In this beautiful, expressionistic essay film featuring his photographs, writing, and music, Gordon Parks reflects on how America shaped him, from his childhood on a Kansas farm to his years in New York City, and from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War. It is preceded by two of his early short films—Flavio, set in a favela near Rio de Janeiro, and Diary of a Harlem Family—both of which stem from Parks’s work as a Life magazine photojournalist. Through black-and-white photographs, moving images, and diaristic accounts, Parks sensitively portrays the plight of two families living in abject poverty, with a core belief in the dignity and potential of every human being.