00:01Just a minute. Who do you want to see?
00:03I'm Hazel Scott. We're here for the audition.
00:05Oh, Miss Scott! Yes, they're waiting for you. Go right in.
00:17It's always bold for an artist to say that they want to step on the front line
00:20or be in the back of the line that urges the crowd to move forward.
00:24And Hazel was always ahead of this curve, too.
00:27When I think of Hazel Scott, think of her as a pianist.
00:31Think of her as an actress. Think of her as a singer.
00:34Think of her as an activist.
00:36And you add all those things up, she's absolutely unique.
00:44You have someone, some 70, 80 years ago,
00:48who challenged the way blacks were portrayed in media, in Hollywood.
00:55She's at the forefront of what would happen in later decades with the civil rights movement.
01:04There had never been a black performer who had their own show, ever, in television.
01:10And here's this glamorous black woman who's breaking all of these barriers with this one TV show.
01:17She had incredible confidence, and that would sometimes get her in trouble.
01:32She was targeted because of her outspokenness on civil rights.
01:41She ripped them to shreds, and it cost her everything.
01:47If you fight the establishment, you're not very popular with it.
01:51Meeting will come to order.
01:52And everything is done to remove you from public memory.
01:56And there's a weepy old willow.
01:58He really knows how to cry.
02:01Well, I'm kind of embarrassed to even say this,
02:04but the first time I really heard of Hazel was during Alicia Keys' tribute at the Grammys,
02:10when she was playing the two pianos.
02:12I've been thinking so much about the people and the music that have inspired me.
02:22And I want to give a shout out to Hazel Scott, because I always wanted to play two pianos.
02:27I spent the last 15-some-odd years learning about music, and this was the first time I ever even came across her,
02:42just by randomly seeing her video online.
02:45And she just blew my mind.
02:48And I think that that really speaks volumes to what this documentary is really about.
02:53It is always just so distressing to me, the amount of hidden figures that we have within Black America and its history.
Comments