Umoja: The Tiger and the Big Wind
The Nguzo Saba Folklore Love Series for Children
Carol Munday Lawrence
Director
Also Directed by Carol Munday Lawrence
Beegie is afraid to venture deep into the woods. She dreams about a magic egg entrusted to her by her father. To preserve its magic, she must take it into the forest and sing to it.
When a farmer in West Africa sees that a dam is about to burst and drown his neighbours in the valley below, he sets his own house on fire. The villagers rush up the hill to help him and in turn are saved from the flood
Everyone in Mary Jean’s rural East African village wears a green stone which shines brightly as a beacon of cooperation. When Mary Jean hesitates to aid a neighbor, her stone flickers less brilliantly. Based on an Alice Walker short story.
Reverend Faulkner relates the role of folk tales and church spirituals as "underground" and subtle protest within the slave community. He recounts Simon Brown's remembrances of his bondage and Reconstruction.
Oscar Micheaux, Film Pioneer is one of seven films in the "Were You There" series produced by Carol Lawrence (the others include The Black West, The Cotton Club, The Facts of Life, Portrait of Two Artists, Sports Profile, and When the A nimals Talked). This film's story revolves around Bee Freeman's (the Sepia Mae West) and Lorenzo Tucker's (the black Valentino) recollections of their relationships with Micheaux and their perceptions of his character. Danny Glover plays the role of Oscar Micheaux, Richard H arder is shown as the young Lorenzo Tucker, and Janice Morgan portrays the vamp that was Bee Freeman in Shuffle Along.
Noel enlists the help of neighbors in his city apartment building to supply homemade food to make his sidewalk lemonade stand a success.
The Kangaroos Who Forgot (1979, 6 min.) is about two kangaroos in Australia who get lost and are adopted by a platypus family. They’re raised as good platypuses, but have they remained true to themselves?
Simon’s New Sound (1978, 8 min.) is about a young boy who is searching for a new instrument with which to celebrate Trinidad’s pre-Easter Carnival. He fashions a steel drum from the carefully indented bottom of an oildrum. Poet Opal Palmer is the voice of Simon.
