In the Classroom

Horace Jenkins, an extraordinary filmmaker and documentarian

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

Recently, when Turner Classic Movies presented “Cane,” it provided a double discovery for me: first, and most significantly, a film I had never heard of was introduced and then to learn who the leading lady was. “Cane,” a film directed by Horace B. Jenkins, was released in 1982 but flew so low under the critical radar that it practically vanished. I was surprised to see Tommye Myrick, someone I had worked with in Detroit, starring with Richard Romain in the leading roles. Apparently, Tommye was either in the process of signing on to the project or completing it since we were hired to produce a show at the Ford Auditorium in 1978 commemorating the birthday of Paul Robeson. It should also be noted that for years I worked here at the paper with Gideon Manasseh, the late photographer, the film’s director of cinematography.

While I didn’t get the opportunity to embrace and romance Tommye like Romain in the film, I was a beneficiary of her theatrical talent, her way of shaping a production to keep Robeson’s integrity intact within an overall evening of dance, poetry, and speeches. It’s a shame Jenkins, who died in December the same year the film was released, didn’t get a chance to oversee the possible distribution that never occurred. His insight and genius might have been the sparks needed to assist in the promotion, which is often the responsibility of producers and the director.

Jenkins was born Feb. 9, 1941, in Scranton, Penn. Not much information is available about his early years, but we know he received an education at the Sorbonne Film Institute in Paris and later won Emmys for producing segments of “Advocates,” a PBS legal affairs series. He was also instrumental in developing “Black Journal,” which was once hosted by media maven Tony Brown. Jenkins worked in Europe for NBC International and managed the film department of television stations in Saudi Arabia, all of which nourished his film ambitions. From 1973 to 1975 he was on the faculty of Howard University’s School of Communications, and there’s a good chance he might have spent time with Brown who was the founder of the college’s School of Communications.

Sacha Jenkins, Horace’s son, during an interview reflected on his father and his career. “He was very inquisitive, curious, and that fed his storytelling,” he said. “He was driven to tell this story after he went to Natchitoches, where his girlfriend was from, and saw what was happening in terms of land ownership and color, and thought it was a great entry into a story. His desire to marry history with contemporary conversations was something that I couldn’t fully process as a kid. As an adult, looking at his work today, it gives me a totally different understanding of who he was.”

The setting for “Cane” is Natchitoches and Jenkins captures all the lushness of the landscape, much of it reeling by while Romain and Myrick gallop on horseback or swim in the river. They are in a sense star-crossed lovers, conflicted by their different caste and color backgrounds, and it’s a problem they tackle but have difficulty overcoming. Carol Balthazar, who partnered with Jenkins, commented on the color question, noting, “It’s a common issue, because there was a lot of intermarriage and, of course, slavery,” she said, and her family history provided the movie’s historical backdrop.

Sacha, after seeing the film, began a deeper inquiry, seeking to learn more about him. “My dad was a filmmaker who was driven to make films that honored Black people, and showed how rich our histories are, and how varied and

complex we are, but he was not a businessman, so we’re trying to get it right this time,” Sacha said. “But if you would’ve told me 25, 30 years ago, or when I was a kid, after he passed away, that I would one day have a hand in bringing ‘Cane River’ to audiences, with people actually appreciating it and talking about it, I never would have believed you.” Among his discoveries about his father was that he was also a documentarian, including such productions as “Sudan Pyramids: A Zandi’s Dream,” and that he won the 1978 Oscar Micheaux Award for best film and best documentary. Jenkins anticipated the coterie of Black At the far right is Horace Jenkins as a young man in discussion with his elders. filmmakers who continued his pioneering spirit, both in the realm of fiction and nonfiction. And his son is a direct recipient of that enterprise as he works to complete his film projects and work as a journalist. His documentary “Burn Motherf*cker Burn” (2017) appeared on Showtime and in 2019 he released “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men.” His documentary on Rick James, “Bitchin: The Sound and Fury of Rick James” was featured on Showtime. “I just wonder how my father would have been recognized for what he did, and how life might have been different for myself, my sister and my mom, if the film was officially released when it was supposed to, with Richard Pryor, or whoever else was interested in releasing it,” Sacha said, who was 11 when his father died. “I grew up in a single-parent household, in the ’hood, telling people that my dad was a filmmaker. But no one really believed me because there was nothing really tangible to show people.” Now there is.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

An obituary appeared in The New York Times, an indication that he was not entirely forgotten, but it does not provide any additional information on his early years.

DISCUSSION

Only scant background information is provided about his family and the cause of death.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Jenkins’ great potential was cut short, but he left behind a remarkable record of achievement.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

July 26, 1847: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia’s first president, was born in Norfolk, Va. He died in 1876.

July 26, 1865: Patrick Francis Healy, first Black American to earn a doctorate, was born in Macon, Ga. He died in 1910.

July 27, 1897: Pioneering aviator William J. Powell was born in Henderson, Ky. He died in 1942.