Strange Fruit (2005)
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Kent Faulcon, David Raibon, Berlinda Tolbert
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Reviews
"Strange Fruit"...should be mandatory viewing by all students old enough to understand the meaning and importance of the haunting song.
Katz uses archival footage, horrifying documents of lynchings, still photographs and charming old reel-to-reel recordings of Meeropol entertaining his children to create his song history, but most powerful of all is the song itself
Though only 60 minutes long, the film is packed with information and impressions.
In his excellent documentary, also called Strange Fruit, filmmaker Joel Katz takes a fascinating look at the origins and impact of a ballad that's been called 'one of ten songs that changed the world.'
This is a film well worth seeing, talking and singing heads and all.
Provocatively enlightens us on the fascinating origins and social convulsions created by the song Strange Fruit, and its profound connection to the progressive movements of the last century.
Katz's documentary doesn't have much panache, but with material this rich it doesn't need it.
Mining the song's associative richness, Katz's film works as jazz genealogy, Meerpol bio, Jewish-leftist puzzle piece, performance homage, and exegetic history of lynching.


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