Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Photo courtesy of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

A Conversation with Director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Following the AFI Docs Festival screening of Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, we sat down with the director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders to discuss his 38-year friendship with Morrison, the making of the film, and his influences.

The friendship began in 1981 when Greenfield-Sanders photographed Morrison for the cover of Soho News. The two instantly became friends and Greenfield-Sanders went on to photograph Morrison’s portraits for her books and their press over the years. When Vanity Fair profiled her, she insisted that he was the only person who could photograph her. Afterward, he was soon placed on their masthead. 

In 2014, when Greenfield-Sanders suggested doing a documentary about her life to the very private Morrison - she didn’t immediately say yes, she didn’t say no either. Morrison is so notably private that when Oprah Winfrey wanted to adapt Morrison’s award-winning novel, Beloved, into a movie, she called the fire and police departments where Morrison lived to get her phone number.  And when Winfrey called Morrison - her initial response was, “How did you get my number?” 

Eventually, Morrison agreed to sit for the documentary which took about two years to produce. “I’m just grateful to Toni that she allowed me to make the film. This is not someone who makes a decision like that lightly,” said Greenfield-Sanders.

More than a documentary about her career, it’s a two-hour masterclass on life that leaves you wanting more of Morrison’s witty, poignant observations about the world. But maybe next time with a slice of her legendary carrot cake that she boasts is the best carrot cake you will ever have in your life. She used that same carrot cake to persuade the secretarial staff at Random House to type the pages of what would become The Bluest Eye.

“The joys of having someone like Toni Morrison as the subject in a film is that she is herself - so remarkable and such a great storyteller and brings you in,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “I wanted to shoot her direct-to-camera because that was a way to make it feel like it’s Toni’s story.” 

Photo courtesy of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Greenfield-Sanders pulled from his career as a portrait photographer when crafting The Pieces I Am. He interviewed 12 of Morrison’s colleagues, among them, included Angela Davis, Walter Mosley, and Sonia Sanchez. They were filmed in “over-the-camera” style shots and Morrison was placed in the center of the composition for her interviews, so it’s as if she is talking directly to you.

“There's not like there are 13 people here, there’s Toni and there's these other people who were augmenting it,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “So I thought that worked very well. I’ve never seen that in a documentary where you mixed the two angles like that where the main person is direct-to-camera.”

The film delves into the milestones of Morrison’s career such as her Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, but also her personal fight for equal pay, the challenges of single motherhood and her influence as an editor at Random House. During her time at Random House, she contributed to the civil rights movement through publishing the works of writers like Angela Davis, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Henry Dumas, and many more.  

“The biggest problem of making the film was that there was so much. You had to make decisions about what direction to go in and what to exclude aside from what to include,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “That was just so difficult because it's such a rich life and in terms of research. Johanna Giebelhaus, the editor, who was also the researcher - traveled to Lorain. And went to their little historical society and looked at boxes of stuff. She also went to Princeton and found the Beloved research material of Toni’s.”

They also spent time at Morrison’s home where she allowed them to access scrapbooks with family photos. In addition to archival footage and photography of Morrison, Greenfield-Sanders uses artwork from African-American artists to further illustrate pivotal moments in her life, like Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration - when Morrison talks about her grandparents’ move from down south to Lorain, Ohio.

“I studied art history which was fabulous preparation for all the things that I do, so I had the sense of the world of art, said Greenfield-Sanders. “In the film, there’s an enormous amount of art by African American painters that comes very much from my understanding of art and art history.”

Artist, Mickelene Thomas, created the collage at the beginning of the film which works wonderfully with the title, a quote borrowed from Beloved - “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” It’s fair to say that Morrison’s telling of her life in her own words gathers viewers and gives them back in the right order. 

When asked what he hopes audiences will take away, Greenfield-Sanders said, “I think she’s a great inspiration. I think she lived a life that should make all of us feel awed, it’s an awe-inspiring life. The issues that she’s dealt with in her life are still issues that are around today, in terms of race and misogyny. And all of the things that Toni fought against we’re fighting against now. Maybe a little more - it might be a little better, but I still see things that shock me every day and attitudes that shock me.”

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am opens in theaters on June 28.