Diary of a Harlem Family ( Gordon Parks, 1968)

The following film presents the photoessay, framed by a filmed segment featuring Parks and the Fontanelle family and is narrated by Parks. It is a film of real power and, although the events it depicts are more than fifty years in the past, it cuts just as deep today. Parks words are just as important as his photographs. Here he describes the teenage son of the family. Norman is a strange mixture. In his talk, there is a defiance for whites the white policeman, the white butcher, the white clerk in the appliance store. His eyes have the hard glint of the older black men in Harlem. At 13, he is already primed for some kind of action. He is aggressive, determined and powerfully built for his age. But his hostility is balanced by an overwhelming tenderness at times. Today, for instance, he lifted his baby brother Richard and smothered him with rough kisses.