excision,” which uses her music and persuasive powers to end the practice. But until 2010 there’s one place she had never brought her message – back home to her own village of Thionck Essyl, where she fears rejection. SARABAH follows Sister Fa on this challenging journey, where she speaks out passionately to female elders and students alike, and stages a rousing concert that has the community on its feet. A portrait of an artist as activist, SARABAH shows the extraordinary resilience, passion and creativity of a woman who boldly challenges gender and cultural norms. It’s an inspiring story of courage, hope and change.

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