The Problem Of The Hero

It is March, 1941, at the St. James Theatre in New York. On the eve of opening night, a difference of opinion over a single page of the script threatens an impasse between two literary giants of the 20th Century— one a black man and one a white man. As dress rehearsals, led by the mercurial Orson Welles, continue around Richard Wright (renowned, controversial author of Native Son) and Paul Green (Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright & social justice advocate), the ensuing argument— delving deeply into race, class, patriotism, politics, and personal story & agency— seems destined to dissolve the writers’ genuine friendship. The Problem of the Hero is a film exploring issues that mirror the tenor of the times in which we live; and is based on EbzB Productions’ stage play, Native, by Ian Finley, and upon Richard Wright’s own play, The Problem of the Hero. The film moves from the backdrop of Wright’s novel, Native Son, in 1930’s Chicago and into the film’s backdrop of the United States on the precipice of entering World War II.