![]() In a nutshell, the 14-part Eyes series brought the US civil rights movement to public television in 1987. While many in the documentary community are familiar with Eyes on the Prize, it's useful to remember that, with the passage of 30 years and for copyright clearance issues that effectively shelved the series for over a decade, a large number of people-especially those newer to the field-are not. (Full disclosure: I was an intern on Eyes on the Prize II.) It's exactly the kind of deep immersion that Hampton insisted of the team that made Eyes on the Prize. Louis, Else is able to transcend memoir to create his own lasting documentary in book form. What makes the book so indispensable is that by not relying simply on memory, but by doing extensive original research himself, including conducting dozens of interviews and poring through The Henry Hampton Collection at the Film and Media Archive at Washington University in St. What makes the book so engrossing is that Else was deeply involved with both, as a close friend of Hampton's and as series producer on Eyes on the Prize. Both are engaging stories, and it is impossible to gain a full understanding of one without delving into the other. With True South, Else tells both the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the most important television series ever made about the US civil rights movement and the behind-the-series story of Henry Hampton, the man whose vision gave rise to both the series and his production company, Blackside, Inc. But given the multiple tasks that Else has set out for himself, it is also justified. A corollary of the old adage, "You can't tell a book by its cover," may be, "You can tell a book by the length of its subtitle." At 17 words, the subtitle of documentary filmmaker-turned-author Jon Else's indispensable and richly layered new book, True South, is a long one: Henry Hampton and "Eyes on the Prize," the Landmark Television Series That Reframed the Civil Rights Movement.
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