She was also the lead researcher on the film and one of our producers. How did you work with that and how did you find the rhythm of the film? Open caption screening Sunday night. JG: The opening title sequence really is special. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am Screenings: August 16-22 Show Times: Nightly at 7:30 pm. Through my art world contacts, I tracked her down and all I had to say was “Toni Morrison” and she replied, “I’m in!” We felt Mickalene’s collages beautifully reflect Toni’s style of writing – non-linear, using bits and pieces from so many sources, and magical. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am ( 2019) Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. TGS: Often these portraits become the spine of the opening credits. TGS: Mickalene Thomas is a world-renowned artist whose distinctive work is instantly recognizable. Toni Morrison is a direct descendent of this female responsibility from 300,000 years ago to 15,000 years ago. I did all the research – at Princeton, in the Random House archives, in Toni Morrison’s personal archives. Mickalene Thomas in her studio. We let you watch movies online without having to register or paying, with over 10000 movies and I was very aware of her work but I had never met her. This decision allows the audience to experience an intimate one-on-one conversation with Toni. She did a tremendous score. All rights reserved. IMDbRotten Tomatoes Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [â¦] She’s a huge Toni Morrison fan. Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Producer and Editor Johanna Geibelhaus discuss working with Toni Morrison and the challenges of distilling her remarkable life for film. JG: Working with Kathryn Bostic was a gift, it really was. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she ⦠It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.4 and a MetaScore of 82. PG-13 | 2h | Documentary | 21 June 2019 (USA) 2:16 | Trailer. Tell me about how the film was shot and the various ways of looking. JG: I also wore the hat of the music supervisor and doing the research on the music that would be in the film in addition to working with Kathryn Bostic, who is an incredible composer. That was a way to start an initial organization of the content and storytelling. And the end credits, that is a part of Timothy’s style, as well. It emerged from thinking about artwork and figuring out a way where artwork could be a part of honouring Toni from the beginning, but also being an entry point for the film. (603) IMDb 7.4 2h 2019 PG-13. Timothy and I wanted to infuse the film and surround Toni with artworks and music by African American people. TGS: Early in the film, Toni says she learned early on in life that “words have power.” Her writing has impacted so many people around the world… to heal, to imagine, to develop their own voices. This artful and romantic meditation on the legendary story teller examines the powerful themes she's got confronted throughout her career, her works, and her own entire lifetime. She led us through. His filmmaking style grows from the talking portrait style. Eventually, Toni agreed. I spent time thinking about how that would work. JG: We’re incredibly grateful that she agreed. None of us knew exactly what it was going to be but we were all thinking about collage and this idea of fragments. Festivals & Awards Sundance 2019 Announces ⦠JG: In Mickalene’s opening collage, I think there are 10 portraits of Toni that Mickalene used and six of them are Timothy’s portraits. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Hers was a monumental life that has impacted the world’s culture, a life that deserved an important documentary. There’s also music by incredible African-American composers, many of whom aren’t as well known, and African-American performers. Toni herself, in her language, is an instrument, so we wanted to support that. How did you choose Mickalene Thomas to work with on the opening? Skip to main content Hello, Sign in. Synopsis The Plot This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. I edited it and this is what emerged. Toni reads all of her own novels and audiobooks; it’s really important to her that the rhythm and cadence and the delivery of language is honoured. It is her powerful voice that carries us through director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ sweeping and intimate documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. When it came time to put together the team for Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I was very conscious of what Toni describes as “the white male gaze.” I very much wanted to assemble a team that didn’t look like me so I would have different perspectives and opinions helping to shape the film. Mickalene Thomas in her studio. TGS: I first met Toni Morrison 38 years ago, in the winter of 1981, when she came to my East Village studio for a Soho Weekly News cover portrait. An artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the legendary storyteller and Nobel prize-winner. Can you talk a bit about the various artwork included in the film and the music? VIDEO: Trailer for Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Timothy, what does Toni Morrison’s work mean to you? I explained how important I thought it would be to hear from her friends and colleagues and to capture on film her history, accomplishments and the important themes of her many works. This is your second collaboration together, right? We weren’t sure about the title. “She is a friend of my mind,” says Morrison in the opening moments, reading from Beloved, her 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. TV-Series. That was very much research-driven and driven by the incredible interviews that we had – and Toni herself. I wanted to preserve that space in her language but also find ways to create spaces visually in the film, where we as viewers can have time to process and to think and to go with her. You can also Download full movies from MyFlixer and watch it later if you want. She gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” Her voice is soft and warm and smooth, the cadence measured and even, inviting us into her extraordinary life. JG: It’s my second collaboration with Timothy, yeah. The artwork in the collage was by the extraordinary artist Mickalene Thomas. It’s a very supportive sound but it also gives you space. And as editor, you had the monumental task of cutting down all this material. It was also a film I really wanted to make. It was all one position, the horizontal landscape position, filling the screen. A discussion with Director TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS and Producer and Editor JOHANNA GIEBELHAUS. Generally I photograph everyone immediately after the interview has taken place. Used with permission. MyFlixer is a Free Movies streaming site with zero ads. JG: There was a lot of trust that started with Toni Morrison’s trust of Timothy, and then Timothy’s trust of me, and then that trust extended to Kathryn Bostic and Mickalene Thomas... As a team, there was a lot of creativity and trust and inspiration. Last question. An overhead view of the desk of Mickalene Thomas featuring pieces of collage, including the artwork for Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.Photo by Les Guzman for Upstate Diary (issue 8). So there’s just a vast amount of material. Toni is looking into the camera while the others are looking to the side. I think I gave her hundreds of images of Toni. The film is gathering the pieces of Toni to tell her story. 12 January 2021 | eyeforfilm.co.uk Remembering Michael Apted by Anne-Katrin Titze, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. âToni Morrison: The Pieces I Amâ goes deeper than mere celebrity profile, though. JG: It is daunting! Mickalene’s collage is very moving and it encapsulates what we experience in the film. Toni Morrison and members of the documentary crew. An interview with Kathryn Bostic, acclaimed composer of "Dear White People" and "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am." The pieces I am. Photo by Les Guzman for Upstate Diary (issue 8). It is her powerful voice that carries us through director Timothy Greenfield-Sandersâ sweeping and intimate documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. In the opening sequence, Thomas physically gathers pieces of Toni Morrison which include photographs created by Greenfield-Sanders as well as others and arranges them into a shifting video portrait. The documentaries Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am was released in 2019 and lasts 120 minutes. Her own body of work is so important as an artist, as a contemporary artist, as an African American woman. It’s always a nice way to end the experience, too, taking a portrait. Hilton Als, in the film, says it’s hard to get your head around someone who did so much and then he quotes Toni, saying, well, she had a life in books. for ⦠Many of her novels jump through time, in and out, so I had that in my mind as an editor, thinking about how we do that. In 2014, I approached her about making a documentary about her life. I think the first one is her high school graduation photo, so she’s 18, and the last one she’s 87. 05 March 2020 | The Guardian - Film News Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am review â powerful portrait of a cultural giant We started experimenting with keys and we settled on the palette of jazz. Timothy, you had a relationship with Toni Morrison that spanned decades. Toni Morrison directs an assembly of colleagues, critics, and also its own peers within an exploration of race, history, America, and the human state. Still from Toni Morisson: The Pieces I Am featuring Farah Griffin, Still from Toni Morisson: The Pieces I Am featuring Toni Morrison looking into the camera, Still from Toni Morisson: The Pieces I Am featuring Walter Mosley. Building a rhythm in biographical films is always a challenge, keeping things moving. I had been experimenting with some music and had a temp track built. So I did the archival research, the thematic research as well as the visual research, compiling images that needed to accompany the film. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am ( 2019) Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. MyFlixer does not store any files on our server, we only linked to the media which is hosted on 3rd party services. âShe is a friend of my mind,â says Morrison in the opening moments, reading from Beloved, her 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. TGS: She had come highly recommended by my long-time producing partner Tommy Walker. I edited that. As we’ve taken the film out to theaters across the country, I’ve been able to see the depth of gratitude for Toni's words. And getting back to your question about rhythm, you hear the upright bass – that was something that worked really well with Toni, as she’s speaking. It creates a further intimacy with Toni as she’s leading us through her life. JG: Yes! Declan worked with me on the opening and he chose the fonts. Main TitlesFilm Director: Timothy Greenfield-SandersFilm Producers: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Johanna Giebelhaus, Chad Thompson, Tommy WalkerEditor: Johanna GiebelhausOpening Credits Art by: Mickalene ThomasMusic by: Kathryn BosticMusic Supervisor: Johanna GiebelhausTitle Design: Declan Zimmermann, Perpetual Motion Graphics, End CreditsPhotography by: Timothy Greenfield-SandersFilm Producers: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Johanna Giebelhaus, Chad Thompson, Tommy WalkerMusic By: Kathryn BosticMusic Supervisor: Johanna GiebelhausVisual Effects Supervisor & Editor: Declan ZimmermannVisual Effects and Title Design: Perpetual Motion Graphics. Still from the end credits featuring a portrait of Angela Davis taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, VIDEO: End credits sequence (featuring photography by film director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders) and crawl, Still from the end credits featuring a portrait of Hilton Als taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Her trust in me began way back then. They’re woven throughout and they accompany Toni as she’s weaving these themes together, as the film is weaving themes together. Used with permission. The footage of Thomas’s collage assembly is beautifully buttressed by Kathryn Bostic’s lilting and contemplative jazz score, joined with credits designed by Declan Zimmermann and Perpetual Motion Graphics, and made whole through cuts and rotations by the film’s editor and producer Johanna Giebelhaus. Documentaries don’t often have special opening titles like this. From her childhood in Lorain, OH to â70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali, from the front lines with Angela Davis to her riverfront writing room. This is an excellent documentary that covers not only the incredible life of Author, editor and Nobel prize winner, Toni Morrison, but the history that she helped document during the 70âs and 80âs. TGS: Johanna is a stellar editor. It really became an experience of figuring out how to weave the pieces together, much like a quilt. Throughout the interviews, Toni was open and intimate, thought-provoking and emotional. So photographing Fran Lebowitz, Hilton Als, Oprah Winfrey, et cetera, was no different than what I’ve done for my other films. TGS: I was a young photographer and Toni had just finished her fourth novel, Tar Baby. TGS: I’ve wanted to make a documentary about Toni since we worked together on my documentary series The Black List that aired on HBO in 2008. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 â August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Johanna, how did you become involved? TGS: Only Toni looks into the camera, directly addressing the viewer. 2 VIDEOS | 4 IMAGES. She’s very particular about how her language is delivered. JG: It comes out of Timothy’s portrait style. That sort of intimacy in Timothy’s style is something that I thought about in the editing, just bringing out these intimate, emotional, sensitive moments throughout the film. The opening recalls the style of Morrison’s 1974 nonfiction project The Black Book, “a lavishly illustrated scrapbook spanning three centuries of African-American history, reproducing newspaper clippings, photographs, advertisements, handbills and the like.”, Read the New York Times' obituary, written by Margalit Fox:Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88. She was incredibly generous in giving us access to her personal archives. Conceptually, of the film’s 13 interviewees only Toni was filmed in my direct-to-camera style. Toni has a particular cadence and rhythm to her speech. 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