About the Film
Louise Anderson (1921-1994), the gifted African American storyteller who played Dark Sally in Tom Davenport's children's classic Ashpet: An American Cinderella, tells her family stories and folk tales, and recites poetry in this film taped in Jacksonville, North Carolina, in the last years of her life. She presents a powerful portrait of courage, dignity, and lively humor in the face of serious illness. Her sisters Evelyn Anderson and Dorothy McLeod join Louise in recalling their experiences growing up in the South, working in restaurants and as domestics in white households, and struggling for civil rights in the early 1960s. Together they present a warm and engaging picture of an unsung generation of Southern black women.
When My Work Is Over is packaged on DVD with Tom Davenport's dramatic film Ashpet: An American Cinderella, in which Ms. Anderson starred as the fairy godmother figure Dark Sally. Her work in Ashpet has been described as "brilliant" and the film received major film festival awards including a first place at the Houston International Film Festival and "best feature film" at Rosebud Film Festival in Washington, DC.
