The Peabody Awards Nominee | FINALIST - Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film | PREMIERE - Woodstock International Film Festival
African American History, Culture & Community • Civil Rights History • Southern History • Government Surveillance & Privacy • Photojournalism • Family Legacy • Black Lives MatterDate of Completion: 2022 | Run Time: 80 minutes | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Phil Bertelsen | Producers: Phil Bertelsen & Lise Yasui | Executive Producers: Tony Decaneas, Eric Meola, Robert Katz, Philip Hack, Sally Fifer, Lois Vossen & Leslie Fields-Cruz
Photographer Ernest Withers shot over a million images, capturing the stars of Negro League Baseball and Memphis music alongside the everyday celebrations and sorrows of his tight-knit community. An intrepid journeyman for the Black press and often uncredited source for the white mainstream, he chased stories throughout the south and behind the scenes, drawing the world's attention to the civil rights movement from the Emmett Till trial through the King assassination and beyond. After his death, Withers was exposed as an FBI informant who'd provided photos and information about activists who'd welcomed him into their inner circle. THE PICTURE TAKER explores his motives and digs beyond the headlines that threaten to reduce a complicated life into a sensational sound bite. THE PICTURE TAKER raises questions about community, power, and patriotism in times of great social upheaval, and the lens through which we judge history. Neither saint nor sinner, loyalist nor traitor, Withers' choices and the record he left behind provide an invaluable map of the roads this country has traveled, and how far it has yet to go.
The New York Times | Beandrea July
“The film immerses viewers in Withers’s considerable storytelling abilities as an image-maker at the same time that it examines his motives for taking those very pictures — that tension is what makes for an engrossing watch."
AWARDS
Nominee, The Peabody Awards | The Peabody Awards
Finalist | Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film
Opening Night Film | Memphis Film Festival
FESTIVALS
Woodstock International Film Festival (Premiere)
Philadelphia Film Festival
Montclair Film Festival