Black History Mini Docs Podcast

Black History Mini Docs Podcast belongs to Black History Mini Docs, a series of short documentaries on Black history curated and executive-produced by Neema Barnette. One cold open states the purpose plainly: plenty of people watch the films without knowing the award-winning filmmakers behind them, and the podcast is there to introduce them. So the history comes with the people who made it. The films come in mini, micro and maxi versions and are now mostly on YouTube, where the podcast also runs as video. Some episode titles carry an '(Audio Only)' tag. Reed R. McCants presents the episodes about the series itself. 'July Mini Docs Preview (Episode 402)' runs through the month's premieres and returning fan favorites. The 2024 review looks back on the year and includes a passage on Curtis Mayfield, following him from The Impressions to a solo career. It credits him as one of the first R&B singer-songwriters to bring racial and political consciousness into music. The interviews work differently. Benita Brisker, who introduces herself as Busy B, leads them. In 'The Juney Smith Interview (Part 1)', the director describes deciding to go independent just as home video on VHS was arriving. He recalls a professor who asked what it costs to make a movie. The class guessed in the millions, and the answer on the board started with a ream of paper and a pencil. That story is behind his description of himself as an 'unapologetic low budget filmmaker'. 'The Juney Smith Interview (Part 2)' shifts to the business of Black film. It compares the way donors support museums and libraries with the lack of that backing in movies, and argues that the weak spot is the business side, not the artists. 'The Franklin Lett Interview' is more intimate. Brisker introduces Lett as a businessman, consultant, manager and father. The conversation settles on his late wife, Della Reese, remembered as formidable if crossed and pleasant, humorous and wise if not. The episode also traces her path from being discovered as a young singer to Grammy recognition and television work in the 1960s. Reese comes up again in the July preview, where Brisker, as a pop-up guest, calls her a pastor, a mentor and her 'other mother'. The two also point listeners back to the Lett interview. Episode 503 turns to technology. It points to Black in Motion, a run of posts that uses AI to animate photographs of figures such as Stokely Carmichael and Frederick Douglass. It also advises documentary makers to gather AI-generated material now, before the low-cost tools get expensive. McCants signs off with 'Stay black until I get back'. In the 2024 review he adds a line for listeners who are not Black: 'just stay on the right track'. Brisker closes with 'Be strong. Be well. Be kind.' For the history, start with the 2024 review. For the craft and business of filmmaking, start with the first Juney Smith episode.