Go Tell It on the Mountain

The film is adapted from the novel by James Baldwin. At its centre are three generations of an African American family. The family has moved from the rural South to Harlem. What they are looking for is salvation and also understanding. The church stands in the middle of that search. John is still a boy, and he carries the pressure inside the house. His stepfather Gabriel takes himself for the keeper of the righteous path. He withholds his affection from the boy. John keeps trying to earn his approval. That effort is the main line of the film. Scenes from the past open up the years the family spent in the South. The sins and the secrets of the elders come from there. The root of today’s harshness is visible in yesterday. The trials and the hopes of three generations gather in one story. The promise of salvation and the hardness at home sit side by side. Paul Winfield and James Bond III appear in the ninety six minute television film, an American production Stan Lathan finished in 1984.