Producer – Tracy Heather Strain

In Production

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) – the writer, activist and public intellectual best known for the 1959 Broadway smash and American classic play A Raisin in the Sun. At 28 years old, this African-American woman became an international celebrity and used her platform to publicly speak out about racism and other social injustices.

This documentary, a part of an ambitious multiplatform media project, explores Hansberry’s fascinating and complicated life from the 30s on Chicago’s South Side to swinging Greenwich Village in the 50s, from a heated Manhattan meeting with Attorney General Robert Kennedy over civil rights in the 60s to an early death from cancer two years later during her second Broadway premiere.

The Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project has received support as of 2009 from the Color of Film Collaborative, Independent Television Service Diversity Development Fund, National Black Programming Consortium, LEF Foundation Documentary Fellowship, Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Wainwright Bank, New York Community Trust, The Boston Foundation Brother Thomas Fellowship, and many generous individuals.

For the latest project news, visit Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project