Aslanian, Sasha
Description
The annual Twin Cities Juneteenth film festival opens tonite with Charles Burnett's "Nightjohn". Burnett is the independent filmmaker behind "To Sleep With Anger" and "The Glass Shield", but for his newest feature he signed up with the giant Disney to make a TV movie, but one shot with the big screen in mind. "Nightjohn" is about a slave who escapes to the North, lives as a free man, but returns to the South, and slavery, because he wants to teach slaves how to read and write. "Nightjohn" meets a remarkable young black girl who learns to read with his inspiration, but Burnett says the knowledge doesn't provide the typical Hollywood happy ending for her, it just helps her perspective.
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