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Heartbreaking and intelligent, SOUNDER celebrates a family's dedication to each other through whatever travails befall them. In 1930s Louisiana, Nathan and Rebecca Morgan (Winfield and Tyson) are sharecroppers raising their three children and their dog, Sounder, as best they can in the poverty of the Depression. Nathan does the farming and hunts for game to feed his family. Rebecca takes in washing, and the trio of children take an equal part in doing the other tasks. Not much game is to be had, however, and when Nathan is arrested for stealing a ham, the family is torn apart. Rebecca and the children now begin a backbreaking schedule as they strive to work the land, make their quota, and keep body and soul together. Adapted from a slim book that won the 1970 Newberry Award for children's literature, SOUNDER is one of the truest examples of a "family film" ever made and a triumph for all concerned. A sequel, SOUNDER, PART 2, followed in 1976, with Harold Sylvester and Ebony Wright taking over the roles played here by Winfield and Tyson.