The learning tree [blu-ray]

Based on Parks' semi-autobiographical novel, the film follows the journey of Newt Winger, a teenage descendant of Exodusters growing up in rural Kansas in the 1920s, as he experiences the bittersweet flowering of first love, finds his relationship with a close friend tested, and navigates the injustices embedded within a racist legal and educational system. Exquisitely capturing the bucolic splendor of its heartland setting, this landmark film tempers nostalgia with an incisive understanding of the harsh realities, hard-won lessons, and often wrenching moral choices that shape the road to self-determination of the young Black man at its center.

General Note:

Originally released as a motion picture in 1969.

Based on the novel by Gordon Parks.

Wide screen (2.35:1 aspect ratio).

Title and credits from screen.

Special features: My father: Gordon Parks (1968 documentary made on the set of The learning tree, narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Gordon Park Sr. and members of the cast and crew); Revisiting The learning tree (2021 documentary on the making of the film and its artistry, featuring curator Rhea L. Combos and filmmakers Ina Diane Archer, Ernest R. Dickerson, and Nelson George); Gordon Parks; artist & activist (2021 conversation, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie between artist Hank Willis Thomas and art historian Deborah Willis); The moviemakers (featurette that shows Gordon Park on location for The learning tree);Two 1968 documentaries (Diary of a Harlem family and The world of Piri Thomas), with a video introduction featuring Rhea L. Combs and Nelson George; trailer.

Performers:

Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar, Mira Waters, Joel Fluellen, Malcolm Atterbury, Richard Ward, Russell Thorson, Peggy Rea.

Technical Details:

Blu-ray, region A; LPCM monaural; requires Blu-ray player.

Accessibility Note:

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH).

Subject Term:

African American teenage boys -- Kansas -- Drama.

African American families -- Kansas -- Drama.

African Americans -- Civil rights -- Drama.

Murder -- Drama.

Geographic Term: