After my father Lionel Rogosin made Come Back Africa, his second film, he was asked why he made a film in South Africa against racism and not in America. He said that at the time it was the most urgent issue that needed to be exposed, but his answer lay in his late films made in the early 1970s. Black Roots, Black Fantasy and Woodcutters of the Deep South form a trilogy that goes deep into racism in America and its effects, and Woodcutters raises the possibility of Black and white poor people working together to improve their lives.

Working Together, the title of my documentary/sequel to my father’s film, traces the consequences and questions that were implied in Woodcutters. My father’s intuition about the importance of what was happening during the filming of Woodcutters once again shows his political instinct. Inherent in the original film is not only the question of Black and white working together, but what happened to the civil rights movement in the 70s and its destruction.

By revisiting the film with Bob Zelner, who was in the original film, and other major civil rights workers, we found out the who, what and why implied in my father’s film. In understanding what happened it explains what has and is happening in America today.

Michael Rogosin