As I Remember It

A Portrait of Dorothy West

A film by Salem Mekuria

1991 | 56 minutes | Color | DVD | Order No. 99233

Host a screening

SYNOPSIS

This intimate portrait of writer Dorothy West explores the forgotten role of women in the Harlem Renaissance. From the perspective of her 83 years, the still active writer relates her memories of growing up African American, privileged and enthralled by literature. Archival footage and photographs, interviews and excerpts from her autobiographical novel, THE LIVING IS EASY, capture West's fascinating story.

PRESS

"Captures West's exciting, vigorous nature. A refreshing perspective on the Harlem Renaissance."

Elizabeth Hadley Freydberg Northeastern University

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Salem Mekuria

SALEM MEKURIA is an independent writer, producer, director, videographer, and a video installation artist. She recently retired as a professor of Art at Wellesley College. Her award winning documentary films and video installations feature Ethiopian subjects and have been shown internationally. Among the numerous honors and grants she has received are: the Luella LaMer Chair in Women's Studies, Wellesley College; a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University; Fulbright Scholar award; The New England Media Fellowship; the Rockefeller Foundation's Intercultural Media Fellowship; Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest International Artists Residency Fellowship; two fellowships at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University; the Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation production grant.

She is currently working on the last installment of Square Stories: A Trilogy, and a feature documentary, Awra Amba's Utopia. (7/19)

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Sidet: Forced Exile

During the past two decades, more than two million refugees have left Ethiopia. Famine, poverty and political strife as well as the religious persecution caused by Eritrea’s annexation have already cost countless lives. Narrated by Salem Mekuria, an Ethiopian filmmaker in the US, this lucid documentary presents the life stories of three women refugees in neighboring Sudan. It traces the attempts of individual women to survive displacement, resettlement camps and ineffectual bureaucracy. An astute, politically sophisticated analysis of social and economic crisis from the perspective of Third World women.
Learn more
Shopping Cart