Eyes on the Prize
| Eyes on the Prize | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Eyes on the Prize I Eyes on the Prize II |
| Genre | Documentary film |
| Directed by | Orlando Bagwell Sheila Curran Bernard Callie Crossley James A. DeVinney Madison D. Lacy Louis Massiah Thomas Ott Samuel D. Pollard Terry Kay Rockefeller Jacqueline Shearer Paul Stekler Judith Vecchione |
| Narrated by | Julian Bond |
| Opening theme | "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 14 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Henry Hampton |
| Production location | United States |
| Editors | Lillian Benson Betty Ciccarelli Daniel Eisenberg Jeanne Jordan Thomas Ott Charles Scott |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | Blackside |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | January 21, 1987 – March 5, 1990 |
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement is an American
The series won a number of Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and was nominated for an Oscar.
A total of 14 episodes of Eyes on the Prize were produced in two separate parts. The first part, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1965, chronicles the time period between the
Broadcast
The film originated as two sequential projects. Part one, six hours long, was shown on
In 1992, the documentary was released on home video. By the mid-1990s, both rebroadcasts and home video distribution were halted for several years due to expiration of rights and licenses of copyrighted archive footage, photographs and music used in the series. Copyright holders were demanding increasingly higher rates.[2] Grants from the Ford Foundation and Gilder Foundation enabled Blackside and the rights clearance team to renew rights in 2005.[3] While the return of Eyes on the Prize to public television and the educational market depended on the contributions of many, four individuals in particular are credited with achieving the complicated undertaking of rights renewals and the re-release of the series: Sandra Forman, Legal Counsel and Project Director; Cynthia Meagher Kuhn, Archivist and Rights Coordinator; Rena Kosersky, Music Supervisor; and Judi Hampton, President of Blackside and sister of Henry Hampton. None of the archival material in the fourteen-hour documentary was removed or altered in any way.
PBS rebroadcast the first six hours on
PBS reissued an educational version of the series in the fall of 2006, making it available on DVD for the first time.[6] It is now available to educational institutions and libraries from PBS on seven DVDs or seven VHS tapes. A consumer version of part one (1954–1965) was released in March 2010.[7]
The licensing issues from 1993 to 2006 generated what was called Eyes on the Screen, an effort to disseminate the series by file sharing networks without regard to copyright restrictions.
Episodes
America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1965
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Awakenings (1954–1956)" | Judith Vecchione | Steve Fayer | January 21, 1987 | |
| Chronicles the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi and the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Fighting Back (1957–1962)" | Judith Vecchione | Steve Fayer | January 28, 1987 | |
| Chronicles the school desegregation effort at Central High School by the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas from 1957 to 1958 and the later school desegregation effort at the University of Mississippi by James Meredith during the Ole Miss riot of 1962. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960–1961)" | Orlando Bagwell | Steve Fayer | February 4, 1987 | |
|
Covers the boycotts that sought to end racial segregation at lunch counters in Tennessee and the Freedom Riders efforts to end segregation on interstate transportation and terminals throughout the southern United States . | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "No Easy Walk (1961–1963)" | Callie Crossley & James A. DeVinney | Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney, & Steve Fayer | February 11, 1987 | |
|
Examines the failed attempt by the political rallies for civil rights in the history of the United States . | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Mississippi: Is This America? (1962–1964)" | Orlando Bagwell | Steve Fayer | February 18, 1987 | |
|
Chronicles the murder of Atlantic City during the United States presidential election of 1964 . | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Bridge to Freedom (1965)" | Callie Crossley & James A. DeVinney | Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney, & Steve Fayer | February 25, 1987 | |
| Examines the effort to restore voting rights in Selma, Alabama during the Selma to Montgomery marches. | ||||||
America at the Racial Crossroads 1965–1985
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 1 | "The Time Has Come (1964–66)" | James A. DeVinney & Madison D. Lacy | James A. DeVinney & Madison D. Lacy | January 15, 1990 | |
| Examines a lead member of the Nation of Islam - Malcolm X. It also chronicles the political organizing work of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in Alabama and the shooting of James Meredith during the March Against Fear. | ||||||
| 8 | 2 | "Two Societies (1965–68)" | Sheila Curran Bernard & Samuel D. Pollard | Sheila Curran Bernard, Steve Fayer, & Samuel D. Pollard | January 22, 1990 | |
|
Follows 1965 Watts Riot in California . | ||||||
| 9 | 3 | "Power! (1966–68)" | Louis J. Massiah & Terry Kay Rockefeller | Steve Fayer, Louis J. Massiah, & Terry Kay Rockefeller | January 29, 1990 | |
| Chronicles the election of Carl Stokes as the mayor of Cleveland and one of the first two African Americans to become mayor of a major U.S. city. The film also covers the formation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and community control of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in Brooklyn during the New York City teachers' strike of 1968. | ||||||
| 10 | 4 | "The Promised Land (1967–68)" | Jacqueline Shearer & Paul Stekler | Steve Fayer, Jacqueline Shearer, & Paul Stekler | February 5, 1990 | |
| Chronicles the final years of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. It also covers the Poor People's Campaign and Resurrection City in Washington, D.C. | ||||||
| 11 | 5 | "Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More (1964–72)" | Sheila Curran Bernard & Samuel D. Pollard | Sheila Curran Bernard, Steve Fayer, & Samuel D. Pollard | February 15, 1990 | |
| Chronicles the emergence of boxer Muhammad Ali, the student movement at Howard University, and the gathering of the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. | ||||||
| 12 | 6 | "A Nation of Law? (1968–71)" | Louis J. Massiah, Thomas Ott, & Terry Kay Rockefeller | Steve Fayer, Louis J. Massiah, Thomas Ott, & Terry Kay Rockefeller | February 19, 1990 | |
|
Chronicles the leadership and assassination of Attica, New York . | ||||||
| 13 | 7 | "The Keys to the Kingdom (1974–80)" | Jacqueline Shearer & Paul Stekler | Steve Fayer, Jacqueline Shearer, & Paul Stekler | February 26, 1990 | |
|
The documentary examines the United States Supreme Court ruling Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978). | ||||||
| 14 | 8 | "Back to the Movement (1979–mid 80s)" | James A. DeVinney & Madison D. Lacy | James A. DeVinney, Steve Fayer, & Madison D. Lacy | March 5, 1990 | |
|
Covers the Civil Rights Movement and its effect upon the United States and the world. | ||||||
Book
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Interview with Juan Williams on Eyes on the Prize, February 3, 1987, C-SPAN |
The book Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 was created as a companion volume to the series during post-production by the producers and publishing staff at Blackside, Inc. They were assisted by Juan Williams, a journalist with The Washington Post. First published by Viking Press in 1987, the book used a portion of the iconic photograph of the Selma to Montgomery march taken by Look magazine photographer James Karales on its cover.[8]
Reception
The series has been hailed by numerous critics[9][10] as more than just a historical document.
Awards
Both Eyes on the Prize and Eyes on the Prize II won
The series also won six Emmy Awards.[14]
Episode six, Bridge to Freedom, produced by
See also
- American Archive of Public Broadcasting
- Civil rights movement in popular culture
- List of American Experience episodes
- List of American films of 1987
- List of American films of 1990
References
- ^ DVD Talk
- ^ Sheila Curran Bernard, "Eyes on the Rights - The Rising Cost of Putting History on Screen", Documentary Online Magazine, June 05 Issue, International Documentary Association. Retrieved 2021-6-27.
- ^ Katie Dean (August 30, 2005), "Cash Rescues Eyes on the Prize", Wired.com, archived from the original on December 31, 2006, retrieved February 21, 2008.
- ^ A Special Presentation of American Experience: Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1985, PBS.org. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
- ^ PBS News: PBS Celebrates Black History Month with an Extensive Lineup of Special Programming, PBS.org. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
- ^ PBS Education - Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement DVD 7PK - AV Item
- ^ "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 (Season 1) DVD". PBS. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
- OCLC 857233580.
- ISSN 0362-4331.
- ISSN 0882-7729.
- ^ "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years". The Peabody Awards. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- ^ "Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965-1985)". The Peabody Awards. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- ^ "The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards". Columbia Journalism School. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- ^ Blake, Meredith (January 17, 2016). "Landmark civil rights documentary 'Eyes on the Prize' returns to TV". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "1988", Oscars.org.
- ^ "The Ten-Year Lunch Wins Documentary Feature: 1988 Oscars". YouTube. April 11, 1988.
Further reading
- Boucher, Norman (1990). "The Vision of Henry Hampton: Eyes on the Prize I and II". The World: Journal of the Unitarian Universalist Association. 4 (1): 8–11.
- ISBN 9780140154030.
- DeMarco, David (Summer 1987). "Keep Your Eyes on Henry Hampton, Creator Readies Eyes on the Prize". Black Film Review. 3 (3): 14–15.
- ISBN 9781101980934.
- G'Schwind, James A. (1999). Eyes on the Prize: American Historiophoty in Documentary Film (Ph.D. dissertation). Indiana University. OCLC 56509312.
- Hadley, Elizabeth Amelia (1999). "Eyes on the Prize: Reclaiming Black Images, Culture, and History". In Klotman, Phyllis Rauch; Cutler, Janet K. (eds.). Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video. Indiana University Press. pp. 99–121. ISBN 9780253213471.
- ISBN 9780307574183.
External links
- Eyes on the Prize I Interviews Collection, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
- Eyes on the Prize Series
- Teacher study guide
- PBS Lesson Plans
- Eyes on the Prize Interview Transcripts, Washington University Library
- Eyes on the Prize I - Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University's Film and Media Archive
- Eyes on the Prize II - Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University's Film and Media Archive
- Eyes On the Prize at IMDb
- Eyes On the Prize II at IMDb
