Film on acclaimed Zora Neale Hurston biographer to debut in Atlanta

A new documentary about Valerie Boyd, the acclaimed biographer of Zora Neale Hurston, will be screened this Saturday at the Tara theater in Atlanta as part of the BronzeLens Film Festival.

Called “Zora Head: The Life and Scholarship of Valerie Boyd,” the 20-minute film explores Boyd’s life, scholarship and focus on Black women writers. It was recently nominated for a BronzeLens Award for Best Documentary Short.

Boyd, who died in 2022 after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer, wrote “Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston.” The film illuminates her research for that authoritative biography, as well as her work editing “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker.”

“The journals are in real time, and you see this young woman becoming herself and developing into the person who has been so influential to so many of us as readers,” Boyd says of Walker in footage featured in the documentary.

ExploreValerie Boyd, acclaimed Zora Neale Hurston biographer, dies at 58

Walker, the author of “The Color Purple,” appears in the documentary praising Boyd’s writing about Hurston.

“I love warriors,” Walker said. “I like people who will fight for what they believe in, not give up, not care about any kind of job that they may have, not care what people think about what subject they choose to deal with.”

“So when I saw that she did not intend to give up on Zora, who had been pitched to the wolves by so many people, of course she just seemed perfect to me.”

Walker added: “Because you see what she produced — especially her work on Zora — you know to trust this. The work will tell you everything. And so when I thought about who would be the very best person, it was just Valerie because of her work, because she gave up a lot.”

Credit: Emory Photo/Video

Credit: Emory Photo/Video

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Boyd also edited “Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic,” an anthology that includes work by Pearl Cleage, Tayari Jones and Kiese Laymon.

A Pine Lake resident, Boyd previously served as the arts editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was a beloved journalism professor and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Georgia. She created and led the Master of Fine Arts program in narrative nonfiction writing at UGA, an innovative program that brings students together with experienced writers and editors to tell true, deeply reported stories.

“Zora Head” was directed by Clinton Fluker, senior director of culture, community and partner engagement for the Michael C. Carlos Museum and Emory Libraries, and Adam Forrester, a filmmaker and videographer with Emory’s Academic Technology Services.

Fluker also produced the film with Shannon O’Daniel, an academic technology services producer at Emory, and Rosalind Bentley, a former AJC reporter and now the deputy editor at the Southern Foodways Alliance. Leslie Wingate, Emory Libraries’ former director of campus and community relations, and Holly Crenshaw, Emory Libraries’ director of marketing and communications, served as associate producers.

Fluker told Emory he hopes people recognize Boyd’s “dedication to sharing Black women’s stories, the keen sense of self and self-worth and the quest for freedom at the heart of Valerie’s work.”

“What was striking to me while making the film was that Valerie had a strong network of Black women who loved and supported her as she loved and supported them,” Fluker said. “Creating these communities is so important, and I hope our film captures that.”

Emory also announced this week that its Rose Library holds Boyd’s papers, a collection that features interviews and correspondence with Walker, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. It also includes her research files from her biography of Hurston.

“Professor Boyd was a bridge who learned from generations of Black writers before her and helped to mentor, support and sponsor a generation of writers following her,” Gabrielle Dudley, the Rose Library’s interim co-director, told Emory. “Her papers in Rose Library have immense research value, as they not only document her life and career as a journalist, essayist and educator but also give glimpses into the lives of the literary and cultural giants in her circle.”