American Masters
Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
Marian Anderson triumphed over racial prejudice to become an international icon singing out for justice in the early days of the civil rights movement.
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
The first feature film about Maya Angelou, an iconic writer who contributed to the 20th century's most pivotal social movements.
- Series
- American Masters
- Premiere Date
- February 21, 2017
- Length
- 120 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Series and Special Projects
Producer/Director
Bob Hercules
Bob Hercules’ work includes Bill T. Jones: A Good Man and Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, both of which aired on PBS’s American Masters series. A Good Man was an official selection at Full Frame, IDFA, Silverdocs, DOXA, and many other festivals. Joffrey was the opening night film at the Dance on Camera Film Festival at Lincoln Center in 2012 and the… Show more
Producer/Director
Rita Coburn
Rita Coburn Whack has produced the award-winning Maya Angelou Show on Oprah Radio, numerous Maya Angelou Black History Month Specials, and three Emmy Award-winning television documentaries airing on C-SPAN and the History Channel.
- Other ITVS Films
- Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
We fund untold stories for public media.
Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.
The Film
At the time of Maya Angelou’s death, May 28, 2014, she was participating in the first feature documentary about her life for Maya Angelou: The People’s Poet. Co-directors/producers Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack last interviewed Dr. Angelou in January 2014, and look forward to her taking her rightful place in the American Masters series, albeit posthumously.
An eloquent poet, writer and performer, Maya Angelou’s life intersected with the civil rights struggle, the Harlem Writers Guild, the New Africa movement, the women’s movement, and the cultural and political realignments of the 1970s and ‘80s. Her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, catapulted Dr. Angelou onto the literary stage and became an international best-seller. She appeared in numerous documentaries, talk shows, and feature films, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, yet shockingly, has never been the subject of her own feature documentary.
Having lived such a rich, passionate life and been a witness, as well as a participant, in some of the most profound periods of the last century, her full biography is extraordinarily rich and varied. Dr. Angelou lived not one life, but half a dozen, and yet parts of her story have fallen into obscurity. Maya Angelou: The People’s Poet reflects on how the events of history, culture, and the arts shaped her life and how she, in turn, helped shape our own world view through her autobiographical literature and activism.
