Thread by @KenBurns

All of us in the Florentine Films family have been mourning the loss of our dear friend Stanley Crouch by revisiting some of our films to remind ourselves of his brilliant and refreshing and utterly original way of being. We want to share with you a few of our favorites here. 1/6

Here's Stanley in JAZZ, on freedom and belonging. 2/6

Here's Stanley, also in JAZZ, describing Louis Armstrong's revolutionary singing style. 3/6

Here's Stanley in UNFORGIVABLE BLACKNESS: THE RISE AND FALL OF JACK JOHNSON, talking about individual freedom. 4/6

And finally, here's Stanley, also in UNFORGIVABLE BLACKNESS: THE RISE AND FALL OF JACK JOHNSON, describing how even someone as talented as Jack Johnson couldn't ultimately escape the jaws of white supremacy and Jim Crow. 5/6

With his protean intellect (what Geoffrey Ward called his “surprising mind”), we felt like we could have interviewed Stanley on any subject for any of our films. He was a true original and we are all so lucky to have known him. He will be missed. 6/6

Okay, one more from Stanley we couldn’t resist sharing.

“America, for whatever its problems, still has a certain kind of elasticity and a certain latitude that allows the person to dream a big enough dream that can be achieved if the person is as big as the dream.”