St. Clair Bourne

Something to Build On

St. Clair Bourne

Bourne documenting the options granted to high school students who want to attend college

Let the Church Say Amen!

St. Clair Bourne

A young seminarian's path to becoming a minister.

Paul Robeson: Here I Stand

St. Clair Bourne

Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte

Paul Robeson: Here I Stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer, and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic champion of the rights of the poor working man, the disfranchised and people of color. He led a life in the vanguard of many movements, achieved international acclaim for his music and suffered tremendous personal sacrifice. His story is one of the great dramas of the 20th century, spanning an international canvas of social upheaval and ideological controversy.

John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk

St. Clair Bourne

John Henrik Clarke, Wesley Snipes

John Henrik Clarke talks about Black history.

Making 'Do the Right Thing'

St. Clair Bourne

Danny Aiello, Nandi Bowe

The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.

Discovering William Greaves

William Greaves, Ruby Dee

A documentary on the career of William Greaves, featuring Greaves, his wife and co-producer Louise Archambault, actor Ruby Dee, filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, and film scholar Scott MacDonald. Released within Criterion's Symbiopsychotaxiplasm set.

Alice Coltrane [Black Journal segment]

St. Clair Bourne

Alice Coltrane

Short documentary made for a segment of National Education Television's Black Journal television program. The segment focuses on the life of Alice Coltrane and her children in the wake of the death of her husband, famed jazz magician John Coltrane. This film was shot sometime during 1970; three years after the death of John Coltrane.

Soul, Sounds, and Money

St. Clair Bourne

A film examining Black musicians in the record industry, including Smokey Robinson, Isaac Hayes, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. - Wheeler Winston Dixon, The Exploding Eye

The Black and the Green

St. Clair Bourne

Explores the influence of the African American civil rights movement, both in philosophy and strategy, on the fight for Catholic independence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

The New-Ark [Black Journal segment]

St. Clair Bourne

Stevie Wonder, Amiri Baraka

A short documentary subject made for National Educational Television's Black Journal television program documenting a political rally in Newark, the 1970 mayoral campaign of Ken Gibson, and an African American voter registration drive with special musical performance by Stevie Wonder.

Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper

St. Clair Bourne

Amiri Baraka

One in a series of 13 documentaries on renowned American poets produced by the New York Center for Visual History. Described by director St. Clair Bourne as “a narrative performance documentary,” this category-defiant film on the life of poet and writer Hughes and the times in which he lived and worked moves from America to Senegal to Paris, from the 1920s Harlem Renaissance to the Black Pride awakening of the 1960s.

In Motion: Amiri Baraka

St. Clair Bourne

Amiri Baraka

This video portrait, filmed in the days leading up to Amiri Baraka’s appeal of his 90-day sentence for resisting arrest following an argument in his car outside the 8th Street Playhouse movie theater, documents Baraka at his radio show, at home with his wife and children, and performing at readings. It is a delicate vision of a revolutionary who has grown quieter—though never at rest, and as sage as ever.

Big City Blues

St. Clair Bourne

The film mixes scenes of the city of Chicago with musical performances and interviews with people connected with the Blues. In Big City Blues, the film examines the links between the past and the present: the old time blues singer Jim Brewer is presented alongside Son Seals, Queen Sylvia Embry and Bill Branch.

Black Dance

St. Clair Bourne

A film by St. Clair Bourne originally in Black Journal.

On The Boulevard

St. Clair Bourne

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs

Bourne's first fiction film, which stars Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as an unemployed musician who falls for a dancer on the streets of Hollywood. - Wheeler Winston Dixon, The Exploding Eye: A Re-Visionary History of 1960's American Experimental Cinema

Malcolm X Liberation University

St. Clair Bourne

Betty Shabazz

The 1960s black student movement at Duke University evolved into a separate institution to study and engage with the history and culture of the African diaspora. This film was produced for the National Educational Television (WNET) Black Journal.