Synopsis
In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update
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How many hands made this film
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Principal cast & crew: 14
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
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This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Joel KatzShot by Jon MigliettaScored by Don Byron
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Cast & Crew
14 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Dorothy Thigpen
as Narrator
Milton Gabler
as Self - Commodore Records
Farah Jasmine Griffin
as Self - writer and educator
C T Vivian
as Self - reverend and veteran civil rights activist
E M Woody Beck
as Self - sociologist
Abbey Lincoln
as Self - singer and composer
Michael Denning
as Self - historian
Amina Baraka
as Self - poet and performer
Amiri Baraka
as Self - poet and playwright
Bernie Kassoy
as Self - retired teacher and visual artist
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
4Parents Guide
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