The movie “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” was a short film I was intrigued to watch because I knew it was about the author of the book Color Purple. Many of us know it to be a literary work of our time, a book that won 1983 Pulitzer prize for fiction. The short film drew me to the experience in our world, the world we live in that is still black or white, it is a pride and experience that is chosen for us. At the start of the movie Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, I saw what it meant to live in poverty, to iron brown paper bags and transform it as wallpaper of a room in a shack where Alice walker grew up and called home. I saw the differences in color that existed and obstacles that were deep rooted, perhaps prevented African American people of her time a desire to pursue a type of happiness that should be all of our birth right. I witnessed a bridge that can, and yet can never be broken and only truly be broken with tolerance. That dear America, it is what one would call identifying with race in this great nation, country. Who better than the people of this country to understand it’s roots, and branches than the American people. Oh say, can’t you see America, the race of this country, a nation like no other, a home of the influx of its people, a flag bigger than any other nations gallantly showing it’s pride, observing to its people the race of America to this immigrant from India. Watching this short film I came to know of a women, the pride of her parents, parents who surged through to see their children have education. That is how Alice walker started her journey and by taking those steps. She is known for her African American experience that she wrote about through poetry. With a mind determined and challenging, she planted a seed that became the first voice and power for African American Community through her writing. She was the first to cross over the barriers between white and black, and married a white Jewish man in a southern state that did not allow a marriage between two races. Their marriage survived long enough for them to realize what was important in the life they bridged was to stay together. Alice walker power as a writer and desire to change the experience of African American people came through in waves and in the number of books she wrote. That also meant a life apart from the person she married. She is known to have other relationships, and relationships that the world didn’t look upon at her kindly for in her time. She wrote many books, it was the “color purple” that won her the noble prize for her voice. That voice, though it spoke the truth, weather the fruits of its work may be oppression or reality of African American life. It was that reality, that brought to us this movie also that will stand the test of time. Alice Walker somewhere along the way became the image of her work, and a writer in every sense of the word. She went on to write about topics that showed she was a writer, she inspired her audience about change, advocacy and topics that looked beyond the culture and society of African American people in America. Is it true that the reason her popularity failed among the public was because she became a stranger to not only herself, the community, the steam of nation’s experience, and the irony of her own life and desire. A writer from the beginning. A writer in her quest and triumphs, to see the change in the experience of her nation, a writer who may not be able to share with grandson what once fueled the nation. The end of the short film gives us glimpse of the life at present and how she speaks of nature, planting and her deep rooted memories of the life in south, her artwork and works of African American experience that was her pride and as well as the nations. The last words from the short film of a writer with the backdrop of the ocean waves hold power, in the way we all understand the feeling of watching the tall standing flowers by the ocean side and the human experience there. The African American experience and value of its experience and people I learned here in America and not in India where I have come to appreciate the term African American. And also by watching the independent film Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth by Pratibha Parmar.
Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth was watched by many at 2014 San francisco film festival and including myself. I have come to understand awareness in the way, the words inspirational, social changes, political and social activism have meaning here in this country. The mission of SIFF, “It is through the art of cinema that we foster a community that is more informed, aware, and alive.” It was truly a wonderful experience to have experienced it.
I hope you can appreciate the truth and honesty of the voice written here.