Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years is a 1999

1999 in television

The year 1999 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1999.For the American TV schedule, see: 1999-00 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...

 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television movie

Television movie

A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 directed by Lynne Littman

Lynne Littman

Lynne Littman is an American director. She has frequently worked with anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff. She directed Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.-Awards:...

. The film is an adaptation of the 1993 New York Times bestselling oral history written by Sarah L. Delany, A. Elizabeth Delany, and journalist Amy Hill Hearth. The telefilm adaptation was written by Emily Mann, who also adapted the book to the Broadway stage (1995). The film first aired on CBS on April 18, 1999, just three months after Sadie died.

The daughters of a former slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 who became the first Black person elected Bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States, the sisters were Civil Rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 pioneers but were unknown until journalist Amy Hill Hearth interviewed them for a feature story in The New York Times in 1991. The sisters were then 100 and 102 years old.

Sadie, the older of the sisters, was the first Black person permitted to teach Domestic Science at the high school level in the New York City public schools. Bessie was the second black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York State. The biopic deals with the trials and tribulations they faced during a century of life. The sisters share their stories with Ms. Hearth, the journalist (and later, the co-author of their book). Pivotal scenes are re-enacted through flashbacks.

Principal cast

• Diahann Carroll ..... Sadie Delany
• Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
  
   ..... Bessie Delany
• Amy Madigan
  Amy Madigan
  Amy Marie Madigan is an American actress who is known for her role as Annie Kinsella in the 1989 film Field of Dreams and Iris Crowe in the HBO television series Carnivale...
  
   ..... Amy Hill Hearth
• Lisa Arrindell Anderson ..... Young Sadie
• Audra McDonald
  Audra McDonald
  Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...
  
   ..... Young Bessie
• Mykelti Williamson
  Mykelti Williamson
  Michael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
  
   ..... Papa Delany
• Lonette McKee
  Lonette McKee
  Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...
  
   ..... Mama Delany
• Richard Roundtree
  Richard Roundtree
  Richard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...
  
   ..... Booker T. Washington
  Booker T. Washington
  Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
  
  
• Della Reese
  Della Reese
  Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese , is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You...
  
   ..... Martha Logan

Principal production credits

• Executive Producers
  Film producer
  A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
  
   ..... Camille O. Cosby, Jeffrey S. Grant, Judith James
• Original Music
  Film score
  A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
  
   ..... Terence Blanchard
  Terence Blanchard
  Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
  
  , Dennis McCarthy
  Dennis McCarthy (composer)
  Dennis McCarthy is an ASCAP- and Emmy Award-winning composer, mostly for television programs and films produced in the United States....
  
  
• Cinematography
  Cinematography
  Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
  
   ..... Frank Byers
• Production Design
  Production designer
  In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
  
   ..... Charles C. Bennett
• Art Direction
  Art director
  The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
  
   ..... Jennifer O'Kelly
• Set Decoration
  Set decorator
  A set decorator is in charge of the set dressing on a film set, which includes the furnishings, wallpaper, lighting fixtures, and many of the other objects that will be seen in the film. Props and set dressing often overlap, but are provided by different departments...
  
   ..... Summer Eubanks
• Costume Design
  Costume design
  Costume design is the fabrication of apparel for the overall appearance of a character or performer. This usually involves researching, designing and building the actual items from conception. Costumes may be for a theater or cinema performance but may not be limited to such...
  
   ..... Rita Riggs

Critical reception

Ron Wertheimer of the New York Times called the film "clearly a labor of love . . . an engrossing drama built on characters who are at once exceptional and accessible . . . Ms. Carroll and Ms. Dee embody the sisters in middle and old age. Their performances occasionally threaten to glide into caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

 but more often capture the women's complementary strengths and frailties and their extraordinary bond."

In his review in Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, David Kronke said, "Anchored by two excellent performances by Diahann Carroll and Ruby Dee, this is a solidly affecting telepic that rarely preaches or hits a false note . . . By film's end, the viewer feels there truly is a history between these two characters. Supporting performances are strong, with Lonette McKee a standout as the sisters' mother."

Awards and nominations

• Peabody Award
  Peabody Award
  The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
  
   for Excellence in Television (winner)
• Writers Guild of America Award
  Writers Guild of America Award
  The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
  
   (nominee)
• Christopher Award
  Christopher Award
  The Christopher Award is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, motion pictures and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit"...
  
   for Outstanding TV and Cable Programming (winner)
• NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
  NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
  The NAACP Image Award winners for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special:*Most Wins: Cicely Tyson, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Alfre Woodard- 2 wins*Most Nominations:-Stats:...
  
   (Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll, nominees)
• NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
  NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
  The NAACP Image Award winners for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special:...
  
  (nominee)

External links

• Official website
• CBS