Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Cesar Chavez Day replay special: Films on Billie Holiday, ‘9 to 5,’ Bee Gees
On this Cesar Chavez Day, Press Play revisits some of our favorite interviews with filmmakers from the year so far. Director Lee Daniels shares his movie about the FBI’s fight against singer Billie Holiday over her song “Strange Fruit.”
By Madeleine Brand • • 49m ListenOn this Cesar Chavez Day, Press Play revisits some of our favorite interviews with filmmakers from the year so far. Director Lee Daniels shares his movie about the FBI’s fight against singer Billie Holiday over her song “Strange Fruit.” One documentary looks at the real women who inspired the movie “9 To 5.” Another documentary celebrates how the Bee Gees rocketed to fame.
In this episode
3 storiesDirector Lee Daniels on ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ and why ‘Strange Fruit’ is a protest anthem
Jazz singer Billie Holiday’s song “ Strange Fruit ” paints a vivid scene of the lynchings that happened across the American South in the early 20th century. The lyrics compare the hanged bodies of Black Americans to fruit hanging from trees.
Read the story17 min‘9to5’ documentary: 10 Boston secretaries started a movement for women’s workplace rights
In the 1980 film “ 9 to 5 ,” Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin portrayed three office workers who were constantly degraded by their male co-workers. But “9 to 5” is more than an iconic film with an iconic song.
Read the story15 minBee Gees turned the underground gay and Black disco movement mainstream, then paid the price
The Bee Gees — brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb — became pop idols in the late 1960s and then mega stars in the 1970s. They sold 200 million records.
Read the story17 min
