Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project

FAIN: TR-50543-14

Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Melrose, MA 02176-3933)
Tracy Heather Strain (Project Director: August 2013 to present)

Production of a two-hour documentary film and a website probing the life and art of playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965).

The "Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project" (LHDP) is the first multiplatform media project to explore the life of artist, activist and public intellectual Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), who is best known for the 1959 groundbreaking Broadway play, "A Raisin in the Sun." The main component of the LHDP is a two-hour documentary, "Lorraine Hansberry (w.t.)," which weaves together a compelling story of Hansberry's self-determination and commitment. Designed to attract a wide, general public television audience, the film will serve as the centerpiece of an extensive national public engagement campaign that will include a variety of media access points --interactive website, educational initiatives, and social media. By probing Hansberry's life and art, this project will use an intersectional lens to understand the tumultuous political times that influenced her. Her sharp insight engages many issues still contested in contemporary national discourse regarding race, class, sexuality, and gender.