Reflecting on Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, James Baldwin said, “Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, had so much of the truth of Black people’s lives been seen on the stage. Black people had ignored the theater because the theater had always ignored them.” Her groundbreaking play – the first written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway – changed everything.
The documentary Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart introduces viewers to the woman behind the work. Grounded in archives, personal writings, photos, and films, Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart places Hansberry in context, drawing parallels between herself, her writings, and the most pressing issues of her time – issues that we’re still grappling with today. In so doing, the documentary makes a compelling case for better understanding one of the most distinct literary voices of the twentieth century.