The American Experience - Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind

Starring:Carl Lumbly, Carlos Coombs, Webley Dickenson, Dennis Malcolm, Orville Smith, Marcus Garvey, Leah Tavares-Finson, Jason Henry (II), Tiffany Rattrey, Andrew Moody-Stuart, Lancedale Richards, Errol Hurd, Sandra Dickinson, Teddy Price, Ron Bobb Semple, Elethia Rickham, Brittany Cooper, Jeffrey Johnson, Lenford Roye
Director: Stanley Nelson
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The story of Marcus Garvey, a controversial African American leader of the early 20th century, is thoughtfully told in this documentary, an installment in the American Experience series on PBS. Garvey, who was born in Jamaica, learned the printer's trade as a teenager, and his ability to express himself in print helped him become an advocate for black rights in his homeland. He formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but a financial scandal forced him to flee to New York. Before long he organized the UNIA in America, and his organization began an amazing chapter in American race relations. Garvey, after choosing the unlikely role model of evangelist Billy Sunday, became a great orator and enlisted many thousands of African Americans in his movement. Elderly people recall attending Garvey's rallies and parades with their parents 80 years ago, providing touching and fascinating insights. Newsreel footage shows Garvey, who took to wearing grandiose costumes in public, as well as the fervent crowds who flocked to him. Before long the federal government was seeking to destroy Garvey, and an obscure young Justice Department attorney named J. Edgar Hoover was writing reports denouncing him as a "notorious Negro agitator." A mail fraud charge led to Garvey's imprisonment and eventual exile in England. This intelligent film shows how Garvey, though always a controversial figure, was an important precursor to the American civil rights movement. --Robert J. McNamara
Description
Visionary yet enigmatic, brilliant yet manipulative, Marcus Garvey is one of the most controversial figures in American history. Both a powerful orator and a pompous autocrat, Garvey inspired the loyalty of millions of African-Americans while infuriating many black leaders. He was a strong advocate of black self-help, yet was willing to collaborate with the Ku Klux Klan. He inspired African-Americans to support his economic enterprises, then lost their hard-earned money through mismanagement. This film uses a wealth of archival footage, photographs and documents to uncover the story of this Jamaican immigrant who between 1916 and 1921 built what was the largest black mass movement in world history.

The American Experience - Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Average customer rating:

Should be required viewing in any class of black history

poof! the psuedo imperial grand dragon has been slayed

I thought it was pretty good myself

-1 stars = Not the best "American Experience"

Fine and Factual Documentary

The American Experience - Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Starring: Carl Lumbly , Carlos Coombs , Webley Dickenson , Dennis Malcolm , and Orville Smith
Director: Stanley Nelson
Manufacturer: PBS (Direct)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005TPCH
Release Date: 2002-02-05

Amazon.com

The story of Marcus Garvey, a controversial African American leader of the early 20th century, is thoughtfully told in this documentary, an installment in the American Experience series on PBS. Garvey, who was born in Jamaica, learned the printer's trade as a teenager, and his ability to express himself in print helped him become an advocate for black rights in his homeland. He formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but a financial scandal forced him to flee to New York. Before long he organized the UNIA in America, and his organization began an amazing chapter in American race relations. Garvey, after choosing the unlikely role model of evangelist Billy Sunday, became a great orator and enlisted many thousands of African Americans in his movement. Elderly people recall attending Garvey's rallies and parades with their parents 80 years ago, providing touching and fascinating insights. Newsreel footage shows Garvey, who took to wearing grandiose costumes in public, as well as the fervent crowds who flocked to him. Before long the federal government was seeking to destroy Garvey, and an obscure young Justice Department attorney named J. Edgar Hoover was writing reports denouncing him as a "notorious Negro agitator." A mail fraud charge led to Garvey's imprisonment and eventual exile in England. This intelligent film shows how Garvey, though always a controversial figure, was an important precursor to the American civil rights movement. --Robert J. McNamara

Description

Visionary yet enigmatic, brilliant yet manipulative, Marcus Garvey is one of the most controversial figures in American history. Both a powerful orator and a pompous autocrat, Garvey inspired the loyalty of millions of African-Americans while infuriating many black leaders. He was a strong advocate of black self-help, yet was willing to collaborate with the Ku Klux Klan. He inspired African-Americans to support his economic enterprises, then lost their hard-earned money through mismanagement. This film uses a wealth of archival footage, photographs and documents to uncover the story of this Jamaican immigrant who between 1916 and 1921 built what was the largest black mass movement in world history.

Customer Reviews:

Should be required viewing in any class of black history.......2006-01-03

Marcus Garvey was a black immigrant from Jamaica who was very much a child of his times, yet was very much ahead of his time. In only a few years, (1916 - 1921), he built the largest black mass movement in history. International in scope, his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) organization gave black people a sense of pride, as one who witnessed it says on the tape, "I felt like I owned half the world and didn't want the other half." He modeled his movement on the structure of a nation, with their own flag, anthem and governmental officials, including a foreign minister.
His policies of aggressively competing with whites and not being passive when blacks were slighted brought him to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the animosity of other black leaders. However, two things fundamentally destroyed him. The first was his autocratic style of leadership, he tolerated no dissent or opinions contrary to his own. The second was his inability to manage money or even hire others who could. He sought and received an enormous amount of investment money from blacks, but time and time again most of it was wasted.
Marcus Garvey is arguably the most interesting person of the twentieth century that few people learn about. He raised millions of dollars and had hundreds of thousands of followers, and yet his movement expired in only a few years. I have studied history for years and had only a superficial knowledge of his name and his movement. In hearing the testimony of the people who were part of the movement, it was clear that Garvey was truly an accomplished leader. The people still speak of him with reverence and respect, even decades after witnessing the events. This tape should be required viewing in any class that covers black history.

poof! the psuedo imperial grand dragon has been slayed.......2004-07-09

News flash Ted, white documentaries are glorified too, so stop crying.......................idiot!

I thought it was pretty good myself.......2003-12-31

I am a historian by profession. I did my senior thesis on the Garvey movement during my college days.

Overall, I thought this was an excellent documentary. The DVD is particularly good as it expounds upon things like Malcolm X's parents' role in the Garvey movement, J. Edgar Hoover's vendetta against Garvey, and it contains two complete speeches from Garvey recorded in 1921, the latter of which states the goals of his UNIA.

As for the controversy, one should not expect a serious documentary aimed for adults to show a historical figure as an idealized, angelic being with no human flaws. Let's face it, Garvey had his faults and this documentary deals with that. But it also makes it clear that Garvey made a positive impact on many people from the testimonies of people who actually remembered the Garvey movement. Incidentally, in response to one of the previous posters, this DVD DID mention that Garvey created the Red, Black and Green flag.

Next to reading "Black Moses" or "The Philosophy of Marcus Garvey," this is a good introduction for anyone who wants to learn about Marcus Garvey. See this, read Garvey's own writings, and judge for yourself.

-1 stars = Not the best "American Experience".......2003-12-27

Usually, American Experience can counted on to present intensely fact-based documentaries. This one does not fit the ususal mode of American Experience product. Apparently, Frankthek didn't read the other reviews. One is from Julius Garvey, MD son of Marcus Garvey. That review led me to realize that there was more to the story. I went and did my own research. It seems that there is a great deal of bias in the documentary. The documentary doesn't begin where Garvey's life begins and it doesn't end where it ends. But it seems to want to impress upon you that it does. Nowhere are there facts presented for the viewer to make their own determination. That's why i watch American experience so much. Normally they present the facts, without so much as a critique. In my own research I confirmed some of what Dr. Garvey says in his review. The fraud trial originally ended in a hung jury, a fact left out of the documentary. Garvey met up with an expert elocutionist in Henrietta Vinton Davis, who may have been more influential on him than Billy Sunday. Garvey's second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey was from a well-to-do Jamaican family. Garvey finished his days in London, England; a plaque marks the house where he lived. He was interred in a crypt in England; and his body was brought back to Jamaica in the 60's. This was a very significant time in world history. Africa was getting its independence, the civil rights movement was taking off. Martin Luther King even laid a wreath at Garvey's mausoleum during a vacation in Jamaica. I watched this with a few other people and the consensus was the same. It is not the usual standard for American Experience. So many contradictory statements and so little facts. If anything this documentary will inspire others to go do their own research to get the real facts like I did.

Fine and Factual Documentary.......2003-11-10

I wish folks would use these pages to REVIEW material and not to further their apparent agendas. 'A Viewer', who is very clear in his/her agenda, saw fit to post five separate diatribes against this film. Apparently 'A Viewer felt that there were some relationships and/or situations which were not adequately covered by the documentary. 'A Viewer', however, makes no reference to any substantiation to any of his/her claims, and so one can do no more than dismiss them.

PBS has always been pretty clear in its political leanings and if they were going to slant this film, and I don't claim in this review that they do, they would certainly have slanted it in the direction opposite that to which 'A Viewer' claims they have slanted it. And I believe they deserve credit for the fact that they chose 'American Experience' to shine a light on someone other than Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

The bottom line is, if you're interested in one of history's lesser known black figures, you will find this documentary fascinating. Normally, I would have only given it 3 or 4 stars, but I feel compelled to counteract the damage 'A Viewer' has done by posting 5 reviews - each with only 1 star.

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