Jamaica, France and USA / 1966 / 12mins / Archival Footage, Portrait / English

A subtle study of cultural identity following a graceful young woman of Haitian descent who works as a fashion model and actress in cosmopolitan Paris. Cool, light, and lyrical in style, Bethune’s portrait has a deft thematic touch.

Lebert Bethune

Lebert Sandy Bethune, poet, documentary filmmaker, author and educator, was born in 1937 in Kingston, Jamaica. After high school, he left Jamaica to join his family in New York and later lived and studied in Europe for some years. During his time there, he and his colleagues met and spent time Malcolm X. His 1967 documentary film, Malcolm X: Struggle for Freedom portrays the civil rights leader at a time when his views were evolving to include what was going on in the world at large. In Paris during the early 1960s, Bethune was a significant presence in the younger Black expatriate intellectual circle. His friendships included James Baldwin, William Gardner-Smith, drummer Art Taylor, Dexter Gordon, Richard Wright’s widow, Helen, and their daughter, Julia. His poetry and fiction were first published by Presence Africaine. Bethune interacted with Francophone writers such as Aimé Césaire, Leon Damas, Alioune Diop, all seminal advocates of “Négritude” — a Pan-Africanist stance for anti-colonial, anti-racist literature. One of his most treasured memories is Bethune’s friendship and mentorship with Langston Hughes, which spanned Paris, New York and Tanzania. Hughes even penned a poem in dedication to him. Bethune’s literary work as a writer has been featured in groundbreaking Black Arts Movement literature. He has written short stories that were included in Langston Hughes’ anthology The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers; poetry in Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka; and an essay on Malcolm X in Europe in John Henry Clarke’s Malcolm X: The Man and His Times. Bethune has taught at SUNY, and at the University of the West Indies. He has studied at the University of Paris and holds a B.S. from NYU and a Masters in Anthropology & Education from Columbia University. He resides in New York City with his wife April, and their daughter Simone. Learn More