Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored

This adaptation of Clifton Taulbert's novel details a young boy's post-WWII rites of passage in the segregated Mississippi Delta. Basically anecdotal - the Joe Louis title defeat; the 'ice wars' as the NAACP campaign began to bite - it celebrates a community who were 'never beat down', surviving days in the cotton fields on a diet of pride, resolution, family and community solidarity and sweet potato pie. The period reconstruction is flawless, the camerawork glowing, and the affirmation of the progressive role of education effulgent and endearing.