HBO Documentary Films Presents - 'Sing Your Song'

SING YOUR SONG, CHRONICLING THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

EXTRAORDINARY ENTERTAINER AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST

HARRY BELAFONTE, DEBUTS OCT. 17, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

During the course of an inspiring life that has paralleled the American civil rights

movement, artist and crusader Harry Belafonte has tirelessly used his humanitarian

influence to advance causes of social justice, while forging a unique career punctuated by prestigious awards and industry firsts.

Filmmaker Susanne Rostock tells the rich life story of this remarkable artist and

humanitarian in the intimate feature-length documentary SING YOUR SONG, debuting

MONDAY, OCT. 17 (10:00-11:45 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: Oct. 20 (4:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m.), 23 (3:45 p.m.), 26 (11:30a.m.) and 29 (8:45 a.m.)

HBO2 playdates: Oct. 22 (6:00 a.m.), 26 (8:00 p.m.) and 30 (10:30 p.m.)

Coinciding with the HBO debut of SING YOUR SONG, Belafonte’s memoir, “My

Song,” will be published by Knopf Oct. 11 while a companion music album, entitled “Sing

Your Song: The Music,” will be released by Sony Masterworks Oct. 4.

Groundbreaking singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte rose to fame in the U.S.

in spite of segregation, and crossed over into mainstream America on his way to

international stardom. His hit 1956 album “Calypso” made him the first artist in industry

history to sell over a million LPs, and spawned the smash single “Banana Boat (Day-O).”

Though recognized with Grammy, Tony and Emmy® awards, Belafonte was blacklisted,

harassed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), spied on by the CIA

and FBI, and threatened by the Klan, state troopers and Las Vegas mafia bosses.

Distilled from more than 700 hours of interviews, eyewitness accounts, movie clips,

excerpts from FBI files, and news and rare archival film footage and stills, some of which

has never been seen before, SING YOUR SONG reveals Belafonte as a tenacious

hands-on activist who worked intimately with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., mobilized

celebrities for social justice, participated in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

and took action to counter gang violence, prisons and the incarceration of youth.

In addition to Belafonte, those interviewed in SING YOUR SONG include: Tony

Bennett, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee, Whoopi Goldberg, Quincy Jones, Coretta Scott

King, Rep. John Lewis, Miriam Makeba, Nelson Mandela, Sidney Poitier, George

Schlatter, Tom Smothers, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Andrew Young, as well as his

children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, David Belafonte, Gina Belafonte (one of the

film’s producers) and Shari Belafonte, former wife Julie Belafonte and current wife Pamela Belafonte.

Following an early performance by Belafonte at the Village Vanguard in New York

City, his mentor, the great singer and actor Paul Robeson, offered this counsel: “Get

them to sing your song and they will want to know who you are.”

Born into a rough Harlem neighborhood in 1927, Belafonte’s immigrant mother

sent him to be raised in her native Jamaica in an effort to ensure his safety; there he

developed a cultural reservoir on which to build future artistic success. Upon the

outbreak of World War II, he returned to Harlem, and later enlisted in the United States

Navy, serving for almost two years as a munitions loader.

Returning to New York City, Belafonte worked in the garment center and as a

janitor’s assistant. As gratuity for one apartment repair job, Belafonte was given a ticket

to a production of “Home Is the Hunter” at the American Negro Theatre (ANT) in Harlem,

which sparked a desire for a life in the performing arts.

Joining the Dramatic Workshop of the New School of Social Research under the

tutelage of renowned German director Erwin Piscator, Belafonte attended class with

fellow future stars like Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, Rod Steiger and Tony

Curtis. He immersed himself in the world of theatre and found “a place of social truth and

profound influence,” compelling him to make a commitment to use art as a source of

inspiration to others, as well as an instrument of resistance and rebellion and a counter to racism.

Paralleling his pursuit of acting, an interest in jazz spurred him to develop a

relationship with pioneers of the art form. In his first professional appearance, he

performed with jazz titans Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Tommy Potter and Al Haig as his “back-up band.”

His first Broadway appearance, in “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac,” earned him

a Tony Award. As the first black producer in television, he won an Emmy® for his network

production of “An Evening with Belafonte,” directed by Norman Jewison. At the dawning

of his film career, “Carmen Jones” took top critical honors, garnering two Oscar®

nominations and winning the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy).

In SING YOUR SONG, Belafonte observes that while building a career, raising a

family and enjoying his successes, there were always the larger concerns for freedom,

justice, equality and human dignity. Since childhood, his mother impressed upon him that

he should never awaken in a day when there wasn’t something on his agenda that would

help set the course for the undermining of injustice. That larger concern at the center of

his life and work connected him deeply with his mentor Robeson, a renaissance man of

immense talents who sacrificed everything in the fight for freedom and justice.

Belafonte’s compassion and ardor also drew him to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

who once said of his friend, “Belafonte’s global popularity and his commitment to our

cause is a key ingredient to the global struggle for freedom and a powerful tactical

weapon in the civil rights movement here in America. We are blessed by his courage and moral integrity.”

Like Robeson before him, Belafonte has paid a price for his activism. Rather than

compromise with bigotry and prejudice, he walked away from the money and exposure

that compromise would have afforded him, for example, when sponsors of the

groundbreaking and hugely popular television specials “Tonight with Belafonte” (1959)

and “Belafonte, New York 19” (1960) balked at his racially integrated casts. Similar

battles with Hollywood film producers over content and race led him to turn down other lucrative offers.

SING YOUR SONG was presented at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and the

2011 Berlin Film Festival, as well as the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

HBO Documentary Films and Michael Cohl present a Belafonte Enterprises and

S2BN Entertainment Production in association with Julius R. Nasso Productions; a film by

Susanne Rostock; produced by Michael Cohl, Gina Belafonte, Jim Brown, William Eigen

and Julius R. Nasso; co-produced by Sage Scully; edited by Susanne Rostock and Jason

L. Pollard; consultant, Karol Martesko-Fenster; music composed by Hahn Rowe.

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