Lismore Road is partnering with ROCO Films to bring Driving While Black to communities and classrooms.

SYNOPSIS

Driving While Black, a feature-length documentary film, explores the role of the automobile in the lives of African Americans in the early twentieth century. Based on over a decade of research by acclaimed African American historian Dr. Gretchen Sorin, the film draws on an extraordinarily rich archive of material from the period – including photographs, advertisements, billboards, road signs, maps, brochures, letters, and legal records – along with riveting oral histories and the on-camera insights of scholars, writers, musicians, artists, religious leaders and ordinary American travelers.

CREDITS

DIRECTOR: Ric Burns, Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
WRITERS: Ric Burns, Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
PRODUCERS: Bonnie Lafave, Emily Pfiel, Emir Lewis, Steven Bennett, Kathryn Clinard
IMPACT PRODUCING PARTNER: RO*CO Films
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Buddy Squires
EDITOR: Emir Lewis
MUSIC BY: Briane Keane
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Margaret Munzer Loeb, Rula Jebreal, Arthur Altschul Jr., Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K Scully
DISTRIBUTOR: PBS
RELEASE DATE: 2020

PRESS

“Driving While Black strikes a fascinating balance between never losing track of the racism of Jim Crow and celebrating some of the black entrepreneurship it inspired.”
Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter

“Eye-opening. Revelatory.”
Eric Deggans, NPR