Christine Turner on “Homegoings”

Just in the nick of time for Black History Month, and debuting at the 2013 Documentary Fortnight: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film, is Christine Turner’s “Homegoings,” a poetically crafted exploration of the history of African-American funeral traditions. Told via the Harlem neighborhood’s legendary funeral director Isaiah Owens – who found his calling as a small child, burying all deceased animals he stumbled across in his South Carolina surroundings – the doc manages to be poignant, inspirational, and unexpectedly uplifting. In other words, as one subject says about black burials themselves, a “sad good time.” “Filmmaker” spoke with the doc’s director prior to the film’s premiere as part of MoMA Selects: POV. POV will broadcast “Homegoings” later this year.


To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.