Rapper RZA as a chess whiz; Angela Davis as an educator; Laurence Fishburne as a surrogate father to fatherless children.

These are some of the surprising mental images one comes away with after viewing HBO’s superb documentary “The Black List: Volume Two,” premiering at 8 p. m. Thursday on HBO.

Like its predecessor, which debuted in August and also airs Thursday, “Volume Two” interviews 15 prominent African-Americans ranging from RZA, actor Fishburne and filmmaker Tyler Perry to activist Davis, politician Deval Patrick and author/ cleric T. D. Jakes about the black experience in America. The interviews, conducted by journalist Elvis Mitchell and presented in a direct-to-camera style, show the subjects talking about their life experiences and how they shaped them and their work.

It’s an intimate and powerful set of portraits that provides a window into the characters of these high achievers, and they’re in part the brainchild of filmmaker and photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

“We started this three years ago, Elvis and I,” Greenfield-Sanders says, “and that was before Obama was running, before anyone even thought of him, and it just felt like the right thing to do. I was interested in it, and Elvis was excited to do it, and here we are at this moment where all of a sudden we have probably the most interesting film out there on the black experience in the 21st century.

“And I think it’s about accomplishment. For me, when I started this project, I felt that I knew a lot of African-Americans who were extraordinarily talented . . . and I thought that experience that I have with them, that sense of how brilliant they are, comes through to a lot of people. So I thought that was a good reason to do this project.”

One of the most notable segments is on actor/filmmaker Perry, who in the film wears his rough childhood in New Orleans like a badge of honor, saying, “I feel sorry for people who’ve never had anything happen to them in their childhood.”

“It’s an amazing remark,” Greenfield-Sanders observes, “because, of course, you always want this idyllic childhood. . . . And he kind of hammers that in. But what I think is so interesting about his point is that no matter what happens to you, there are ways to kind to overcome it somehow or use it in your life. So it’s a very smart, smart remark.

“I think he got particularly excited when he talked about going with his mother to places, and this woman who stabs her husband every week. And you could see he was kind of lively at that point. He got very excited about those memories.”

Davis, the former Black Panther who sported an Afro and was once on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, comes off here as professorial, and that’s probably because she’s now the director of feminist studies at UCSanta Cruz.

“When you grew up in the ’60s, she was one of the great symbols of the ’60s,” Greenfield-Sanders says. “So Angela Davis was somebody I was fascinated with, and she was as great as I thought she’d be. Beyond smart and still dedicated to some very progressive ideas. You know, she’s involved with prison reform now and all kinds of things. She’s also so beautiful. There’s a sort of stature she has as well. . . . And doesn’t she come across sweet as well? There’s a kind of a charm there, a kind of a giggly charm that I like very much.”

RZA, the hip-hop artist, producer and leader of Wu-Tang Clan, talks about how hip-hop helped him escape his tough upbringing in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, N. Y.

“I am in love with RZA,” Greenfield-Sanders says. “RZA is remarkable in so many ways, and I think part of it is this real feeling you get from him of coming from poverty and coming from very, very difficult circumstances, and then finding, really through chess, who he was and finding out similarities in other cultures, oppression in other cultures as well as in the black culture. I think he’s so extraordinary and wonderful to look at.”

An amusing story comes from Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, who came from humble beginnings in Chicago’s crime-ridden South Side. He recalls how when his kindergarten-age daughter was asked in school to describe the four seasons, she wrote about driving up to the upscale hotel in Washington, D. C.

“When he said that, when we were taping him, I just smiled so big because I knew that it would work,” Greenfield-Sanders says, “It was such a wonderful, wonderful story. He’s remarkable. I’m very impressed with him, and he’s very easy to talk to, very down to earth and clearly brilliant.”

Fishburne talks about his relationship with his distant father and how his role as the strong paternal figure in the 1991 Spike Lee drama “Boyz N the Hood” made him a de facto father to a generation of fatherless children.

“Elvis and Fishburne are good friends, so we were able to get him through Elvis,” Greenfield-Sanders explains.

“This is a guy who has been an actor his whole life; he’s been an actor since he was 10. And I think when he said that, I think Elvis got something out of him that he wouldn’t have said to anybody else. It was a very poignant moment, I thought.”