(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated will sponsor the acclaimed film featuring the life and legacy of Honorary Link Marian Anderson during the 2022 Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF).  Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands explores the career and art of the famed African American contralto and civil rights pioneer.

Best known for her historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, Anderson used that setting to protest a "whites only" concert policy at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.  She received support from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the NAACP, Howard University, and other leaders by peforming for an integrated audience of over 75,000.  The concert also reached millions of radio listeners and inspired a 10-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., who published a winning oratorical citing the experience.

"Sponsoring this important film at TIFF is so fitting," said Chapter President Tammy King.  "Over 75 years ago, The Links, Incorporated had its beginnings in Philadelphia and shortly after our organization's start, Philadelphia-born Marian Anderson became the second in a short list of luminaries to become an Hononary Link," noted President King.

Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, which originally premiered on PBS' American Masters, spotlights Anderson's voice and point of view.  The documentary draws from 34 cassette tapes of interviews recorded in the 1950s when she was preparing to write her memoir, My Lord, What a Morning, and other archival interviews.

The Teaneck International Film Festival runs from November 13-20, 2022.  Peabody (2017) and Emmy Award-Winning director, writer, and producer Rita Coburn has been tapped for the talk-back after the film's showing.

The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated was charted in March of 1974.  The legacy of The Bergen County Links Chapter is the story of The Links, Incorporated, an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946, and one of the nation's oldest and largest volunteer service organizations.

Now in its 36th season at PBS, American Masters illuminates the lives and creative journeys of our nation's most enduring artistic giants - those who have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape - through compelling, unvarnished stories.  Setting the standard for documentary film profiles, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim: 28 Emmy Awards - including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special - two News & Documentary Emmys, 14 Peabodys, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, an Oscar, and many other honors. The series is a production of the WNET Group.

Major funding for American Masters - Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Better Angels Society including The Robert F. Smith Family and Mercedes T. Bass.  Additional funding provided by Ford Foundation, the Estate of Roland Karlen, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

PHOTO: Courtesy of World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo