Be Reel

Only in a career as pioneering and storied as Gordon Parks' could an achievement like "first Black Hollywood director" fall into the second paragraph. Yet Parks' significance as a photographer and renaissance man does often overshadow a film career that saw him direct "The Learning Tree" (1969), "Shaft" (1971), and "Leadbelly" (1976). This week, we revisit these too-forgotten cinematic portraits of Black life, joined by director/producer Craig Laurence Rice to discuss the years he spent with Parks making the Emmy-nominated documentary "Half Past Autumn" (2000).