LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Paul Robeson film festival here will help celebrate Black History Month. The film fest is being jointly sponsored by the University of Louisville and The Left Alternative in Kentucky over the four weekends in February.
“Song of Freedom” kicks off the fest and will screen on Feb. 3 (Sat.) at 11:00 a.m. at the Highlands/Shelby Park branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, Mid-City Mall (1250 Bardstown Rd.). The film will screen again on Feb. 4 (Sun.) at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. at the Elaine Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom (Main) Library, at the university.
“Jericho (Dark Sands)” will screen on Feb. 10 (Sat.) at 11:00 a.m. at the Highlands/Shelby Park Library. The film will be shown again on Feb. 11 (Sun.) at the university site at same time as places as above.
“Big Fella” will screen on Feb. 17 (Sat.) and Feb. 18 (Sun.) at the same times and places as above.
And “The Emperor Jones”will show on the final weekend, Feb. 24-25, once again at the same times and places as above.
Admission is free, but $5 donations are encouraged.
Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a 20th-century Renaissance man, an outstanding athlete, folk and opera singer, actor of both stage and screen, writer, linguist, and political, labor, and civil rights activist.
Besides appearing in the lead roles of many plays and films, he toured both America and Europe acting in the leads of “Othello” and “Showboat.” Jerome Kern wrote the song “Old Man River” especially for Robeson. Robeson changed the last line to, “I’m gonna keep on fighting till I die.” Robeson wrote the memoir, “Here I Stand,” in 1958.
Fluent in more than twenty languages, Robeson gave fundraising concerts for labor unions in the U.S., Canada, England, Wales, and elsewhere. During the Spanish Civil War, he gave front-line performances in support of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American volunteer brigade supporting the fledgling Spanish Republic, and to the republican troops generally. And these accomplishments are only the tip of Robeson’s iceberg.
For further information about the festival, call (502) 409-8706.
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