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SEPTEMBER 10, 1998 AUGUSTA FOCUS
Family Name:
Breaking generations of silence over slavery
MMacky Alston’s family
history provides a map
to buried secrets, and
discoveries about those
who share his name.
iAs a young child growing up on
orth Carolina, Macky Alston
t that it was unusual that
of his African-American el
tmtaryscboolclamnateuhamd
islast name. For years, questions
put to his family on the topic re
hained unanswered until his fa
ther, a civil rights leader and min
ibter, gave Alston a book detailing
gul;‘ohistory of their family. The
ns, he learned, were one of
the largest slave-owning families
in antebellum North Carolina.
?amilyName,Alston’s award-win
ning debut film, chronicles the sur
prising twists and turns of his
gearch for the descendants of the
slaves and slave owners who lived
én the plantations once owned by
his family. In 1997, Family Name
won the Freedom of Expression
Award at the Sundance Film Fes
fival, the IFP Open Palm Award
for best debut feature film, and
was theatrically released to rave
teviews; Siskel and Ebert gave the
{fim"hvothumbs up, way up,”and
Augusta
plays part in
Frankie
Lymon film
§ Special to the Augusta Focus
' In the new film based on the life of late
i singer Frnakie Lymon, the city of Augusta
¢ played significant throughout much of the
. _film.
i Lymon, the consumate “playa” before
-the word became en vogue, was once mar
ried to Ermira Eagle (played by Lela
g“Rochon), who was an Augusta native. She
¢ met Lymon while he was in the Army. In
i fact, Georgia was well represented in the
+ film, consider.ng Macon native Little Ri
a chard played himself, and the music of
t"Augusta’s Jan. ; Brown and Macon’s Otis
é Redding was appropriately placed in the
¢ seript.
¢ Moviewise, Why Do Fools Fall In Love is
! one entertaining piece of art. Effectively
; shot in time-periods of the mid-50s up
¢ through the late 60s, the tragic end of
! Lymon’s drug-influenced life was not the
{ basis of the film -- unlike other musician
T films, like Bird, the John Coltrane drama.
;s« LYMON, next page
96, Va
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/UU/ 96.9 The Touch ACTION
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Tom Joyner 2 e
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Rolling Stone called it “a moving,
unforgettable film.”
Point of View (P.0.V.), public
television’s annual award-winning
showcase for independent non-fic
tion films, will broadcast Family
Name nationally on Tuesday, Sep
tember 15, 1998 at 10 p.m. (ET) on
PBS (check local listings).
As a formerly closeted gay man,
Alston knows the repercussions of
secrets, so he set out on his jour
ney, determined to find the truth.
During one of his first visits to
North Carolina he quickly discov
ers that there are two Alston fam
ily reunions, one white and one
black, held during the same week,
only a few miles apart from each
other.
“Nobody at either reunion had
any idea that the other was taking
place,” Alston marvels at the start
of Family Name. With a film crew
in tow, he attends both gatherings,
to meet and talk with as many
Alstons as he can, and to examine
their intertwining connections of
lineage. The film highlights the
families’ distinct differences, as
well as their undeniable similari
ties — including the pattern of
silence about slaveryin both Alston
families.
Alston travels to Pittsboro, N.C.,
the biggest town in Chatham
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County, where, in the early 19th
century, his great-great-great
great-great-great uncle, Joseph
John Alston, owned so much land
and so many slaves that everyone
called him ChathamJack. Hefinds
that the Pittsboro phone book is
full of Alstons — black and white,
many of whom become subject to
Alston’s probing questions. When
asked about slavery, they respond
as if they have never before dis
cussed the subject, let alone with a
white man. As the story unfolds, it
turns out that many of the people
interviewed do not choose to dis
cuss this aspect of their family’s
history.
His dogged efforts to dig up the
Alston clan’s buried roots contin
ues when he meets two African-
tohisown. Fred Alston Jr., a noted
classical musician born into a fam
ily of farmers who once worked the
land owned by Alston’s relatives,
invites the filmmaker to join him
and his teenage son, Jeff, on a trip
to N.C. to retrace his boyhood
memories, reconnect with family
membersand visit Fred AlstonJr.’s
father’s grave
About the filmmaker
Macky Alston has directed and
produced a number of short docu
mentaries including Catching Up
With the Ward Boys, a 10-minute
follow-up to Brother’s Keeper, com
missioned by American Playhouse
and broadcast nationally on PBS
in May 1994; and Chakra: A Cel
ebration of India.
Autopsy 5 on HBO '
unearth secrets from the grave -
Known as “detectives of death,”
forensic pathologists can serve as
living interpreters for the voices of
the dead, unlocking secrets of mys
terious crimes that might other
wise go unsolved. This September,
in the tradition of HBO's previous
Autopsy documentaries, Autopsy 5
explores the world of forensic pa
thology through the words and case
studies of several of the country’s -
leading autopsy experts. The
Americ¢a Undercover presentation
debuts Saturday, September 19,
10:30-11:30 p.m. ET, exclusively
on HBO.
Other play dates: Sept. 21 (2:06
am.), 24 (1 a.m.) and 29 (10 p.m.)
and Oct. 7 (11:30 p.m.) and 12
(12:30 a.m.)
Among the pathologists sharing
their insightsis Dr. Michael Baden
(the subject of the original Autopsy:
Confessions of a Medical Exam
iner), a real-life Quincy who has
conducted more than 20,000 au
topsies in his 34-year career, re
viewed the autopsies of Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald,
Goldman at the O.J. Simpson trial,
and examined victims of the TWA
Flight 800 crash. The former chief
medical examiner of New York
City, Dr. Baden was also consulted
in the cases of Claus von Bulow,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, John
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Chaitin; Dr. Martin Glicksman, an
expert from Rensselaer
nic Institute who works on the
space shuttle at NASA; and otheP|
leading forensic pathologists, natus
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files, Autopsy 5 includes such casé
studies as the 1996 u.ry&:w*‘
Powell case, the 1991 Robert .
case, and the 1990 case of the Eye<|
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1989 best-seller Unnatural Death?
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Money, whose other HBO docuj;
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Jazz Quiz .
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Answers fromlß
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1. Trumpet/flugel horn. i
2. Jazz bassist. W
3. Jazz and blues magazine. |
4. Songs, tunes. ’ -qg
5. Jaguar. !
6. Trombone. !
7. Francis Paudras. i
8. Thelonious Monk. i
9. Los Angeles. ~5
10. Trumpet. j g
11. They are trombonists. '
12. Charles “Cootie” Williams, 77}
13. Stmg ,'_;:‘
14. 30 years. 33]
15. Warner Brothers. }
16. Singer. -4
17. October 18, 1984 at the age- !
of 89. ’l2
18. New York City. o
19. Saxophone. 3
20. Rock and roll. 31‘
Augusta Focus
is an
award-winning
Walker Group
Publication