Films

Be Filled With the Spirit, Storefront Churches

Be Filled With the Spirit is a dynamic look into the traditions of the black storefront churches as photographed by noted social documentary photographer, Milton Rogovin.

Encouraged by renowned African-American sociologist Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, Rogovin photographed the storefront churches of Buffalo, New York for three years. The images are filled with the movement and expression of worship. With music and preaching recorded at the services, the energy of Rogovin's photographs come to life.

Featuring interviews with Alton B. Pollard III, Dean of Howard University School of Divinity and Milton Rogovin, this film will draw you into the storefront churches and leave you wanting more.

Milton Rogovin is a social documentary photographer who focused his lens on the poor and working people in ten nations. Rogovin is best known for his dignified images of everyday people at work and at home, and families he revisited over 30 years.

Director: Mark Rogovin
Camera and Editor: Sharon Karp
RT. 8 min, 46 sec.
Milton Rogovin interview by Harvey Wang. Photographs from the Rogovin Collection at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona Foundation.
Music used by permission: Courtesy Smithsonian Folkways Recordings © 1957
"Be Filled with the Spirit, Storefront Churches," © 2011 The Rogovin Collection

Picture Man: the Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin

Picture Man: the Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin At age 89, Rogovin determined that he had more to say about the lives of the people in his photographs. He wrote poems about some of his most meaningful images – some poems were funny and others were serious. These photo/poems were woven into this 20 min. film, Picture Man: The Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin.

The Rich have Their Own Photographers

In 1957, Milton Rogovin was declared “The Top Communist in Buffalo”. In reality, he was an optometrist active registering Black voters. Refusing to be silenced, he found a new political voice, a camera.

Milton began to document Buffalo’s poorest and working classes, and eventually, the world’s. Collaborating with Pablo Neruda and others at the forefront of justice movements, documenting those he considers, “The Forgotten Ones”.

Through his photographs, Rogovin depicts the extreme inequalities that exist and conveys that message through beautiful works of art. But for Rogovin, his prints are his protests, his only concern is the continuing fight for social justice.

2007, 60 min. B&W and Color, 4:3DvCAM NTSC
Directed by Ezra Bookstein
Produced by Telling Images Films, LLC
in association with MUSE Film & Television

Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones

This short film celebrates the life's work of photographer Milton Rogovin, who was 93 when this film was shot. After being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and subsequently losing his optometry practice, Rogovin dedicated his life to photographing the residents of a depressed six-block area in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Rogovin's first series of portraits of Lower West Side residents was completed in 1972. Over the next twenty years, Rogovin returned two more times to re-photograph his subjects. The film follows him as he returns one more time to the Lower West Side to take a fourth in his series of once-a-decade portraits.

Best Documentary Short

  • 2003 Tribeca Film Festival, New York, NY

Co-Winner

  • 2003 The One Show Film Festival, New York, NY

Official Selection

  • 2003 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

  • 2003 InFact Theatrical Documentary Showcase

  • 2003 Milwaukee International Film Festival

  • 2004 True/False Film Festival

  • 2004 Ashland International Film Festival

  • 2004 Syracuse International Film & Video Festival

  • 2005 International Festival of Cinema and Technology