HBO Life lessons inspire documentary

'Beah' captures the wisdom of an actress and activist known for her feisty roles.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- LisaGay Hamilton watched herself onscreen flinging the cremated ashes of actress Beah Richards over a Confederate graveyard in Mississippi, then told the SRO audience at the Museum of Tolerance about how she finally shed tears.
"I cried yesterday," she said after the recent screening. "I cried ... finally, out of joy, out of triumph, out of how wonderful it is."
It had been more than three years since Hamilton shot that scene for her documentary, "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," premiering on HBO at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Not only is it the film's concluding chapter, it's also the final defiant act of a black woman who lived unfettered.
Actress, activist, author
Richards was a prolific actress and playwright whom Hollywood never quite knew what to do with.
She was also a civil-rights activist whose books of poetry, including the riveting "A Black Woman Speaks," inspired and challenged those seeking change -- and drew the FBI's attention.
But to Hamilton, Richards was a teacher who, in the year before her death, provided some valuable life lessons.
Initially, Hamilton had not considered filming a documentary when she decided to visit Richards in the spring of 1999. They had met two years earlier while filming Jonathan Demme's "Beloved."
The 39-year-old actress and fledgling director was at first intimidated by Richards, probably best remembered for her Oscar-nominated performance as Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
But after learning that Richards was home recovering after a lengthy stay in the hospital, Hamilton -- who was having personal problems at the time -- visited Richards for some soul-searching.
"I was at a typical mid-30 crisis when you're having that nervous breakdown because some man has left you and all this other stuff is going on," Hamilton said, laughing. "I was in need of wisdom. So I called Beah. I remembered her being pretty deep."
Hamilton ended up getting an earful. "After I left her house, I was vibrating, and I left going ... 'What was that?'"
It was Beah Richards 101: practical lessons steeped in African traditions. And for Hamilton, these were pearls too rich to keep to herself.
Capturing wisdom
So she shared her inspiring visits with Demme, and the next day, he sent her two video cameras, suggesting she tape her interviews with Richards and make the documentary.
Demme also provided two of his associates, Neda Armian and Joe Viola, to assist Hamilton in the taping of the intimate conversations, which were shot in the den of Richards' Los Angeles home.
"It felt like I was eavesdropping," said Viola, a longtime television producer and director, "because every word that Beah spoke, LisaGay interacted with her. Beah had a philosophy about acting, but it was indeed her philosophy about life, and that philosophy was truth."
Later, film editor Kate Amend came on board.
"When LisaGay described her vision to me," explained Amend, "she said, 'I don't want to do a traditional biography. I want to do something much bigger.' I knew that she wanted to do a portrait of a life. I just had no idea what a really big life that was going to be."
Richards' background
The daughter of a Mississippi Baptist minister, Richards was raised with a heady sense of -- and appreciation for -- her blackness and a love of the arts. Richards left the South to pursue acting in California and New York, finding roles less marginalized than in the years before World War II, but still subservient to white characters.
She began specializing in feisty characters, typically much older than her years, usually as indomitable matriarchs.
"As an artist, I was in awe of her," says actress Hattie Winston, who's briefly featured in the film, "because of the power of her presence, because of the challenges that she gave herself."