The film profiles five Black American artists as they work, teach, discuss family life, and explain what art means to them. In Paris, sculptor Barbara Chase-Riboud builds wax forms for casting in aluminum, combines metal with silk or wool, and describes her interest in African sculpture and the effect of travel on her work. Painter Charles White connects images of Black people to history, dignity, and justice for oppressed people, while scenes with students show why teaching is central to his life.
Another painter and arts educator makes circular works from chalk sketches, color washes, tissue, and heavier paint, and explains how the Children’s Art Carnival encourages imagination and self-expression. Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt studies the forms of plants, models a sculpture in clay, and works closely with foundry staff as they prepare a mold, pour molten metal, and inspect the completed casting. These artists describe creativity as a continuing process shaped by careful thought, physical labor, experimentation, and contact with other people.
In New York, Romare Bearden discusses supporting younger minority artists through a gallery and recalls the artistic community that helped him develop during the Depression. His collages combine painted and colored papers, photographs, and cloth to place scenes from African American life within a wider human and historical setting. Bearden compares his works to visiting cards that preserve evidence of the people and places he has known, including the neighborhood represented in his work The Block.
