NET Journal; 111; Losing Just the Same
- Series
- NET Journal
- Episode Number
- 111
- Episode
- Losing Just the Same
- Producing Organization
- KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
- Contributing Organization
- KQED (San Francisco, California)
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/55-1615fhjm
- Public Broadcasting Service Series NOLA
- LJUS 000000
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- Description
- Episode Description
- "Losing just the same" is the refrain that runs through the lives of the Johns family and scores of Negroes like them. Escaping the poverty of the rural South, they come to a typical Northern city, in this case Oakland, California. But the new dream turns into an old reality: they're "losing just the same." For Agnes Johns, 34 year old, with 10 minor children, twice a victim of desertion, Oakland is just another slum. She lives on a monthly welfare check of $392; a sense of resignation that is both pious and disillusioned; and a residue of idealism that is founded on her children's future. In a poignant sequence she visits a department store, realizes she is judged as a potential theif because of her color, and admires a spangled dress she can't afford. She needs money, but rejects prostitution as a solution. While shopping, she also admires a baby's outfit - and thinks of a time when Bobby, her oldest child, was an infant. Bobby, the "hero" of "Losing Just the Same," is now 17 years old. He bears the ironic name Robert Lee Johns. Balanced between school and work, with no future in either, he dreams of a Cadillac and a comfortable home for his mother. But for the Negro of Bobby's motivation, there are only false plans. As a Negro bartender remarks, in this world the "good pimp" epitomizes success. Waiting for his "break," Bobby lunges around the house in his pajamas, watches television, and goes out only to hang around or to have his hair processed (this ritualistic procedure takes place in a processing parlor, where the kinks are removed). The big break turns out to be a job sweeping up - for which he shows up in a gold shirt. But even the job is a failure. His mother laments that it costs more to send him to work than to keep him at home. He quits the job and returns to school. But then the San Francisco riots attract him. One night he meets a group of teenage incendiaries and is jailed as an accomplice in their attempted burning of an Oakland department store. Symbolically, he is identified by a man in a Cadillac. The film's cinema verite technique leads up dramatically to the boy's jailing. In addition, producer Richard Moore has added a "subconscious" element as demonstrated in a dream sequence involving Bobby and a Cadillac. The film's technique enables us to get at the underlying psychological realities as well as the bare facts. The film makes some of its most forceful points through juxtaposition. There is a bar fight between Joe, the bartender, and Curtis Baker, a Black Nationalist dubbed the "Black Jesus." The camera then pans to a sparring match between two children in the Johns home. Elsewhere the valedictorian of all-black McClymonds High school is making her speech with the text "No man is an island." A moment later, the school's principal is rating Bobby Johns' future in pessimistic terms. The film makes a starkly honest point about most Negroes in America - North and South. For those who live in "an urban wasteland," cries for civil rights have a "hollow sound." For the decent, hopeless Negro like Agnes Johns or her son Robert, it is harder than for Curtis Baker who can boast hatefully, "if we have to kill all whites to gain our freedom, we'll do it.' As the film ends, the Johns family is losing again: the welfare department is weighing a recommended budget cut on the basis of Bobby's detention. Losing Just the Same (aka The Negro in the North) is a National Educational Television presentation, produced by KQED-TV, San Francisco. It runs approximately an hour and was originally recorded on film. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1966-11-28
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Drama
- Rights
- Copyright National Educational Television & Radio Center November 28, 1966
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Producer: Moore, Richard
Producing Organization: KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
Release Agent: KQED ?
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
KQED
Identifier: KQ223_20685;20685 (KQED AAP)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy
Duration: 00:11:00?
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_32305 (WNET)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:59:02
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_2399 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:59:02?
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2410988-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “NET Journal; 111; Losing Just the Same,” 1966-11-28, KQED, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 16, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-55-1615fhjm.
- MLA: “NET Journal; 111; Losing Just the Same.” 1966-11-28. KQED, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 16, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-55-1615fhjm>.
- APA: NET Journal; 111; Losing Just the Same. Boston, MA: KQED, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-55-1615fhjm