Zora Neale Hurston attained unique success in many areas, but during her lifetime her words and conclusions were often surrounded in contention.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) wrote the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God about a black woman's search for love in the gritty pioneer days of early Florida. Hurston was also an anthropologist who collected the stories of ex-slaves and filmed Southern black culture. This film tells Zora's life story, and includes reenactments of a 1941 interview with Hurston at a New York radio station.

Zora Neale Hurston, path-breaking novelist, pioneering anthropologist and one of the first black women to enter the American literary canon (Their Eyes Were Watching God), established the African American vernacular as one of the most vital, inventive voices in American literature. This definitive film biography, eighteen years in the making, portrays Zora in all her complexity: gifted, flamboyant, and controversial but always fiercely original.

Director: Samuel D. Pollard
Writer: Kristy Andersen

Genre: Documentary

Cast (Credited cast)
Kim Brockington... Zora Neale Hurston
Marceline Hugot... Mary Margaret McBride
Zora Neale Hurston... Herself (archive footage)
S. Epatha Merkerson... Narrator

Produced by
Kristy Andersen.... producer
Julie Dash.... interview producer
Denise Greene.... interview producer
Sharon LaCruise.... associate producer
Stephen Stept.... interview producer

Original Music by
Don Vappie

Cinematography by
Matthew Clark

Film Editing by
Marian Sears Hunter

Production Design by
Tamar Gadish

Costume Design by
Moira Shaughnessy

Makeup Department
Emma Terese.... hair stylist
Emma Terese.... makeup artist (segments)

Production Management
Booker T. Mattison.... production manager

Art Department
Charley Greacen.... title artwork

Visual Effects by
Peter Haas.... digital effects artist
Steven Kutny.... digital effects artist
Victoria Nece.... digital effects artist
Elaine Simmons.... digital artist
Daniel Byron Spangler.... digital effects artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Tommy Burns.... camera operator
Ronald Gray.... camera operator
Eric Jones.... camera operator
Robert Shepard.... camera operator

Animation Department
Molecule.... title animator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Moira Shaughnessy.... wardrobe

Editorial Department
Peter Haas.... assistant editor
Matt London.... assistant editor
Aljernon Tunsil.... assistant editor
Roxanne Yamashiro.... assistant editor

Other crew
Safiya Songhai.... consultant


Runtime: 83 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color

On April 9, 2008 PBS broadcast this 83-minute documentary, written and produced by filmmaker Kristy Andersen, as part of their American Masters series.

Production Company: Bay Bottom News

in co-production with American Masters (Public Broadcasting, PBS)

"Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun" is available on DVD at www.newsreel.org

27th Annual Festival International du Film d'Arts
* Winner, Best Educational Film