Camera as Witness Stanford Arts program presents

THE POWER OF EMPATHY series

Co-presented with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Institute for Diversity in the Arts, the MLK Jr. Research and Education Institute, Museum of the African Diaspora, Palo Alto Libraries, and Stanford Film Society

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 at 7:00PM PDT

‍SING YOUR SONG

‍(USA, 105 min)

Director: Susan Rostock

Producer: Michael Cohl

Sing Your Song is an up-close look at a great American, Harry Belafonte. A patriot to the last and a champion for worldwide human rights, Belafonte is one of the truly heroic cultural and political figures of the past sixty years. Told from Harry’s point of view, the film charts his life from a boy born in New York and raised in Jamaica, who returns to Harlem in his early teens where he discovers the American Negro Theater and the magic of performing.

From there the film follows Belafonte’s rise from the jazz and folk clubs of Greenwich Village and Harlem to his emergence as a star. However, even as a superstar, the life of a black man in 1960s America was far from easy, and Belafonte was confronted with the same Jim Crow laws and prejudices that every other black man, woman and child in America was facing.

Among other things, the film presents a brief look at the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of an insider, someone who, despite his high profile, was not afraid to spend time in the trenches. From Harlem to Mississippi to Africa and South Central Los Angeles, Sing Your Song takes us on a journey through Harry Belafonte’s life, work and most of all, his conscience, as it inspires us all to action.

Please join us for the panel discussion with the filmmakers and Dr. Clayborne Carson, a professor of history at Stanford and the founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, moderated by Jasmina Bojic, Stanford Arts Camera as Witness Program director and founder of the international documentary film festival UNAFF.

FREE and open to the public. If interested, please R.S.V.P. by email to rsvp_caw@unaff.org with the subject line "SING YOUR SONG" to obtain the password to see the documentary prior to the panel discussion and Zoom invitation for the panel.