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Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Unforgivable Blackness- The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.jpg
dvd cover
Directed by Ken Burns
Produced by Paul Barnes
Ken Burns
David Schaye
Written by Geoffrey C. Ward
Narrated by Keith David
Music by Wynton Marsalis
Cinematography Stephen McCarthy
Buddy Squires
Edited by Paul Barnes
Erik Ewers
Production
company
WETA
Florentine Films
Distributed by PBS
Release date
January 17, 2005
Running time
214 Minutes
220 Minutes (DVD version)
Country United States
Language English

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Geoffrey C. Ward (2004). In Burns' signature style the 220-minute film serves as a biography of Jack Johnson, the first African-American Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, as well as a documentary of racism and social inequality during the Jim Crow era against which Jack Johnson lived in defiant opposition.

The documentary was first broadcast on PBS in two parts on January 17 and January 18, 2005. The film is narrated by Keith David and features a soundtrack by Wynton Marsalis and Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of Jack Johnson.Alan Rickman also contributed his voice to the documentary. Stanley Crouch appears offering commentary, including a quote from Johnson responding a question from a white woman about black people, "We eat cold eels and think distant thoughts."

In 2005, the film earned Burns an Emmy Award for Directing for Non-Fiction Programming. David won an Emmy for Best Voice Over Performance.

The film was produced by David Schaye, Paul Barnes and Ken Burns (Executive Producer) for Florentine Films.

The Great White Hope, Howard Sackler's 1967 dramatization of Jack Johnson's life.



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