Post-film discussion featuring director Craig Laurence Rice and SoulTouch Productions’ Robin Hickman-Winfield.

MSPIFF programmer Craig Laurence Rice’s documentary of the great American Renaissance Man Gordon Parks is an intimate examination of the rich body of work Parks left behind. Filmed when Parks was 88 years-old, Half Past Autumn looks at Parks as a groundbreaking photographer, composer, novelist, poet, painter, lecturer, biographer, co-founder of Essence magazine, and, of course, filmmaker.

Post-film discussion featuring actor Art Evans and veteran filmmaker Kokayi Ampah.

Roger E. Mosley is brilliant as blues singer Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter in Gordon Parks’ criminally underrated Leadbelly. This tough-as-nails biopic celebrates Leadbelly as it condemns America’s treatment of Black artists. “[O]ne of the best biographies of a musician I've ever seen.” –Roger Ebert

Post-film discussion featuring lead actor Kyle Johnson and SoulTouch Productions’ Robin Hickman-Winfield.

Newt and Marcus are two great friends whose lives take radically different paths in their small Midwestern town. Based on Parks’ autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree (which he wrote, produced, composed the score, and directed), is a blistering examination of how Blacks navigate the narrow corridors of America’s racism.

Post-film discussion featuring MSPIFF Programmer and filmmaker Craig Laurence Rice.

When a Harlem mobster’s daughter is kidnapped by the Mafosi, does he turn to the cops? Not when Shaft’s in town. Thrilling, sexy, and dangerous, Gordon Parks’ action thriller ushered in the 70s Blaxploitation genre. Richard Roundtree is magnetic as Shaft and Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the original song.