For many people, their introduction to Zora Neale Hurston began with her acclaimed 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The book tells the story of a young Black woman named Janie Crawford, who gains independence after an abusive marriage to an older man and embarks on a whirlwind romance of self-love and discovery. Yet, there is so much more to Hurston than her masterwork. A student of life, Hurston’s passions were in her anthropological studies of Black people and her determination to be seen in a time where Black women were pushed into the background.
In her American Experience film, Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space, filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain unpacks Hurston’s life. Hurston’s journey began in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, and would take her to the halls of Howard University and on the streets of Harlem amid the vibrant renaissance of the 1920s.
Yet Hurston’s path wasn’t all full of unfounded adventure and discovery. She also faced a great deal of unfairness, instability, and hardship. Huston’s life was a colorful tapestry that, in many ways, mirrors the Black American experience in the United States. Ahead of the Claiming A Space premiere, Showbiz Cheat Sheet spoke with Strain about the film, discovering Hurston, and why her story is so impactful.
Tracy Heather Strain discovered Zora Neale Hurston later in life
“I’m not sure when I first heard about Zora Neale Hurston,” Strain told Showbiz. “But it definitely wasn’t when I was a young person. I think I was an adult. I’m old enough to have been an adult when Alice Walker rediscovered Zora Neale Hurston. I was not someone who grew up reading her books or someone who knew anything about her. I grew up when we didn’t read much work by African Americans in school.”
Having directed the Emmy Award-nominated documentary Lorraine Hansberry, Sighted Eyes: Feeling Heart, Strain knew it was time to turn her lens toward Hurston. “It was essential for me to do a really good job,” she reflected. “American Experience came to me and asked me if I would do this film for them, and I was so honored. I didn’t know much about Zora Neale Hurston, and I was embarrassed by that. I hadn’t read Their Eyes Were Watching God, probably because I spent so much time researching Hansberry for much of my adult life. It was really important for me to get the story right, try to get inside the character, and express the challenges the person faced, the joys, and the triumphs. As an African American woman, I feel it’s always a great privilege and a little bit scary to do films on some of these revered figures.”
Many of Zora Neale Hurston’s personal documents were burned
Digging into the archives of Hurston’s life and work required nearly a year from Strain and her team. Though much of Hurston’s personal documents were lost when they were burned at the time of her death, her connections and correspondence with others have been preserved through the ages, including her recordings of Cudjo Lewis, the last Black Cargo.
“We usually start where we always do, with secondary source materials,” Strain explained. “I read books about Zora Neale Hurston, lots of books. Then that leads us to primary sources. I do something I never did in college: I read the footnotes now and try to find out where things came from. Then we contact and travel to those archives to find everything we can. Then, this particular film focused on her connection to anthropology. It’s mostly something that people don’t know about her. So foregrounding that story was important. We were fortunate to see her letters to Langston Hughes that were saved. She talked about her fieldwork and some of the things she found. So we were able to incorporate that. The Library of Congress has a collection of the footage she shot and her recordings. So there are recordings of other people who recorded her singing.”
Zora Neale Hurston faced adversity and setbacks, but she persevered
Since the literary icon has become a symbol in the last 50 years, hearing some of the details of her life are downright jaw-dropping. “I was surprised at how little support she really did have, that she was able to achieve so much on our own,” Strain explained. “Here is someone at 13 who’s on her own for the rest of her life after her mother died. She found a way to get a high school education. She worked. She changed her age to be able to go to night school for free. Then she goes to another school and another school. She was working as a maid and waitress- all these different jobs. She’s part-time at Howard, then goes to Barnard. So here’s someone that we revere for everything she’s been able to accomplish. But it was hard work, and she was so determined. It’s inspiring not to say that I want to put hard work and stress on a pedestal. Still, I have to admire this woman who, particularly after discovering anthropology, was like, ‘I need to tell the stories of Black people and their folklore, their culture. I have to show people the beauty that I see and the richness.’”
A Claiming Space will peel back the veil on Huston’s life in a way that hasn’t been done previously. When viewers walk away, Strain hopes the novelist and filmmaker’s story will linger with them. “I would like people to appreciate the range of what she accomplished and how she accomplished it,” Strain said. “But many African American women will be especially moved by this story. I hope that people will see this film and other films that people are making and say, “There are stories out there. We want to support these films and people who want to tell stories about Black people and other groups that haven’t been told before.” But in terms of her legacy, she accomplished what she did not just through her creativity, but she studied. She was well-read and mixed her research experiences and her personal narrative into something really powerful. It does make a political statement, no matter what Richard Wright had to say about it. It speaks to Black feminism, as well. So I want people just to know who she is.”
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space premieres Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 9PM ET. on PBS.
