Customer Reviews

Intimate Portrait: Maya Angelou [VHS]

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Maya Angelou has moved this nation with her poetry. Her voice has soothed our hearts, challenged our minds and called us to live life to its fullest. We know about her life from her intimate biography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, and its subsequent sister volumes. Intimate Portraits gives us the honor of going into the personal lives of women who moved the world. In this series we get the opportunity to listen, look and take in the life of Maya Angelou.

With great candor and no regrets, Maya unfolds her life before us. She doesn't dwell on the negative tragedies that occured in her life. Of course she acknowledges them but never allowed them to define her. Maya's voice and art came from life's lessons which contained the good and the bad. Having the courage to move through the negative and turn it into something good is what makes this woman extraordinary.

Unashamedly Maya shares the two great loves of her life, her brother Baily and son Guy. Baily was her confidant, friend, big brother and the one she could depend upon. Guy was that beautiful gift of life who enabled her to shoulder adult responsibility in raising a child. She admits to her failed relationships and marriages but all of those were lessons in life.

The video takes us on a cinematic journey to California, Arkansas, Missouri, Africa, and around the world with Maya as she assumes roles of dancer, actress, teacher and journalist. The sharing of her life resulted in her unfolding her vocation as a writer and poet. Watching this progress takes place is a joy and reminds us that we too must learn to unfold our lives. Intimate Portraits has given us an outstanding view of a great woman.

The last thing eight year old Marguerite Johnson ever wanted to do was speak out loud. After the murder of her rapist, the child feared that her words had killed him and possessed the power to take out anybody. For the next five years, she spoke only to her big brother Bailey until a teacher by the name of Mrs. Bertha Flowers came into her life and lovingly pulled her out of her self-imposed silence through reading.

That same girl grew up to become Maya Angelou, a best-selling author, poet, and actress. As well as the first poet since Robert Frost to perform her work (On the Pulse of Morning) at a presidential inauguration (Bill Clinton's in 1993).

Originally aired on the Lifetime channel in 1996, Intimate Portrait details the highs and lows of a truly phenomenal woman. Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, the series begins with Maya's upbringing by her stern but loving grandmother (called Momma) in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas. The world outside her home was permeated by racism and violence, causing the young girl to fear whites. Before her 20th birthday, Maya had experienced enough heartache for multiple lifetimes: rape, abandonment, prostitution, and being a struggling teen mom of color in the 40's to name a few. However, she never gave into defeat.

Along with interviews from the poet herself are interviews with her brother Bailey and her son Guy. Both are able to give more of a well-rounded view of Angelou. A few of Maya's poems including Still I Rise and Alone pepper the biography. It's amazing to see how a traumatized girl with so many odds stacked against her managed to rise above it all. Inspirational indeed.

I was so excited to get this tape to assist with a client and it does not work. I tried it in 2 VHS players and it did not work in either of them. I will return the item.