First of two parts
Oliver Bagwell is the headliner in Culver City for this coming weekend’s back-to-back celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday at the Senior Center.
Since the accomplished Mr. Bagwell’s name mainly sparks a large question mark in Culver City and elsewhere, now you have an idea of why King Day is held — and widely deemed necessary — all across the country every mid-January.
He is a film producer of stature, a documentarian of stature, and he has attained prestige as a chronicler of black history, but an amount of anonymity presently is his fate.
Solemn Moments
Two of his Dr. King-oriented films will be shown, one at Saturday night’s 7:30 program, and both during Sunday afternoon’s 2 to 6 main event, surrounded, organizers promise, by an abundance of stimulating live action, featuring Culver City students and experts.
“Forty Years Later — America at the Crossroads,” is the weekend theme.
Mr. Bagwell’s relative anonymity in a region that considers itself sophisticated may be testimony that the black and white worlds — 40 years after Dr. King’s assassination —still only interlace with each other at thin, occasional and peripheral levels.
Questions to Ponder
The question of why may be one of the enduring, nagging questions that will be unscrambled on Sunday afternoon amidst the maze of panel discussions, speeches, student essays and entertainment that will be unfurled.
In the two decades since Dr. King’s birthday officially became a national holiday, a consensus on the most desirable focus of King Day programs has remained an elusive goal.
1. Should the day mainly pay homage to several of Dr. King’s best-known accomplishments?
2. Should the day more properly focus on the racial progress since he was assassinated in the first week of April 1968?
3. Should the accent be on the veritable explosion of cultures that have poured into America since Dr. King’s death, noting the advances and the chasms?
4. Should the tribute dwell on just one of Dr. King’s numerous crusades and develop a robust and intense program around a single subject?
5. Or should the day reflect the local community’s cultural history and its response to Dr. King’s injunctions?
The dilemma without a solution was tackled this year by a Culver City committee that largely includes names familiarly associated with civil rights issues on the Westside:
Chair Mary Ann Green, Vice Chair Bill Wynn, Rebecca Rona, Michelle Woolner, George Burrows and Dennis Freeman.
Figuring Out the Strategy
They have been meeting regularly since the end of last year’s program at the Senior Center, monthly at first, and more recently on a weekly basis.
What should be the shape and texture of the program?
That is what they debated.
Ms. Green, who long has been both a leading and soothing voice in Culver City culture and politics, suggested Mr. Bagwell, and that was when the choruses of “Who Is He?” began.
These are the opening lines of his biography, offering a taste — no more — of who and what he is.
“Mr. Bagwell, a Boston native who spent his high school years in New Hampshire, is one of the pre-eminent chroniclers of African American history. His award- winning filmography includes: ‘Matters of Race,’ ‘Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery,’ ‘Roots of Resistance: a Story of the Underground Railroad,’ and profiles of such seminal figures as Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Alvin Ailey, and Dr. King. His film ‘Citizen King’ was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and premiered on PBS in 2004. It revisits the last five years of Dr. King’s life, offering a distinctly different glimpse of him from that which has become popularized.
“Mr. Bagwell, director of Media, Arts and Culture for the Ford Foundation, founded and was president of ROJA Productions. A veteran documentary filmmaker, he was executive producer of the six-hour film ‘Africans in America…’ As executive vice president for Blackside Inc., he supervised documentary film projects, including the production of the national PBS series ‘The Great Depression’ and ‘Malcolm X: Make It Plain,’ which he also produced and directed. Mr. Bagwell produced two additional films for Blackside: ‘Mississippi: Is This America?’ and ‘Ain’t Scared of your Jails.’ Each was awarded the Columbia School of Journalism’s Alfred E. DuPont Award and the Peabody Award. While with Blackside Productions, he was a producer for ‘Eyes on the Prize,’ the internationally acclaimed documentary of the civil rights struggle.
“The value of using media as a place where unseen worlds and lives can be represented is a recurring theme in Mr. Bagwell’s career.”
Here is the programming plan for the weekend at the Senior Center:
Saturday night — The two-hour Bagwell film “The American Experience — Citizen King,” will be screened.
Sunday — Two documentaries will be shown, “Eyes on the Prize” and “Citizen King.” State Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D-Culver City) will be the principal political figure in the room, and she will address the triumphs and tribulations of Dr. King’s 39-year life.
The Students’ Turn
A three-student panel from Culver City High School will be featured: Menelik Tafari, Latijera Avery and Azuri Moon.
Five grammar school students are scheduled to read their King Day prize-winning essays: Gabriel Alter, Ezekiel Hunt, Logan Kim, Kaitlyn Verdiell and Racquel Spencer.
Dancers from the California Center for Dance and the Art of Living Choir will provide entertainment.
Next: A personalized look at a major figure behind the King Day programs.
