Zora's Roots

As originally screened on PBS, the documentary Zora's Roots explores the life, literary career and creative influences of Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), the most famous and prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance, who gained greatest recognition for her 1937 roman Their Eyes Were Watching God. This film pays particularly close attention to Hurston's role as an ethno-anthropologist - shaped and molded by the Afro-American culture of Eatonville, Florida, the people of Haiti, and the populace of Honduras - who sought to preserve these various cultures through her writing. As a semi-documentary, this program features sequences with an actress, Pearl Ings, playing Hurston.