Madeline Anderson facts for kids

Madeline Anderson (born around 1923) is an amazing American filmmaker. She has worked as a producer for both television and documentaries, a director, an editor, and a writer for films. She is most famous for her films Integration Report One (1960) and I Am Somebody (1970). I Am Somebody was especially praised all over the world. In 2015, the National Museum of African American History and Culture officially said that Integration Report One was the very first documentary film directed by an African-American woman.

Madeline Anderson also made history as the first African-American woman to be an executive producer for a TV show shown across the whole country. This was for a 1977 PBS educational series called Infinity Factory. In 1993, she was honored by being added to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Early Life and Dreams

Madeline Anderson was born Madeline Whedbee. She grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. From a young age, she loved movies and teaching. She had four brothers and sisters. In the 1930s, her family lived in old houses called the Barney Google Row homes. These homes were not in good condition. Madeline said they were "the worst housing in Lancaster." These houses were later torn down in the 1950s.

Every Saturday, Madeline would go to the movies with her family and friends. But she felt that the films she watched did not show her real life. She wanted to see real African Americans on screen. This feeling made her want to make educational documentaries. It also allowed her to combine her love for teaching with filmmaking.

Her family and friends were surprised when she said she wanted to be a filmmaker. They thought filmmaking only meant Hollywood. They knew it was very hard for a Black woman to become a Hollywood filmmaker. So, they encouraged her to become a teacher instead.

She finished J. P. McCaskey High School in 1945. Then she went to Millersville State Teacher's College to study teaching. Madeline was only the second Black student ever accepted there. She was the only Black student at the college at that time. She faced racism and bullying from mostly white male students. One time, her father had to ride the bus with her to school to protect her. Madeline left college after her first year because of the bullying. This disappointed her parents. She promised them she would go back to school, but not to Millersville.

For the next two years, Madeline worked in a factory. She saved enough money to move to New York. She later received a scholarship to New York University (NYU). There, she earned her degree in psychology. Still loving motion pictures, she decided to follow her dream of a career in film.

Amazing Career in Film

While studying at NYU, Madeline Anderson tried to meet people who could help her get into the film industry. She found a job ad to be a babysitter for Richard Leacock. He was a famous British documentary filmmaker. He was also a pioneer in Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité, which are styles of filmmaking that try to show real life as it happens. She got the job. While living with his family, she told them about her dream to make films. They supported her. She became friends with Leacock and his colleagues. She learned a lot about producing and directing films by working with him.

Madeline Anderson's film career officially started in 1958. Richard Leacock offered her a job as a production manager at his company, Andover Productions. As a production manager, she oversaw everything from making the film to editing it. Anderson worked on two film series there. One was about science for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other was a documentary series for NBC called Bernstein in Europe. This series followed conductor Leonard Bernstein on his trips overseas.

After making her first film, Integration Report One, she felt she needed to learn more about making independent films. She took classes at the Museum of Modern Art. She wanted to learn every part of filmmaking. She studied editing, lighting, sound recording, and camerawork. Anderson's film "Integration Report One" was made by Andover Productions in 1959. She felt that editing gave her a way to express exactly what she wanted to say.

Making Films

In 1959, she left Andover Productions to work on her own projects. In 1962, she worked as a script clerk and assistant editor on Shirley Clarke’s film The Cool World. They had met before at Andover Productions. This film was like a documentary. It showed the tough life of gangs in Harlem. Anderson later said the film was honest and showed the truth about young people at that time.

After this, Anderson worked as a freelance editor. She tried to get into the film industry's unions. But this was hard. To join a union, you needed a job. But to get a job, you often needed to be in a union! Also, most unions were mainly for white men. Anderson decided to work without being in a union while trying to join one. This was tough because she faced unfair treatment and racism. She finally got into New York’s editors union, Local 771, after threatening to sue them.

Being in the union helped her get a job as an editor at WNET, a PBS station. There, she worked as a staff editor for a show called Black Journal. She also produced and directed "A Tribute to Malcolm X."

She later left WNET to produce, direct, and edit I Am Somebody in 1970. In 1975, she started her own company called Onyx Productions. Through her company, she made films for the New Jersey Board of Higher Education. She also made a film for the Ford Foundation called The Walls Came Tumbling Down. This film was about a public housing project in St. Louis, Missouri. Having her own company gave her more freedom. It also helped her become known as a respected filmmaker.

Integration Report One

Integration Report One is a film that shows the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s. It featured many people who became important leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and Andrew Young. Anderson saw the racial problems happening. She felt she had to make this film. She believed that showing these events would help and encourage others to act. She talked to Richard Leacock about her idea, and he encouraged her to make it.

Finding money for the film was hard. Many people in charge didn't think the topic was interesting. But she managed to get the money. She used some of her salary from Andover Productions and asked others for donations. Some people even helped for free. For example, D. A. Pennebaker built a special tool for her to get moving camera shots. And Maya Angelou sang "We Shall Overcome" for the film without charging.

Anderson started filming in 1959, with help from Andover Productions. The first thing she filmed was a protest about school education in Brooklyn, New York. Then she traveled further south. After finishing the film in 1960, it was hard to find a company to share it. So, she started showing it herself at churches and colleges. Soon, Columbia University’s distribution group decided to share it.

The film was originally planned to be the first of three parts about the Civil Rights Movement. But the other two parts were never made. She couldn't find anyone interested in providing more money.

In 2015, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. officially recognized Integration Report One as the first documentary film directed by an African-American woman.

I Am Somebody

I Am Somebody tells the story of 400 Black women workers. They went on strike at the Medical College Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. The film shows their fight for fair pay, justice, and respect. It uses old film clips from libraries, news footage, and new footage shot by Anderson and her team. This was helpful because by the time she got the money, most of the strike had already happened.

Madeline really wanted to make this film when she first heard about the strike. But when she first asked TV networks for money, they said no. They didn't think the event was important. Then, Moe Foner, who led the union involved in the strike, heard about Anderson's wish to make the film. He wanted the events recorded, so he asked her to make it for the union. Anderson finally got funding when she asked the networks a second time. By then, the strike had become a big international event.

Anderson felt it was very important to show the people in her film fairly and truthfully. She explained how she made a film that did just that:

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Working in Television

From 1963 to 1968, Anderson worked for NET (National Education Television) in New York. She was an associate producer, writer, and editor. This station later became WNET. In 1965, she became a film editor, writer, and producer-director for the Black Journal series. This show talked about racial issues and debates in America. For the first year of the series, Anderson was the only Black woman on staff. As the team became more diverse, there was a growing need for a Black executive producer. In 1969, Al Perlmutter stepped down. William Greaves, who had joined in 1966 as a part-time host, took his place. Within a year, the show won an Emmy.

After finishing I Am Somebody, she went back to television. This time, she worked for the Children's Television Workshop (CTW). At CTW, she was a producer and director for Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Anderson said some of the films she made for CTW caused discussions. She remembered one time she made a film to teach the word “me.” She decided to follow a child from the Chinese community to show what “me” meant. However, some people didn't like the idea. They thought children might not relate to the child on screen because of her background.

Anderson worked at CTW from 1970 to 1975. Then she left to start Onyx Productions. Even with her own company, she still worked with CTW when they needed her. During this time, she also helped start WHMM-TV (now WHUT-TV) at Howard University. There, she taught and gave lectures.

In 1978, Anderson became the executive producer for The Infinity Factory on PBS. This show was mainly for children aged eight to twelve. It focused on kids in inner cities. Its goal was to teach them math and problem-solving skills. With this show, Anderson became the first African-American female producer to have a TV series shown across the entire country. In 1987, she worked as a senior producer on an Arabic reading series called Al Manahil. This series was made by CTW International and filmed in Amman, Jordan.

Her Ideas About Filmmaking

Making Documentaries

Madeline Anderson always tries to understand the people in her films. She wants to show their struggles in a fair and honest way. A film expert named Michael T. Martin points out three key things about her documentary work:

• Films should have a social purpose. They should be easy to understand and help bring about positive changes in society.
• Films should highlight the voices of people who are often ignored or silenced.
• Films should challenge the idea that African Americans cannot solve their own problems.

These ideas are similar to those of the Third Cinema movement. This movement questioned the moral duties of both popular and art films.

When making a film, Anderson doesn't focus on fame or money. Instead, she wants to create something useful. She once said, "I think that media has to be useful. I was criticized a lot for that view, and I accept the criticism. I was not interested in making entertainment. I wanted my films to be used to improve our people. Many people dismissed my films as message films." So, for her, a documentary is a film that tells the truth. Truth means capturing real events as they happen. This means that re-enactments (acting out past events) don't make a film a true documentary. This is because the footage isn't real, even if it's based on true events. She also didn't see much value in adding parts that were just for fun, because that wasn't her goal.

Art and History

Anderson believes that history helps artists grow. She explains that an artist can be part of current history as it happens. At the same time, they can learn from it. History and art work together to teach the artist. Through this process, art can serve a helpful purpose. By showing and learning from history, her art and her skills as an artist get better.

This idea probably came from the fact that she didn't have complete creative freedom. Most of her films were made for and funded by organizations. For example, I Am Somebody was meant to be a tool for the union to organize. She had to be very specific about why the strike happened, who was involved, and how it ended. There was one time when her view as a filmmaker clashed with her view as an educator. She explained that two people were leading the strike. One was from the college hospital, and the other was from the county hospital. From a filmmaker's point of view, she didn't want to include the county hospital part because it was confusing. But because of her duty to the union, she had to include it.

Thoughts on Hollywood

Anderson has criticized Hollywood films. For a long time, films about the African-American experience were not made by African Americans. So, these films often showed their experiences using old, untrue ideas and stereotypes. This took away their chance to tell their own stories. However, this started to change during the blaxploitation era in the 1970s. While Anderson didn't like some of the over-the-top content, she saw it as a chance for Black filmmakers to get a start in Hollywood. She also believed it was a necessary step toward a more open film industry. Now, African-American filmmakers can express themselves honestly. They don't need to rely on old, untrue ideas. Doing so now, Anderson believes, would be a step backward.

As a filmmaker, Madeline Anderson was never really interested in working in Hollywood. It didn't fit with her goals of helping people. For her, Hollywood is where people go to make a lot of money and become famous worldwide. She even turned down a film from Universal because she simply wasn't interested in those things.

When asked if making and sharing films outside Hollywood was a good idea for art and business, she said:

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Personal Life

Madeline Anderson lives in Brooklyn, New York City.

Filmography

• Integration Report One (1960): Producer/Director/Editor
• The Cool World (1964): Assistant Director/Assistant Editor
• Malcolm X: Nationalist or Humanist? (1967): Producer/Director
• I Am Somebody (1970): Producer/Director/Editor/Writer
• An Even Chance (1971): Producer/Director
• Being Me (1975): Director
• The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1975): Producer/Director/Editor
• The Infinity Factory (series, 1978): Executive Producer
• Al Manahil (series, 1987): Senior Producer/Writer

Awards and Honors

• In 1976, Madeline Anderson received the Woman of the Year award at the Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts.
• In 1985, she was honored for her Life-Long Achievement and Contributions to Film and Television by the Association of Independent Film and Video Makers.
• In 1991, she was added to the Gallery of Great Black Filmmakers by the Miller Brewing Company.
• In 1993, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
• In 2000, she received an award for Pioneering Women in Film, for her amazing work in film and television.
• In 2015, Integration Report One was accepted into the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is recognized as the first African-American woman born in the United States to direct a 16 mm documentary film.
• In 2019, I Am Somebody was chosen by the Library of Congress to be kept in the National Film Registry. This was because it was seen as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."