Kentucky Educational Television will celebrate the February premiere of its documentary “Becoming bell hooks” with preview screenings in Louisville and Lexington.
A KET release says the documentary “explores the life and legacy of Kentucky-born author bell hooks, who wrote nearly 40 books and whose work at the intersection of race, class and gender serves as a lasting contribution to the feminist movement.
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“The one-hour film examines bell’s childhood in Hopkinsville, her return to Kentucky in the early 2000s to join the faculty at Berea College, and how her connection to Kentucky’s ‘hillbilly culture’ informed her belief that feminism is for everybody.”
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The film features selections from hooks’ work read by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and includes interviews with friends and family, including feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Kentucky writers Crystal Wilkinson and Silas House, her younger sister Gwenda Motley, and many others.
Steinem said bell hooks was “one of the most universal writers and universal people” who made the feminist movement more accessible to all by going beyond issues of gender, race, class and geography. “It’s hard to imagine anyone who wouldn’t be enchanted, educated and made happier by her books.”
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bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins on Sept. 25, 1952, to Veodis and Rosa Bell Watkins. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School and published her first book of poems, “And There We Wept,” under her pen name, which she adopted from her great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. She chose to lowercase her pen name to emphasize the substance of the writing as opposed to the author. She died at age 69 on Dec. 15, 2021, at her home in Berea following an extended illness.
“Becoming bell hooks” is a KET production, produced by Elon Justice and Sarah Moyer. It is funded in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.
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The documentary will air on KET at 8 p.m. CST Feb. 27 and Feb. 29. Free preview screenings will be held at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Center in Lexington and at 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.
To RSVP for a screening or find more information, visit KET.org/bellhooks.
Screening events
- 6:30 p.m. EST, Tuesday, Feb. 20, Lyric Theatre, Lexington
- 7 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 22, Speed Museum, Louisville
TV broadcasts
- 8 p.m. CST, Tuesday, Feb. 27, KET
- 1 a.m. CST, Thursday, Feb. 29, KET
- 3 p.m. CST, Thursday, Feb. 29, KET
- 8 p.m. CST, Thursday, Feb. 29, KET2
- 4 p.m. CST, Friday, March 1, KETKY
Hoptown Chronicle contributed to this article.
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