Screening of the film The Gilded Six-Bits
The film, The Gilded Six-Bits is based upon a short story by Zora Neale Hurston (her first published work).
Screening of the film “The Gilded Six-Bits”
Held Thursday July 29, 2010, 8PM
Booker T. Mattison, the producer and director will speak
"All that glitters ain’t gold" is the moral of this story of marriage and materialism in the rural south during the Great Depression.
Matrimony could not have been better for Joe and Missie May Banks. A year into their marriage they were able to have a home on the outskirts of town and money saved up for their future, which included children. That is until Otis D. Slemmons moves into town, a big shot from the big city who opens an ice cream parlor. He is a rich, well-dressed, smooth talker unlike any other man in their small town.
A husband, a wife, and an outsider become interconnected in Zora Neale Hurston's The Gilded Six Bits. Click to read the original short story.
Total running time for the film is 28 minutes 55 seconds.
Watch a 1 minute clip from Film The Gilded Six Bits:
CAST FOR The Gilded Six Bits
Chad Coleman (The Wire) is Joe Banks.
T'keyah Crystal Keymah (Cosby and In Living Color) plays Missie May Banks.
Wendell Pierce (Treme, The Wire, Ray) is Otis D. Slemmons.
Novella Nelson (The Antwon Fisher Story) plays Mamma Banks.
The film features an original score by Ray Chew.
REVIEWS for The Gilded Six Bits
The Gilded Six Bits is a wonderful visual adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s literary genius. It is a testament to the creative vision of Booker T. Mattison. Within days of the screening sponsored by the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture in July 2001, people called asking when we were bringing the film and Booker back to town. It was a pleasure working with a man dedicated to creating affirming images of who we are and how we live.
—Steven Cameron Newsome, Former Director, The Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture
The Gilded Six Bits is a poignant and moving adaptation of a classic Hurston story. Booker T. Mattison is a gifted filmmaker and his presentation is a must for fans of Hurston’s work. The presentation makes an especially impressive Black History or Women’s History Month offering. (Presentation given April 2002)
—Martita Golden, Novelist & President of the Hurston/Wright Foundation
CREW FOR The Gilded Six Bits
Shot on location in Smithfield, Virginia and Brooklyn, New York, Mattison teamed with Cinematographer Cybel Martin, Production Designer Toni Barton and Costume Designer Shura Pollatsek to recreate America below the Mason-Dixon Line during the Great Depression.
Zora Neale Hurston, also called "Queen of the Harlem Renaissance" was an acclaimed author, folklorist, poet and anthropologist. One of the most published women writers in the 30s, she authored more than 50 articles and short stories, four novels, two books on folklore, an autobiography, and several plays. She is best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Gilded Six Bits was her first published work.
Screenings take place outdoors on a large screen reminicent of a drvie in theater
in the event of rain screening will be moved inside