Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project

FAIN: TD-50026-08

Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Melrose, MA 02176-3933)
Tracy Heather Strain (Project Director: January 2008 to December 2009)

Development of a 90-minute documentary, a website, and curriculum materials exploring the life, work, and times of African American playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry (1930-65).

The Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project is the first multiplatform media project to explore the life, work and times of Lorraine Hansberry (1930?1965), the artist, activist and public intellectual best known for the 1959 groundbreaking Broadway classic, A RAISIN IN THE SUN. The project?s 90-minute documentary, LORRAINE HANSBERRY: A Drama Beyond the Stage (w.t.) weaves a compelling story of self-determination and commitment. Designed to attract a wide, general public television audience, the film will serve as the centerpiece of an extensive national outreach campaign that includes public engagement, educational resources, and interactive web components to bring Hansberry?s story to life. By probing Hansberry?s life and art, this project will transform viewers? understandings of United States history in the middle years of the 20th century. Her sharp insights engage many issues still contested in contemporary national discourse.