Harry Belafonte in person!

With remarkable intimacy, visual style, and musical panache, Susanne Rostock’s documentary, Sing Your Song, surveys the inspiring life of singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte. From his rise to fame as a singer and his experiences touring a segregated country, to his crossover into Hollywood, Belafonte’s groundbreaking career personifies the American civil rights movement. Rostock reveals Belafonte to be a tenacious activist, who worked intimately with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., mobilized celebrities for social justice, participated in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and took action to counter gang violence, prisons, and youth incarceration. Belafonte’s beliefs elicited unwarranted invasions by the FBI into both his personal life and career, leading to years of struggle with the powers that be. Nonetheless, an indomitable sense of optimism still motivates Belafonte, as he continues to ask, “What do we do now?”  (Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2011) Screening followed by discussion with Harry Belafonte

This HBO Documentary Film premieres on HBO in Fall 2011.

Presented in association with National Black Programming Consortium and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture