Films:
What Memphis Needs
Contrasting the black and white cultures of Memphis, Tennessee, What Memphis Needs is based on a poem by Alexis Krasilovsky, written in the Free People's Poetry Workshop of the internationally renowned "prison poet," Etheridge Knight. From ponies running through the Memphis cottonwoods to a girl running across the construction site of Mud Island, from white kids in a West Memphis parade throwing candy at black bystanders to a Bible reading in the Lorraine Motel, and from rock 'n rollers to marquee lights on Beale Street, this video provides a searing cross-section of Memphis history and society.
Winner, Poetry Film/Video Festival (San Francisco), Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour; "PBS' "The 90's"; International Poetry Festival (Boston); Filmforum (Los Angeles); Brooks Museum "Cinemasterpieces" (Memphis); Museum of Modern Art (New York).
Available on Some Women Writers Kill Themselves DVD.
6 minutes, 16mm film, edited on I" video, color (1991) A Rafael Film Production.
Category: Poetry Film
Plot Keywords: Memphis , harmonica, racism, protest poems, poetry
Available on DVD at: http://www.alexiskrasilovsky.com