Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Directed by longtime friend and noted photographer Greenfield-Sanders, this documentary portrait of the great African-American novelist is as rich and abundant as the extraordinary woman it depicts.

At its heart is a meaty interview with Morrison, a warm but formidable presence as she recalls her remarkable life as a book-crazy girl in an Ohio steel town, a schoolteacher raising two children on her own, an influential editor at Random House, and an author who revolutionized writing about race in America en route to winning the Nobel Prize. The film's perspective is broadened by friends and admirers including Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, and Fran Lebowitz, while, in the manner of Morrison's celebrated anthology The Black Book, a steady stream of archival materials and works by notable black artists (Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Kara Walker, et al.) evokes the immensity of African American experience to which she gave such eloquent shape.164 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601