Independent Lens
WE WANT THE FUNK!
WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots.
A Place of Our Own
Each summer, affluent and successful African Americans like filmmaker Stanley Nelson return to Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, an upper middle class resort community that has historically provided an oasis for black professionals.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- February 17, 2004
- Length
- 60 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Series and Special Projects
Producer
Stanley Nelson
Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, MacArthur Fellow, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. President Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal. Nelson has directed and produced numerous films, including Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, and Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple.
- Other ITVS Films
- America Revisited II - Harlem: The Soul of the Nation
- America Revisited II - In Our Own Image: The Story of African-American Art
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
- Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
- Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities
- WE WANT THE FUNK!
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The Film
A Place Of Our Own explores the rarely seen world of the black middle class and the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, where African Americans have vacationed for generations. Through intimate stories of African Americans in Oak Bluffs, Director Stanley Nelson discovers a renewed appreciation for the place his father established as a summer home for the Nelson family for generations to come.
