Local film chronicles 'Mighty Times'
by C. A. Gilman

A rapt audience previewed the screening of "Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks" at the Ojai Playhouse Monday.
Ojai filmmakers Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston produced and directed the film, which is being distributed to more than 150,000 schools nationwide. "Mighty Times" is a rousing blend of music, history and dramatic filmmaking.
The film portrays how Parks, a quiet black seamstress living in Montgomery, Ala., refused give up her seat on a bus when bullied by the driver. She had to be removed by the sheriff.
At that time blacks were separated from whites in buses, restaurants, sidewalks, bathrooms, movie houses, entrances to buildings, etc. What may not be as well known is that Rosa Parks was sitting in the section reserved for "Coloreds," not whites. When a white man needed a seat, the bus driver vacated four seats occupied by black men in the "Coloreds" section so that the white passenger might sit by himself. Parks didn't budge. She had had enough.
When the sheriff took Parks off that bus, the black citizens of Montgomery boycotted the buses and walked to their jobs for more than a year. Mary Ann "Tweety" Woodard of Camarillo who was in the audience on Monday said, "I grew up in Montgomery when Rosa Parks was arrested. I was just a child then. They didn't just boycott the buses, they boycotted everything: department stores, movie theaters, restaurants, etc." Woodard is part of the Fresh Anointing Gospel Singers, which will be singing at the fund-raising screening on Sept. 15.
"Rosa Parks sparked the Second American Revolution," says producer Hudson. "Literally two days after her arrest, Martin Luther King made his very first speech for civil rights. By Monday morning, there were 50,000 people committed to nonviolent protest. It all happened at once." Director Houston added, "It's a truly amazing story, and we worked hard to dramatize it on the screen."
Hudson said, "This film represents a community involvement. We needed hundreds of extras, photos from the period, home movies and singers. People came out of Santa Rosa and Camarillo to help. Vince McGowan of Prime Time Casting in Oxnard was instrumental in finding talent. We were based out of the parking lot behind Regal's Liquors. Everything - bathrooms, food, dressing rooms, vintage cars were there."
When asked where they got the footage, Houston said, "Right here in Ojai and Santa Paula." Using vintage film stock and cameras, the filmmakers created footage that was virtually indistinguishable from the archival record.
Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is distributing the film.
The fund-raising screening will be held Friday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in Libbey Bowl. More than 3,000 invitations are being sent throughout the Ventura and Santa Barbara counties to students and teachers. Proceeds will benefit the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation and the Ojai Film Festival 2002. The festivities will open with gospel choirs from two counties and wrap up with a reception at the Offices at the Pews on North Montgomery Street after the screening.
For more information about the Teaching Tolerance program, go to www.tolerance.org.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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