Customer Reviews

Unchained Memories

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A film by Ed Bell and Thomas Lennon

This HBO documentary is a powerful film. In the 1930s the United States government commissioned journalists to conduct interviews with those former slaves who were still living. The result was a collection of more than 16 volumes of interviews, the words of former slaves about their experiences. The interviews were transcribed with the way these men and women spoke, in their vernacular. This film is a documentary made up of actors reading some of these interviews to tell the story of slavery and what it was like for these men and women. The documentary uses photos and old video footage to augment the slave narratives. Along with the photos and video footage, we also see the actors reading the narratives, speaking in character. This film is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and features readings by: Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Samuel L Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Jasmine Guy, Ossie Davis, Courtney B Vance, Alfe Woodard, and others.

The strongest part of this film, as you might expect, is hearing the words of the former slaves and see photographs from that time. This is powerful, powerful stuff. What is less effective is seeing the actors read the narratives. They are perfectly in character, but seeing the actors sitting there delivering the lines is less powerful than just hearing it. Unfortunately, the film also shows the actors right before and after they read the narratives. While the actors are very moved by what they have read and they are very respectful towards the material, it takes us out of the moment and pulls back from the power of the words. This only happens a couple of times, fortunately.

I would definitely recommend this film, especially to high school and college students. This should be part of the curriculum and not be ignored or skipped over, like the subject often is. These narratives are powerful and moving. Highly recommended.

I recently enjoyed seeing the DVD of this documentary reading from the Slave Narratives that is in the Library of Congress. These are readings from former slaves interviewed as part of a writing project sponsored by the federal government work program in the 1930s. This is one of those gems that would have been lost if not for the misery of the Great Depression and with the initiate of Roosevelt's employment projects.
The readings are by a variety of actors each of whom give dimension to the printed words. However, much of what is in the texts was so well expressed by the former slaves that even a monotone reading would have been enlightening. My favorite is of the man who risked his life rowing run away slaves to Ohio. He began only because his first passenger was so beautiful that he forgot his fear and thought of her the whole way. From this experience, he regularly took others despite his own enslavement. Later, his experience allowed him to free himself and his family.
The language and atmosphere of the times are fully experienced in this documentary. I would wish for those with romantic ideas of the ante bellum period to view this film and read from the text instead of encasing themselves in southern sympathy novels and pseudo history books. However, I would have liked to have seen a copy of the movie minus the actors preparations for their readings. It's not a serious problem for me, but I am only curious to compare whether the flow of the film would have improved or not. It was as though the filmmaker didn't trust the audience to know how they should react and used the actors to guide the viewer. Or perhaps they wanted to show the celebrities so as to better sell the film.

It is hard watching stories on this subject. It is so much pain. Sometimes, it is very uncomfortable. You think, how could someone do such things. But, this somehow, felt like listening to a story from your mother, your grandmother or sister. (Hence the narrative part lives up to its name).

As I was being educated about my ancestors, I could not help but feel pride. I felt the depts of thier pain by listening to these narratives.

These people, lived without shoes, ate very little, got whipped for the smallest of "crimes," but managed to survive, and to care for one another and to build families--if only for a little while.

I bought this DVD and will buy the book. Too bad they did not offer it in a set.

The casting was perfect and the real emotion of the stars and readers seemed genuine. There is no greater history lesson on the birth of a country and its evolution than to hear first hand stories of an enslaved people. Well worth viewing.

I, like the previous reviewer, agree that this documentary is something that should be required reading and viewing in our children's schools. I saw this on HBO and can not tell enough people about this program. I am eager to buy the book and the DVD. This documentary is the Roots of this generation. And like Roots, this is something that should be apart of every American's video/dvd collection...especially African Americans.

The end of the Civil War in 1865 freed about 4 million slaves in America, a significant number of whom lived into the 1940s. During the Depression, the Federal Writers Project hired people to interview and record first person narratives from these former slaves, the last first-hand resource that could document their experiences. Today the Library of Congress houses 2,000 such interviews, in their original "dialect" and broken English, in the simply-titled Slave Narratives. This film uses original still photographs, contemporary re-enactments, slave music, a running commentary by Whoopi Goldberg, and, most notably and thus the film's title, dramatic readings of those original slave narratives by contemporary African-American actors and actresses like Oprah Winfrey. In just over an hour you learn about the daily horrors of slave life from those who lived to tell of it--relentless work, horrendous housing and diet, the denial of education, sexual violence, and how the "masters" used Christianity to keep their slaves passive. This is a deeply moving film about our nation's very recent past. I recommend watching it in conjunction with the seven-part PBS documentary on the civil rights movement called Eyes on the Prize.

Listening to the actors "recall these memories" reminded me of the slave narratives I read while in college - desciptions of punishments given to terrorize other slaves, slave weddings and funerals, etc.

I was able to visualize the experiences these people shared with their interviewers - I guess that is due to the ensemble of talented actors who participated on this project :)

Don't sleep on this DVD. I believe this is something parents should watch with their children, so Americans (especially African-Americans) can remember this important piece of American history.

Listening to the actors "recall these memories" reminded me of the slave narratives I read while in college - desciptions of punishments given to terrorize other slaves, slave weddings and funerals, etc.

I was able to visualize the experiences these people shared with their interviewers - I guess that is due to the ensemble of talented actors who participated on this project :)

Don't sleep on this DVD. I believe this is something parents should watch with their children, so Americans (especially African-Americans) can remember this important piece of American history.

This is an amazing video that has famous African-American actors reading the narratives of former slaves as they retold their experience during the American slave movement. The pace is perfect and narratives are intertwined with photos and re-enactments that bring the slave experience to life. Whoopi Goldberg is amazing as the narrator. This video is not only informative, but chilling in its retelling of one of our most traumatic times in American history.

This is a beautiful documentary that touches on a small element of how slavery was from the exact words of ex slaves. It is impossible to embody how the whole experience was from the tales of the slaves that appeared in the books and in the movie. But this movie does a good job on exposng some of the main facts and atrocities that were committed against africans in amerikkka. This movie needs to be shown in all academic arenas as well as homes to expose how africans have been treated for the past 700 years.