Explore: Group discussion
5. Share and discuss each creation with the class. 6. Share your projects with the Academy Museum education team at museumeducation@oscars.org.
the musical interlude of Lena Horne singing “ Stormy Weather ,” and the other is the jaw-droppingly energetic tap routine by the Nicholas Brothers performed to Cab Calloway’s “Jumpin’ Jive.” Activity: Visual description exercise Look closely at both performances and write a detailed visual description of each. Visual description is a practice used to offer people who are blind or have a visual disability a full experience of visual mediums. Do not include personal reflections: try to write an objective description of what you see. Be sure to include as many details as possible. Pair up and share your descriptions. Did your partner see things you didn’t and vice versa? Rewrite the description together with details from each of your visual descriptions. For an example, you can reference the activity sheets on artworks included in our curriculum on pages 12-18.
historical record, political documentary, direct cinema, genre, sync-sound, civil rights movement, union and union organizing, workers’ rights, labor movement, restoration and preservation, race, class, gender
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• Reading the quote above stating that the Nicholas Brothers completed the dance in one take (meaning they nailed it without having to do it again), how does that inform your feelings about the sequence? • Are there any dance routines from our current culture that can be related to this routine? Activity: Nicholas Brothers “Jumpin’ Jive” TikTok Challenge 1. In groups of three or four students, choose a 3–4 second segment from the Nicholas Brothers routine. 2. Each group re-creates the tap-dancing movements, the scene, and the wardrobe choices to the best of their ability using imagination and creativity to adapt
3. Two Films by Madeline Anderson
Explore: Group discussion
Integration Report 1 , 1960 24 minutes, sound, black and white
• How can DOCUMENTARY film be a tool for social justice? • What elements can you choose to create your own style in documentary filmmaking? • What is the value in telling your own story? What is the value in telling other people’s stories?
Director: Madeline Anderson Screenplay: Loften Mitchell Photography: Alfonso Burney, Richard Cressy, John Fletcher, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Robert Puello
Biography
Madeline Anderson (b. 1923) is an independent producer and director and is known for being one of the first women to join a union of film editors. She has dedicated her career to making films that honor and celebrate the lives of Black people. Anderson started making films in the 1950s. Her passions grew from a young age, sparked by a desire to fight the injustices that Black people faced in America. She was aware of the harmful media STEREOTYPING of Black people and wanted to create work that countered those images. She regularly speaks about simultaneously being a filmmaker, a wife, and a mother. In the same way, her films engage audiences in the dynamic aspects of lived events and experiences. Included here is an interview conducted in 2016 between Madeline Anderson and scholar and Regeneration co-curator Rhea L. Combs. We invite you to read the full interview and reflect on the questions below.
their selected segment. Please be very careful in trying to re-create any of the dance segments. Avoid the jumping or leaping parts of the routine. 3. Create a shot list to break down the segment showing movement, timing, framing, and camera angles. 4. Film and edit the chosen segment using available equipment and software.
Explore: Group discussion
• After writing the visual descriptions, what more did you notice about the dance sequences? • What are some words you used to describe each sequence? • What does this tell us about the performance and its function in the movie as a whole? At the time, the dance style of the Nicholas Brothers was seen as revolutionary because of the athleticism involved. Fred Astaire, a star of classic Hollywood and considered one of the greatest dancers in film history, had a different take on what made the dance sequence so spectacular: When Astaire pronounced their “Jumpin’ Jive” number in the movie Stormy Weather (1943)—unrehearsed and achieved on the first take—to be the greatest dancing he had ever seen on film, he was not commending the acrobatics alone but rather the way the brothers erupted organically out of their tap steps, like a series of overlapping geysers that, simply to look at, project an observer into a stratosphere of elation.
Film still from Integration Report 1 , 1960
Editing: Zina Voynow Cast: Robert Graham Brown (narration), Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young Producer: Madeline Anderson I Am Somebody , 1970 30 minutes, sound, color Director: Madeline Anderson Screenplay: Madeline Anderson Photography: Don Hunstein, Roland Mitchell Editing: Madeline Anderson Cast: Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy, Leon Davis, Andrew Young Producer: Madeline Anderson Production: American Foundation of Non-Violence Keywords: documentary, nonfiction, struggle for equality,
https://metafilm.ovid.tv/2020/10/29/filmmaker-mother- activist-madeline-anderson-in-her-own-words/
Reflect
Pick two or three topics from the interview to reflect on Madeline Anderson’s experiences. Write your answers down on paper.
• What were a few of Madeline Anderson’s childhood experiences that were unique to her? • What were some of the images that she saw as a young person that inspired her to make movies?
—Mindy Aloff, “Don’t Try This at Home,” New York Times , March 26, 2000
*Words set in ALL CAPS are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts (section F of this guide).
*Words set in ALL CAPS are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts (section F of this guide).
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