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RITA DOVE

AN AMERICAN POET

Rita Dove

The film is part of a series of in-depth, on-camera conversations with Poet Laureate Rita Dove--conducted and recorded by Eduardo Montes-Bradley between September 2012 and October 2013. These conversations were edited using hundreds of still images and several hours of home movies from the Dove family's collection.

The intimacy of the dialogue accounts for a unique and very personal insight into the wide range of Dove's artistic passions. Most of these images are the results of the efforts of Rita Dove's father (Ray A. Dove) to record family life in the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Ray Dove recorded 8mm and Super 8mm birthdays, the opening of gifts on Christmas Day year after year, holidays, and family excursions. According to the filmmaker, "Rita's father is omnipresent and perhaps the silent protagonist of the film as he captured images of Rita which have become fundamental clues to the evolution of the suburban middle-class African American child into the celebrated poet we know and recognize." HD|30 minutes. English. Available on Kanopy Streaming and Alexander Street Press.

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