From within the walls of a paper shack in Georgia came one of the most celebrated authors of contemporary American literature.
And as Alice Walker celebrates the milestone of her 70th birthday and the nation commemorates Black History Month, Thirteen’s American Masters series presents “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” this Friday, February 7. PBS viewers will be allowed an intimate portrait of Walker’s journey from the daughter of sharecroppers to a pioneering African-American “womanist” writer of international fame.
Much like the prose she crafted over the course of her 45-year writing career, Walker proves to be a vivid and complex subject for filmmaker Pratibha Parmar.
Interviews with Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, and Sapphire accentuate Walker’s frank self-portrait.
The child of sharecroppers, Walker’s brilliance and curiosity enabled her to transcend obstacles and circumstances – including race in the Jim Crow South and gender during the infancy of the women’s liberation movement.
She defied the status quo, with a willingness to gamble the freedoms her intellect afforded her for the sake of civil and human rights. The documentary illustrates a path forged by way of activism and an uncompromising approach to creative production.
She speaks of her childhood exploring her Eagleton, Ga. surroundings, knowing there was something bigger in store for her. She reflects on the peaks and valleys of the journey that took her further than anyone could have imagined. “Beauty in Truth” also manages to evoke the heartaches, struggles and sacrifices – both personal and professional – that ran parallel to her success.
In 1983 she made history as the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Color Purple. “Beauty in Truth” reminds viewers of the backlash from men of color regarding how black men are portrayed in the book and Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation.
Walker speaks about the experience of being lauded by the literary community while being ostracized by many for portraying emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of black men.
She reflects on her interracial marriage, which fell victim to the Civil Rights Movement. She speaks openly of her sexual freedom and dating women – most famously, folk singer Tracy Chapman.
She spares no intimate detail about her very public estrangement from her only daughter. Viewers will feel her pain as she speaks of being blindsided by a Daily Mail article where Rebecca Walker claims that she felt abandoned as a child due to her mother’s focus on her work. Rebecca even claimed that her mother’s “fanatical feminist” views tore their family apart.
Walker unapologetically speaks of the pain and losses that came with every gain in her life – and no subject is off limits.
“Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” premieres nationally on Friday, February 7 at 8 p.m. CST on PBS. Check local listings for details and visit http://www.pbs.org/americanmasters.
