Following of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968, Robert Culp became very active with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s “Operation Breadbasket” program which used peaceful non-violent methods to gain economic equality for black communities.
He filmed the activities of the movement for what would become a documentary that he would produce, direct and narrate, titled simply “Operation Breadbasket.” He nearly went broke doing the project, as he footed the expenses for it himself and was otherwise unemployed for nearly two years while working on it.
His efforts, however, were not in vain. He successfully sold the documentary to ABC News, despite the fact that the networks at the time practically never bought documentaries produced outside their network news department. The documentary aired July 7th, 1969 as part of a series of documentaries by ABC News on race relations in the United States at the time.
Back in June of 2011, I posted that the film had been awarded a preservation grant from The National Film Preservation Foundation. A few years later, in 2014, I posted that the preservation of the film had been completed and that a follow up documentary was in the works.
Well I’m very happy to post that you can now view the restored documentary online at the George Eastman Museum website. The companion documentary, titled “Operation Breadbasket: A Civil Rights Legacy” is still to come but below is a promo video posted by Joseph Culp back in 2012.
I’ve been curious about Robert Culp’s original documentary, along with the new one, for many years now. Indeed, this process has been going on for over 10 years! I look forward to watching the original documentary and posting a reaction.
Thanks for sharing! As a fan of documentaries (and Culp, obviously!) I think it’s very well-written, and the effort he put into it really shines through. I’m very glad it was able to be preserved! 🙂