Moving, thought-provoking and inspiring, the excellent documentary "Family Name" was one of the highlights of the opening weekend of Los Angeles' Outfest '97.
The debut of Alabama-born filmmaker Macky Alston is a multiracial odyssey through more than 150 years of family history that will leave few viewers unaffected.
Winner of the Freedom of Expression prize at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, "Family Name" was screened Saturday on video for an enthusiastic audience at the Directors Guild of America. In the well-crafted film, Alston tenaciously pursues unpleasant facts about his slave-owning ancestors and connections with blacks both living and dead who share his last name.
For a September run at New York's Film Forum and other theatrical engagements down the road, prints will be employed of the project, filmed on 16mm stock.
A spring playdate on PBS has already been set, and through rigorous self-promotion, the filmmakers are reaching out to gay and ethnic audiences with their challenging, uplifting experience.
With a camera crew and an agenda, expecting to find guilty whites and angry blacks with strong reactions to the practice of slaves assuming the last name of their owners, gay-rights activist Alston is surprised when few of his own relatives can provide details about the family's mid-19th century history in North Carolina. His grandmother and others are either secretive or reluctant to discuss details of a time when the Alstons owned large tracts of land and many slaves.
Through relationships with two black Alston families, the filmmaker finds out many startling facts and learns things about his own behavior that speak volumes about being gay in the 1990s. But the people he encounters -- including a courageous black classical musician and his son; the aging descendants of a well-respected black minister; and his own religious but tolerant father -- are living links in an ongoing saga that in many ways illuminates the vibrant social history of our country.
Emotions run high as Alston examines his own motivations and acts upon desires to use his acquired knowledge for some good.
A climactic concert given on a plantation, commencing with the ringing of the old "slave bell," and Alston's meeting with a contemporary, HIV-positive black also preoccupied with family history are healing moments that make for mighty stirring cinema.
From uncovering overgrown gravestones to searching through public records, "Family Name" is never dull. It even has a shocking finale that in no way diminishes the film's impact, but it does prove how risky to one's self-image are such feverish, well-intentioned explorations of the past.
FAMILY NAME
Opelika Pictures
Director Macky Alston
Producer Selina Lewis
Executive producer Nicholas Gottlieb
Associate producer Jennifer Chaiken
Narration written by Macky Alston, Kay Gayner
Director of photography Eliot Rockett
Editors Sandra Marie Christie,
Christopher White
Music Camara Kambon
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The debut of Alabama-born filmmaker Macky Alston is a multiracial odyssey through more than 150 years of family history that will leave few viewers unaffected.
Winner of the Freedom of Expression prize at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, "Family Name" was screened Saturday on video for an enthusiastic audience at the Directors Guild of America. In the well-crafted film, Alston tenaciously pursues unpleasant facts about his slave-owning ancestors and connections with blacks both living and dead who share his last name.
For a September run at New York's Film Forum and other theatrical engagements down the road, prints will be employed of the project, filmed on 16mm stock.
A spring playdate on PBS has already been set, and through rigorous self-promotion, the filmmakers are reaching out to gay and ethnic audiences with their challenging, uplifting experience.
With a camera crew and an agenda, expecting to find guilty whites and angry blacks with strong reactions to the practice of slaves assuming the last name of their owners, gay-rights activist Alston is surprised when few of his own relatives can provide details about the family's mid-19th century history in North Carolina. His grandmother and others are either secretive or reluctant to discuss details of a time when the Alstons owned large tracts of land and many slaves.
Through relationships with two black Alston families, the filmmaker finds out many startling facts and learns things about his own behavior that speak volumes about being gay in the 1990s. But the people he encounters -- including a courageous black classical musician and his son; the aging descendants of a well-respected black minister; and his own religious but tolerant father -- are living links in an ongoing saga that in many ways illuminates the vibrant social history of our country.
Emotions run high as Alston examines his own motivations and acts upon desires to use his acquired knowledge for some good.
A climactic concert given on a plantation, commencing with the ringing of the old "slave bell," and Alston's meeting with a contemporary, HIV-positive black also preoccupied with family history are healing moments that make for mighty stirring cinema.
From uncovering overgrown gravestones to searching through public records, "Family Name" is never dull. It even has a shocking finale that in no way diminishes the film's impact, but it does prove how risky to one's self-image are such feverish, well-intentioned explorations of the past.
FAMILY NAME
Opelika Pictures
Director Macky Alston
Producer Selina Lewis
Executive producer Nicholas Gottlieb
Associate producer Jennifer Chaiken
Narration written by Macky Alston, Kay Gayner
Director of photography Eliot Rockett
Editors Sandra Marie Christie,
Christopher White
Music Camara Kambon
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/16/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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