‘Now Is the Time’ featured actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis doing in-studio readings from the passionate writings of American Negroes as cameras caught on-location illustrative and impressionistic films of Philadelphia Negroes. A unique anthology of American Negro attitudes from the earliest days of subservience to current times of heightened self-respect.”
Includes footage of a church service, elderly women, children playing, decayed apartment buildings, protest marches and rallies, lunch counter sit-ins, and violent encounters between protesters and police.
Includes readings from from the writings of: Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Lucy Smith, Claude Brown, Countee Cullen, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Naomi L. Madgett, Waring Cuney, Herbert Clark Johnson, Malcolm X, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Rita Vaughan, Mari E. Evans, Sterling A. Brown, Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael, Ernie Chambers, Dr. Nathan Wright and Rev. M.L. Wilson. Also includes comments from African-American children about race, and excerpts from gospel songs and spirituals.
With: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
Credits
Cinematography, Phil Galligan; sound, Bill Ludes; still photography, Mary Ellen Mark; film editing, W. Stephan-Stephanowich; additional photography, Charles Grindhart, Ed Tycenski; scoring, Albert Rose; production assistants, Jane Bell, Ron Hays.
A TV 10 color presentation ; CBS ; executive producer, Alvin Hollander ; produced by Inez Gottlieb, Joan Fiore ; directed by Jim Crum.