A feature documentary on Maya Angelou, one of America’s leading poets, authors and activists, co-directed by Flossmoor resident Rita Coburn-Whack, is now showing at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.
A feature documentary on Maya Angelou, one of America’s leading poets, authors and activists, co-directed by Flossmoor resident Rita Coburn-Whack, is now showing at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.
The film features Angelou in rare footage that examines her early life as a dancer and singer, her political activism and her friendships with James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Coburn-Whack and co-director Bob Hercules interviewed Oprah Winfrey, Common, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson, Quincy Jones and Angelou’s son, Guy Johnson, for the film. It took them five years to make the documentary.
Coburn-Whack is the owner of RCW Media Productions Inc. and Hercules, of Evanston, is owner of Media Process Group.
Coburn-Whack
Coburn-Whack will be at the presentations and answer questions after the film is aired at 8:15 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16; 5:15 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18; and 8:15 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19.
The film is being presented Sept. 16 through 29. The Gene Siskel Film Center is at 164 N. State St. For additional information on the film, or for tickets, visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org/mayaangelou.