Draft:Lebert Bethune

Lebert "Sandy" Bethune (b.1937) is a independent documentary filmmaker, educator, poet, and author.

Early life and education
Bethune was born and went to highschool in Kingston, Jamaica, and then emigrated to New York and travled later in Europe. He holds a BS from NYU and a Masters in Anthropology & Education from Columbia University. He currently resides in New York City.

Career
According to Rhea Bethune, curator at the Center for African American Media Arts at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, "An accomplished writer, poet, political activist, and protégé of Marxist and Pan-Africanist scholar C.L.R. James, Bethune also served as the assistant to artist and writer Langston Hughes for a brief period." During his time in Europe, he was often found in the company of other expatriate Black artists and activists such as Lindsay Barrett and Ted Joans. .

Bethune's potery and literary work has been featured in Presence Africaine in the 1960s and 1970s and short story "The Burglar" in The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, ed. by Langston Hughes (1967). He is the author of the book of poetry Juju of my own (1966), and cited as a prominent contributor to the Black Arts Movement literature.

Filmography

 * Malcolm X: The Struggle for Freedom (1964), an informal interview with Malcolm X by Bethune and photographerJohn Taylor and one of the last extended interviews before his assassination
 * Jojolo (1966), documentary portrait of actress of Haitian descent Johanne Harrelle
 * Pan Africa (1971), unfinished documentary on history of pan-Africanism from 1919-1958