Back to browse
50% Critic Match
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space
5.0 / 10• 2023• 1h 52m•NR• English
DocumentaryHistory
Storyline
Raised in the small all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.
Cast & Crew
Zora Neale Hurston
Self (archive footage)
Lead
Vanessa Williams
Narrator (voice)
Bahni Turpin
Zora Neale Hurston (voice)
LD
Lee D. Baker
Self
What People Are Saying
3.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Tracy Heather Strain's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
