Refreshing from his recent appearance at the 67th Grammy Awards, the Grammy Award for Achievement for Social Change was renamed in honor of his father, Harry Belafonte. The festival on Tuesday, February 25th will feature “Attach Harry,” a new documentary about her father’s life and work.

The documentary is also directed by Susanne Rostock, a sequel to 2011’s “Sing Your Song” and covering the early periods of Harry Belafonte’s life and activities.

“In fact, it’s been in the process for the last 60 years,” Shari Belafonte said. “I said, ‘Why do you do one movie, Harry? You’re doing too much in your life, it should be a Ken Burns miniseries.”

“We’ve come much closer in the last 30 years,” Belafonte said of her relationship with her father. “I grew up with him and the way many other people grew up with him, and it was from afar.”

Her parents are pregnant with her mother, educator and psychologist Marguerite Belafonte, as a result of tensions caused by an increasingly prominent public profile, including a survey by the FBI of Harry Belafonte. It was separated in between. “After the dust settled, they became very friendly and they were always in favor of each other.”

Shari Belafonte’s own career includes modeling, regular and recurring roles in television, working behind the cameras in films and television.

“I was initially planning on becoming a jockey, but I was a little taller and a little too heavy, so I focused on production,” laughed Belafonte. “I really didn’t expect to be in front of the camera. It was just a fluke. And when I start making money with it, I’ll stay here for a while.”

One of her early experiences was working with a television crew in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

“It’s ‘Mr. Smith goes to Washington.”I’ll hear the state’s great senator sells his members to the river to get this deal,” recalled Belafonte. . “I got caught up in an argument with my dad. Basically, what’s the difference in hell? It’s all so corrupt, I don’t know why I have to spend my time going out to vote. And he convinced me that it was my right to make a difference.”

“When he married my mother… he was very involved in Paul Robson and civil rights,” Belafonte continued. “He was really committed to getting Kennedy, Bobby Sr. and John to open his eyes and notice. Bobby in particular, he said, “It’s pretty quick, or certainly much more than John did.” I think you accepted. It’s something your administration really needs to concentrate on. He introduced Martin and his. [Luther King] He played Bobby as a kind of companion, a conduit that made them work together and focus more on civil rights. He personally funded his first march in Alabama. He and Sydney [Poitier] I brought my own money, mostly his money, mostly his money, to Alabama, to bring together students and everyone. Obviously, he was on Hoover’s FBI list. ”

The FBI illegally eavesdropped on Freedom Vehicles and voter registered drives with Belafonte, King and other activists who were planning and funding.

“It’s true that Martin was a big catalyst for what we all know, but I don’t know that it would have been a very important move if Martin hadn’t had Harry behind him,” Belafonte said. I added.

For Harry Belafonte, music and civil rights were two complementary forces adopted in combination.

“I always thought his music was a way to share his civil rights activities,” Shari Belafonte said. “His performance, his concerts, was a great way for him to convey his message… he was truly a pretty artist who brought people from other countries to perform with him. Nana Muskouri, Miriam Makeba, Savka. He has always been a global character, and activism is his first and most importantly, love.”

“The essence of being an artist makes you more human,” Belafonte regretted. This is a concept rooted in the biological relationship between human cognition and artistic participation.

Later in his career, Harry Belafonte writes and performs one of the greatest songs of all time, “We Are The World,” to raise funds for the rescue of hunger in Ethiopia. He organized dozens of fellow artists.

“He said, ‘I’m meeting Ken Kragen for lunch and dinner. I want you to come with me,” Shari Belafonte recalled. “I was sitting between him and Ken and Ken said, ‘What’s wrong, what do you have?” Harry said, ‘I had this idea of ​​bringing together all these musicians. I think the best time to do that is around the Oscars and the Grammys.” And he looks at me and says, “Please write this down”… so he’s. began to name the name… he said, “I put them all in the same room, we sing a common song, raise awareness and money for Africa.” I said that.

“When he was saying this, I said in my head, so do your best, Harry! Are you putting Madonna and Barblastri Sand in the same room? I don’t think that will happen. … And of course, it became “we are the world” and everyone appeared. The rest is history. ”

A few years ago, Belafonte asked her father if he felt that the social situation in the United States had worsened in the 1960s.

“He definitely said, I think over the last few years he’s been disappointed just because he felt, ‘I’ve been working so hard for so many years.’ ”

“There were a few things I think he’s shifted a bit,” Belafonte said in regards to his father’s political views. “I know he was very friendly with Fidel Castro, and he thought Fidel was certainly much better. [Fulgencio] Batista… But over the year – the last time we went to Cuba, 15 years ago, when he was doing “Sing Your Song”, he was going to talk to Fidel at the end. So he asked me to come and shoot, because I was also behind the camera.

“I’ve been looking at Cuba for 40 years, and it was very devastated and obviously still alive in the past, but now it’s still quite devastated. “I asked this question I also raised it to Fidel and the cabinet members who were there at this meeting,” Belafonte continued. “I understood the idea that everyone was in the doll, so everyone had the opportunity, everyone was equal, but now everyone is happy. This lush green and beautiful There’s all the country, there’s no real agriculture. We were driving, but “Why are you still trying to get pineapple from Florida?” … Basically, Fidel said, “You “We know, people are satisfied and don’t feel like they have to work,” he confessed. I think it was a disappointment for Harry and Fidel that it didn’t work out the way they liked it. ”

“He was very friendly with Bobby, John and Martin – of course he was best friend with Martin – to see John get shot, Bobby gets shot, Martin gets shot, that’s to you We have to do something,” Belafonte added. “I don’t think I’ve changed his opinion. He made him realize that everyone is vulnerable and that you need to focus on what you want to achieve.”

Do today’s artists, especially black artists, live in Harry’s legacy?

“I want to believe that they are doing what they can to not only focus on bringing about change in their pockets, but to make a difference in the world,” Belafonte said.