Press Release

Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind Latest Fully Accessible DVD

Talking Menus Enable Users who are Blind or have Low Vision to Navigate the DVD's Options Independently

Boston, MA. The story of Marcus Garvey, a controversial African American leader of the early 20th century, is thoughtfully told in Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind, part of the award-winning American Experience series produced for PBS by WGBH/Boston. Available for $24.98 in stores and online outlets where DVDs are sold, this 90-minute enhanced DVD has many bonus features, including video description and talking menus for blind and visually impaired viewers, and captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

Visionary yet enigmatic, brilliant yet manipulative, a powerful orator and a pompous autocrat, Marcus Garvey inspired the loyalty of millions of African Americans while infuriating many black leaders. He was a strong advocate of black self-help, yet was willing to collaborate with the Ku Klux Klan. And he inspired African Americans to support his economic enterprises, then lost their hard-earned money through mismanagement. Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind uses a wealth of archival film, photographs and documents to uncover the story of this Jamaican immigrant who between 1916 and 1921 built the largest black mass movement in world history. It explores Garvey's dramatic successes and failures before his fall into obscurity.

Among the film's most powerful sequences are interviews with people who witnessed the Garvey movement first hand more than 80 years ago. These interviews communicate the appeal of Garvey's revolutionary ideas to a generation of African Americans, and reveal how he invested hundreds of thousands of black men and women with a newfound sense of pride. The bonus DVD features include interviews with director Stanley Nelson and editor Lewis Ersking; exclusive footage not included in the original PBS broadcast; news articles from "The Negro World," the official paper of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association; audio recordings of Marcus Garvey's speeches; and a video glossary of key terms from a panel of Garvey experts.

Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind is only the third DVD to be distributed with closed captions, descriptive narration and audio menus. Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided (American Experience, PBS Home Video) and Dr. Seuss' How the Grind Stole Christmas (Universal Pictures DVD) are also available with these access features. The access features were produced by WGBH's Media Access Group, celebrating 30 years of pioneering access technologies for television, video, films and digitized media.

Since its debut in 1988, American Experience has brought stories of the people and events that shaped this country into nearly eight million homes each week. As television's longest-running, most watched history series, it brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that helped form this nation. Now in its thirteenth season, the series has produced over 125 documentaries and garnered every single major broadcast award. PBS's American Experience is a production of WGBH/Boston, and is described and captioned for viewers by the Media Access Group at WGBH.

About WGBH

WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer. More than one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup and companion Web content as well as many public radio favorites are produced by WGBH. Its best-known productions include NOVA, Frontline, American Experience, Antiques Roadshow, ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre, This Old House, Arthur, and Zoom on PBS and The World and Sound & Spirit on public radio. WGBH also is a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to people with disabilities. Since its establishment in 1951, WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors, including Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards-- even two Oscars. For more information visit http://www.wgbh.org.

Contact

Mary Watkins, Media Access Group at WGBH
mary_watkins@wgbh.org
617.300.3700 voice/fax
617.300.2489 TTY