--- name: "Gordon Parks" canonical: "https://film.one/person/gordon-parks" fi1m_id: "gordon-parks" imdb_id: "nm0662953" tmdb_id: 6558 wikidata_id: "Q365682" roles: ["Director"] born: "30 November 1912" died: "7 March 2006" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T17:24:45.005511+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gordon Parks ## Identity Gordon Parks - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/gordon-parks - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** gordon-parks - **IMDb ID:** nm0662953 - **TMDB ID:** 6558 - **Wikidata ID:** Q365682 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q365682, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0662953/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6558 Director. Born 30 November 1912 in Fort Scott, Kansas, United States. Died 7 March 2006. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 30 November 1912, Fort Scott, Kansas, United States - **Died:** 7 March 2006 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q365682, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0662953/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6558 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*Shaft*](https://film.one/film/shaft.md) (72) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Gordon Parks > Gordon Parks puts Black lives at the centre of his films and makes their surroundings worth looking at. We value that attention to people and places, though *Shaft* needs a better plot to match its leading man. New York keeps our attention in *Shaft* (1971), even when the detective story has little left to offer. Parks and cinematographer Urs Furrer make it feel inhabited beyond the business of the plot, allowing ordinary life to count alongside the leading man. This is a good crime film with a substantial weakness: the writing does too little with the mob’s claim on Harlem. Parks’s experience as a photographer helps explain that attention to place, but Furrer deserves credit for how well it works here. His first studio feature, *The Learning Tree* (1969), was more personal than the crime films that followed. Adapted from his semi-autobiographical novel, its coming-of-age story takes place in 1920s Kansas, and Parks served as writer, director, producer and composer. It made him the first African American to direct a major Hollywood studio feature. *Shaft*, its 1972 sequel and *The Super Cops* (1974) then took him towards more conventional action and crime stories. Richard Roundtree explains much of the appeal of that move. We enjoyed his refusal to make John Shaft agreeable, because his guarded performance makes the Black private eye’s independence convincing. Parks gives that reserve time and attention, though we sometimes wanted more humour or a less guarded response. Isaac Hayes’s music helps make the film worth an evening, but neither actor nor score can do the writing’s job. There is enough pleasure in the performance, the music and the city to recommend it, without pretending the detective story works better than it does. That turn towards crime did not exhaust his interest in Black lives. *Leadbelly* (1976), about blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, and the television film *Solomon Northup’s Odyssey* (1984), adapted from *Twelve Years a Slave*, belong beside *The Learning Tree* when considering the work. They take him back towards biographical and historical stories, away from the private eye whose presence can make the rest of his film-making easy to overlook. We would still begin with *Shaft*, provided an ingenious mystery is not the chief requirement. ## Biography Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was an American photographer, writer, composer and film director. He became the first African American staff photographer at Life magazine in 1948 and later turned to directing, becoming the first Black director of a major Hollywood studio feature with The Learning Tree (1969), which he also wrote and scored. His best-known film, Shaft (1971), was a commercial success that helped launch the blaxploitation genre. He directed its sequel, Shaft's Big Score! (1972), as well as The Super Cops (1974) and Leadbelly (1976). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, gordonparksfoundation.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Shaft* (1971), Fi1m 72, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/shaft.md) ## Complete filmography (16) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Martin* (2026), Director, Music, Writer - *The World of Piri Thomas* (2021), as Sequence Lead · Director - *How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)* (2005), Actor - *Shaft* (2000), as Lenox Lounge Patron - *Lincoln* (1992), as Henry H. Garnet (voice) - *Solomon Northup's Odyssey* (1991), Director, Original Music Composer - *Moments without Proper Names* (1987), Music, Writer, Director, Orchestrator - *American Playhouse* (1982), series, Director, Original Music Composer - *Leadbelly* (1976), Director - *The Super Cops* (1974), Director - *Shaft's Big Score!* (1972), Director, Original Music Composer - *Shaft* (1971), Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/shaft.md) - *My Father: Gordon Parks* (1969), Music - *The Learning Tree* (1969), Director, Screenplay, Novel, Producer, Original Music Composer - *Diary of a Harlem Family* (1968), Writer, Still Photographer - *Flavio* (1964), Writer, Director, Still Photographer ## Gallery - ![From News and Events, a newsletter published by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) (1981)](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-14f0c5e917c3.jpg) From News and Events, a newsletter published by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) (1981) — Rochester Institute of Technology, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Gordon_Parks%2C_RIT_NandE_Vol13Num34_1981_Oct29_Complete.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Wash D.C. Sept. 12 1997 (2020)](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-f835e115003c.jpg) Wash D.C. Sept. 12 1997 (2020) — John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Gordon_Parks_2_%2849491445658%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![David Finn took a series of photographs of artists and intellectuals living in New York City for the book "Our New York." This photo is part of that group. The ](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-566b781f9d25.jpg) David Finn took a series of photographs of artists and intellectuals living in New York City for the book "Our New York." This photo is part of that group. The — David Finn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Gordon_Parks_in_his_Study_by_David_Finn.jpg/1280px-Gordon_Parks_in_his_Study_by_David_Finn.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Photographer and film director Gordon Parks (1984)](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-aae02de3c988.jpg) Photographer and film director Gordon Parks (1984) — Iris Schneider, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Gordon_Parks%2C_1984_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Gordon_Parks%2C_1984_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Gordon Parks](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-d98a596f168e.jpg) Gordon Parks — Rowland Scherman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Gordon_Parks.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![David Finn took a series of photographs of artists and intellectuals living in New York City for the book "Our New York." This photo is part of that group. The ](https://film.one/media/person/3917266/gallery-5707f5e2c4b1.jpg) David Finn took a series of photographs of artists and intellectuals living in New York City for the book "Our New York." This photo is part of that group. The — David Finn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Gordon_Parks_next_to_piano_by_David_Finn.jpg/1280px-Gordon_Parks_next_to_piano_by_David_Finn.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Other awards — 7 won - Lucie Award 2004: Lucie Award (won) - Library of Congress Living Legend 2000: Library of Congress Living Legend (won) - Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards 1998: Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (won) - Paul Robeson Award 1991: Paul Robeson Award (won) - National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame 1990: National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame (won) - Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame 1973: Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (won) - Spingarn Medal 1972: Spingarn Medal (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gordon-parks