#1107: PARKS, Gordon: The Learning Tree (1969)
PARKS, Gordon (United States)
The Learning Tree [1969]
The Learning Tree [1969]
Spine #1107
Blu-ray
With this tender and clear-eyed coming-of-age odyssey, the renowned photographer turned filmmaker Gordon Parks not only became the first Black American director to make a Hollywood studio film, he also served as writer, producer, and composer, resulting in a deeply personal artistic achievement. Based on Parks’s own semi-autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree follows the journey of Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson), a teenage descendant of Exodusters growing up in rural Kansas in the 1920s, as he experiences the bittersweet flowering of first love, finds his relationship with a close friend tested, and navigates the injustices embedded within a racist legal and educational system. Exquisitely capturing the bucolic splendor of its heartland setting, this landmark film tempers nostalgia with an incisive understanding of the harsh realities, hard-won lessons, and often wrenching moral choices that shape the road to self-determination of the young Black man at its center.
107 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
2:35:1 aspect ratio
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writer
Based on the novel by Gordon Parks.
Parks was 57 when he wrote and directed The Learning Tree.
Other Parks films in the Collection:
#1130: Shaft (1971)
The Film
Other Parks films in the Collection:
#1130: Shaft (1971)
The Film
A
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Forty-four page booklet featuring a 1963 Life magazine photo-essay by Parks, and an excerpt from the director’s 2005 book A Hungry Heart: A Memoir.
Commentary
None.
Documentary
On the making of the film and its artistry, featuring curator Rhea L. Combs and filmmakers Ina Diane Archer, Ernest R. Dickerson, and Nelson George.
Conversation
Moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie, between artist Hank Willis Thomas and art historian Deborah Willis about the influence of director Parks.
The Moviemakers
A featurette that shows Parks on location for the film.
My father: Gordon Parks (1969)
A documentary made on the set of The Learning Tree, narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Parks Sr. and members of the cast and crew.
Two 1968 films
On which Parks played creative roles: Diary of a Harlem Family and The World of Piri Thomas, with an introduction by Combs and George.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Forty-four page booklet featuring a 1963 Life magazine photo-essay by Parks, and an excerpt from the director’s 2005 book A Hungry Heart: A Memoir.
Commentary
None.
Documentary
On the making of the film and its artistry, featuring curator Rhea L. Combs and filmmakers Ina Diane Archer, Ernest R. Dickerson, and Nelson George.
Conversation
Moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie, between artist Hank Willis Thomas and art historian Deborah Willis about the influence of director Parks.
The Moviemakers
A featurette that shows Parks on location for the film.
My father: Gordon Parks (1969)
A documentary made on the set of The Learning Tree, narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Parks Sr. and members of the cast and crew.
Two 1968 films
On which Parks played creative roles: Diary of a Harlem Family and The World of Piri Thomas, with an introduction by Combs and George.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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