Parity Pipeline

Genre

Synopsis

Jack Whitten was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1939. While a student attending a march to the state capitol, he was brutally attacked by whites. “I made a vow never to put myself in that position again and took a Greyhound to New York City.” The film tells the story of how Jack arrived in 1960 and enrolled at Cooper Union art school. He also entered the city’s bohemian downtown scene and we show how his work was shaped by the confluence of jazz, politics and art that was in full swing at the time. His early work was in the abstract tradition, a genre widely considered white and Western, but Jack injected a Black perspective, calling his style “art with truth and soul.” However he did not want to be defined as an artist only concerned with racial politics, which led to tension with other more overtly political Black artists and curators. The film tells the story of how Jack charted his own path over five decades and left an indelible mark on American art, one that the culture is only now coming to terms with. The film will largely be told in Jack’s own words, through extensive archival interviews and journal entries compiled in the book Notes from The Woodshed. His voice and art will be brought to life through graphic treatment and animation of his extensive work and writings. 

We are working with the Whitten estate and have access to the extensive work of Jack’s cousin Tina, who for decades documented his work and his family life in photographs. We plan on using those rare photos and contact sheets as a stylistic thruline.

That material will be woven around a narrative spine of new verité footage documenting Whitten’s upcoming landmark solo show at MoMA. The film will also feature Jack’s wife of forty years and his adult daughter who oversee his estate, as well as artists, musicians, writers, critics and curators who will illuminate the life and work of an artist who refused to be defined by anyone’s rules.