Ossie Davis
Also Known As: Ozzie Davis, Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis, Raiford Chatman Davis
Biography: Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ossie Davis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Cogdell, Georgia, USA
Birthday: December 17, 1917
Deathday: February 04, 2005
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Do the Right Thing
Overview: Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-06-14
Popularity:
Doctor Dolittle
Overview: A successful physician and devoted family man, John Dolittle seems to have the world by the tail, until a long suppressed talent he possessed as a child, the ability to communicate with animals is suddenly reawakened with a vengeance! Now every creature within squawking distance wants the good doctor's advice, unleashing an outrageous chain of events that turns his world upside down!
Genres: Comedy Family Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-06-26
Popularity:
Jungle Fever
Overview: A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-06-07
Popularity:
Dinosaur
Overview: An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.
Genres: Animation Family Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-05-19
Popularity:
Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco - The Fillmore
Overview: From the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning PBS series NEIGHBORHOODS: THE HIDDEN CITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO comes the remarkable story of San Francisco's Fillmore District. Remembered today mainly for its rock & roll auditorium, the Fillmore District is one of the great cautionary tales of American urban life. From the wholesale removal of Japanese Americans during World War II, to the jazz heyday of the 1950s, to the bulldozers of urban renewal, the Fillmore District has seen its share of drama.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-06-11
Popularity:
Goin' Back to T-Town
Overview: Goin’ Back to T-Town tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that prospered during the 1920s and 30s despite rampant and hostile segregation. Torn apart in 1921 by one of the worst racially-motivated massacres in the nation’s history, the neighborhood rose from the ashes, and by 1936 boasted the largest concentration of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., known as “Black Wall Street.” Ironically, it could not survive the progressive policies of integration and urban renewal of the 1960s. Told through the memories of those who lived through the events, the film is a bittersweet celebration of small-town life and the resilience of a community’s spirit.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-03-01
Popularity:
Joe Versus the Volcano
Overview: Hypochondriac Joe Banks finds out he has six months to live, quits his dead end job, musters the courage to ask his co-worker out on a date, and is then hired to jump into a volcano by a mysterious visitor.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-03-09
Popularity:
Grumpy Old Men
Overview: For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nearby, their bad blood erupts into a high-stakes rivalry full of naughty jokes and adolescent hijinks.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-12-25
Popularity:
The Hill
Overview: North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-06-17
Popularity:
Sam Whiskey
Overview: A widow hires an ex-gambler to retrieve gold bars from a sunken river boat in Colorado and discreetly return them to the Federal Mint, from where they had been stolen by her dead husband.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-04-01
Popularity:
The Scalphunters
Overview: Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-02-29
Popularity:
12 Angry Men
Overview: During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the guilty verdict handed down by the others as a result of their preconceptions and prejudices.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-08-17
Popularity:
Bubba Ho-tep
Overview: Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death," then missed his chance to switch back. He must team up with JFK and fight an ancient Egyptian mummy for the souls of their fellow residents.
Genres: Comedy Horror Thriller Mystery Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-06-09
Popularity:
Baadasssss!
Overview: Director Mario Van Peebles chronicles the complicated production of his father Melvin's classic 1971 film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Playing his father in the film, Van Peebles offers an unapologetic account of Melvin's brash and sometimes deceptive conduct on the set of the film, including questionable antics like writing bad checks, tricking a local fire department and allowing his son, Mario, to shoot racy sex scenes at the age of 11.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-05-28
Popularity:
Let's Do It Again
Overview: Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-10-11
Popularity:
I'm Not Rappaport
Overview: Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still the super of an apartment house. When he is threatened with retirement, Nat battles on his behalf. Nat also takes on his daughter, a drug dealer, and a mugger in this appealing version of a really 'odd couple'.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-12-24
Popularity:
Avenging Angel
Overview: Molly Stewart, now a law student at UCLA, is determined to leave her prostitute past behind. After learning that the detective who helped save her life has been murdered, she quickly finds herself pitted against an underworld of mob figures who might be more than she's bargained for...
Genres: Action Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-11
Popularity:
Get on the Bus
Overview: Several Black men take a cross-country bus trip to attend the Million Man March in Washington, DC in 1995. On the bus are an eclectic set of characters including a laid-off aircraft worker, a man whose at-risk son is handcuffed to him, a black Republican, a former gangsta, a Hollywood actor, a cop who is of mixed racial background, and a white bus driver. All make the trek discussing issues surrounding the march, including manhood, religion, politics, and race.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-10-16
Popularity:
The Secret Path
Overview: 14-year-old Jo Ann Foley lives in squalor in a rural Southern community during World War II. Abused by her bootlegging grandfather Hank, Jo Ann has, like her mother Marie, been forced into a life of prostitution. Periodically escaping her miserable existence, Jo Ann finds comfort, security, and genuine love with a poor but proud African American couple: Honey and Too Tall.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-04-02
Popularity:
Harry & Son
Overview: Widower Harry Keach is a construction worker who was raised to appreciate the importance of working for a living. He takes a dim view of his sensitive son Howard's lackadaisical lifestyle and has a strained relationship with his daughter Nina as he does not approve of her husband. When Harry is fired from his job, his life changes drastically as he is made to focus on the relationships around him.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-03-02
Popularity:
Feast of All Saints
Overview: Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught between the world of white privilege and black oppression.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-11-11
Popularity:
The House of God
Overview: Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-01
Popularity:
Hot Stuff
Overview: When a police department's burglary task force is facing the possibility of being shut down because of their low conviction rate decides to try a new approach to apprehending their targets. They take over a pawn shop where thieves go to unload their merchandise. They record them as they bring stuff in and get them to tell them where they got it. Eventually they're threatened by the mob.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-08-10
Popularity:
Finding Buck McHenry
Overview: Jason Ross is an 11-year-old boy whose love for baseball exceeds his talent for the game. When cut from his little league team, Jason's undefeatable spirit leads him to try and create an expansion team. In searching for a new coach, Jason comes to believe that Mack Henry, the custodian at his school, is really Buck McHenry, the legendary pitcher from the old Negro Baseball Leagues. While Mack begins to coach this small rag-tag team, Jason and his friends set out to prove his true identity.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-04-16
Popularity:
Malcolm X
Overview: A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-11-18
Popularity:
Here's to Life!
Overview: Owen is the head administrator of an old age home in Washington. One day, a resident discovers he is cheating on his taxes, and orders that Owen takes him and two others on a road trip to British Columbia. While there, they try to break him from his cynical, businessman mold by setting him up with a waitress, among other things.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-09-18
Popularity:
The Peace!
Overview: Amid an escalating war in Iraq, rising terror levels and the threat of nuclear attack, a growing body of intellectuals, religious leaders and community organizers are getting tough with their questions about peace -- and that's no oxymoron. To shed light on the answers, filmmakers Gabriele Zamparini and Lorenzo Meccoli record a variety of speakers, including Noam Chomsky, Desmond Tutu, Scott Ritter, Pete Seeger, Howard Zinn and Gore Vidal.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-09-20
Popularity:
Miss Evers' Boys
Overview: The true story of the US Government's 1932 Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiments, in which a group of black test subjects were allowed to die, despite a cure having been developed.
Genres: Drama History TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-02-22
Popularity:
John Brown's Raid
Overview: White abolitionist John Brown and twenty of his men attempt to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Based on true events.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-10-25
Popularity:
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
Overview: Spike Lee's filmmaking career is examined in this partial making-of for the film 25th Hour (2002). Interviews with cast members from this film and his past successes give us an idea what kind of dedicated person he truly is.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-05-20
Popularity:
The Red Shoes
Overview: In this animated contemporary interpretation of a Hans Christian Andersen morality tale, a pair of magic slippers help two young African-American girls learn the value of friendship after they are divided by selfishness and jealousy.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-02-07
Popularity:
Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid
Overview: A young ghetto kid despairs of ever getting out of that environment and making something of himself, until one day he gets a job as an assistant in a veterinarian's office, and working with all the animals begins to affect his outlook on life.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-09-12
Popularity:
A Man Called Adam
Overview: A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-03-16
Popularity:
The Tuskegee Airmen: They Fought Two Wars
Overview: A documentary filmed at Moton Field in Tuskegee Alabama, home to the airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron. They were the first African American fighter pilots trained to fly in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Nearly 1,000 pilots trained in Tuskegee and about half of those saw combat, destroying or damaging about 400 enemy aircraft, but found themselves fighting two wars-- the one against fascism abroad, and the one against racism at home.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-02-28
Popularity:
Teacher, Teacher
Overview: Hamilton Cade is an alcoholic teacher striving to put his life back together. He accepts a job tutoring an "exceptional child" only to find that young Freddie is mentally retarded. A black man who works for Freddie's father also becomes interested in teaching the child and becomes a second role model for him.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-02-05
Popularity:
Gone Are the Days!
Overview: A young, idealistic man returns home to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. With him, he brings his fiance, Lutiebelle, in hopes of convincing the plantation owner that she is really his cousin in order to secure the family inheritance. To aid in the comic complications that follow are his family members Missy and Gitlow, and the plantation owners endearing (but ineffectual) son Charlie.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-08-09
Popularity:
The Tenth Level
Overview: Inspired by the Stanley Milgram obedience research, this TV movie chronicles a psychology professor's study to determine why people, such as the Nazis, were willing to "just follow orders" and do horrible things to others. Professor Stephen Turner leads students to believe that they are applying increasingly painful electric shocks to other subjects when they fail to perform a task correctly, and is alarmed to see how much pain the students can be convinced to inflict "in the name of science."
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-08-26
Popularity:
Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class
Overview: The Black middle class, torn between white goals and Black needs, are examined by producers William Greaves and William Branch in a 90-minute NET Journal documentary.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-02
Popularity:
The Soul Collector
Overview: Zachariah, makes a few mistakes and it is decided that he is to live as a human being for thirty days. Mordecai is his supervisor. Rebecca's husband died and Zachariah the soul collector, or, the angel of the death helped him to make the transition between heaven and earth. There are some complications with Rebecca's farm and Zachariah helps her out.
Genres: Romance Drama Fantasy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-10-24
Popularity:
The Cardinal
Overview: A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
Genres: Drama History War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-12-12
Popularity:
Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World
Overview: Join tennis greats John McEnroe and Billie Jean King and world leader Nelson Mandela as they pay homage to the life and work of Arthur Ashe, the sports legend who transcended his athletic gifts and grew to become one of the most inspirational celebrities to lend their name in the fight against racism and the race to find a cure for AIDS. Ashe developed the incurable illness after contracting HIV through blood transfusions.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-01-01
Popularity:
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
Overview: A short documentary about the making of Spike Lee's biopic, "Malcolm X."
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-02-08
Popularity:
Unstoppable
Overview: An interview/overview on the influential careers of Gordon Parks, Ossie Davis, and Melvin Van Peebles.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-02-13
Popularity:
School Daze
Overview: Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.
Genres: Comedy Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-02-12
Popularity:
The Android Affair
Overview: Karen Garrett, a promising young doctor, is assigned to perform a difficult operation on Teach, an advanced android who has never "blanked" (had his memory erased.) She soon realizes that Teach is much more than an assignment, and is drawn to his desire for a very human life. When Karen takes Teach into the outside world, they soon discover that there is something far more mysterious and dangerous than a medical experiment planned for them.
Genres: Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-04-12
Popularity:
Countdown at Kusini
Overview: An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-04-16
Popularity:
Deacons for Defense
Overview: Inspired by a true story, this drama is set in 1965, not long after passage of the Civil Rights Act. Despite the Act, the African-American citizens of Bogalusa are still treated like third-class citizens, their fundamental rights as human beings persistently trampled by the white power structure, in general, and the local branch of the KKK. The story follows the formation of local black men, particularly ex-war veterans who after the struggles become too overbearing organizes the group, "Deacons for defense", an all-black defense group dedicated to patrolling the black section of town and protecting its residents from the more violent aspects of "white backlash."
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-01-01
Popularity:
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
Overview: An intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations. This definitive documentary honors Armstrong's legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-10-27
Popularity:
Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
Overview: A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-02-07
Popularity:
Slaves
Overview: A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-07-02
Popularity:
Fourteen Hours
Overview: A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-04-01
Popularity:
No Way Out
Overview: Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
Genres: Drama Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-08-16
Popularity:
Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist
Overview: A look at the confluence of the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. It begins in Harlem, measures the impact of Paul Robeson and the campaign to bring him down, looks at the role of HUAC, J. Edgar Hoover and of journalists such as Ed Sullivan, and ends with a tribute to Canada Lee. Throughout are interviews with men and women who were there, including Dick Campbell of the Rose McLendon Players and Fredrick O'Neal of the American Negro Theatre. In the 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communism was one more tool to maintain Jim Crow and to keep down African-Americans.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Popularity:
The Outsider
Overview: Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.
Genres: Drama Crime TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-11-21
Popularity:
4 Little Girls
Overview: On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-07-09
Popularity:
Malcolm X
Overview: James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-05-24
Popularity:
The Fall
Overview: "The Fall" depicts certain scenes in New York City between October 1967 and March 1968, shot by the independent filmmaker, Peter Whitehead. It is a very personal documentary, and Whitehead appears in a large number of scenes, and we hear his lengthy ruminations on the state of the United States and the war in Vietnam.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-01-15
Popularity:
The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
Overview: Promotional film depicting the production and Cannes premiere of the Sidney Lumet film "The Hill."
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-07-01
Popularity:
The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
Overview: Promotional film depicting the production and Cannes premiere of the Sidney Lumet film "The Hill."
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-07-01
Popularity:
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
Overview: The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-11-03
Popularity:
Tyler Texas Black Film Collection
Overview: "Tyler Texas Black Film Collection" (1985) is a promotional film hosted by Ossie Davis.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-08
Popularity:
All God's Children
Overview: Big city judge Parke Denison is involved in a forced busing dispute at the climax of his long career. The friendship between two families -- one white, one black -- and their sons, who are buddies, provides the microcosm of this major social issue that has been argued for several decades.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-04-28
Popularity:
Freedom Road
Overview: Ex-slave and former Union soldier Gideon Jackson represents other ex-slaves at the constitutional convention, and is soon elected to the U.S. Senate despite opposition from white landowners, law enforcement and the KKK. He unites with sharecropper Abner Lait, who helps Jackson unite ex-slaves and white tenant farmers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-10-29
Popularity:
Freedom Man
Overview: The story of Benjamin Banneker, the early American patriot whose achievements rival those of Benjamin Franklin!! Risking his life, working with the Underground Railroad to elude vicious slave catchers!
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-01-01
Popularity:
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
Overview: Beah: A Black Woman Speaks is a 2003 documentary about the life of Academy Award nominated actress Beah Richards. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, it won the Documentary Award at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival in 2003.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-02-25
Popularity:
The Ernest Green Story
Overview: Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-01-17
Popularity:
Gladiator
Overview: Tommy Riley has moved with his dad to Chicago from a 'nice place'. He keeps to himself, goes to school. However, after a street fight he is noticed and quickly falls into the world of illegal underground boxing - where punches can kill.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-03-06
Popularity:
Black Liberation
Overview: Produced in collaboration with Malcolm X and narrated by Ossie Davis, this call to arms layers revolutionary text from multiple sources with gritty, shot-on-the-streets-of-New York footage of African-American struggle. A forgotten masterpiece from radical filmmaker, theorist and founder of Cinéma Éngagé, Édouard de Laurot.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-01-01
Popularity:
Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
Overview: In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in the United States that resulted in the murder of local slave owners and their families, the eventual execution of 55 rebels and the retribution lynching of more than 200 innocent slaves. Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property examines how the story of Turner’s revolt has been interpreted throughout history and how it continues to raise new questions about the nature of terrorism and other forms of violent resistance to oppression. The film adopts an innovative structure by interspersing documentary footage and interviews with dramatizations of these different versions of Turner’s story. A unique collaboration between MacArthur Genius Award feature director Charles Burnett, acclaimed historian of slavery Kenneth S. Greenberg and Academy Award-nominated documentary producer Frank Christopher, Nat Turner is a compelling look at one of history’s most mysterious figures.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-02-16
Popularity:
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve
Overview: Enchanting holiday tale of a young runaway who has broken into an old movie palace, looking for shelter on a snow-filled Christmas Eve. Closed for decades, the building is filled with countless discarded artifacts from the past. The girl is discovered by the old caretaker, who uses the ghosts and spirits that inhabit this long-abandoned world to turn her life around.
Genres: Fantasy Music TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-12-14
Popularity:
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
Overview: When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors were transcribed and preserved by the Library of Congress. These first-person anecdotes, ranging from the brutal to the bittersweet, have been brought to vivid life in this unique HBO documentary special, featuring the on-camera voices of over a dozen top African-American actors.
Genres: History Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-02-10
Popularity:
A Vow to Cherish
Overview: John and Ellen have a picture-perfect life: while John runs a successful business, Ellen works as a schoolteacher, and they've raised two beautiful children. But that picture is shattered when Ellen is diagnosed with a devastating disease. The couple's relationship faces its hardest test yet, and before long, John's business starts to suffer and his eye begins to wander after he finds a lovely new jogging partner.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-01-01
Popularity:
Night Gallery
Overview: This anthology telefilm aired on NBC on November 8, 1969, and tells three strange tales: "The Cemetery," directed by Boris Sagal; "Eyes," directed by Steven Spielberg; and "The Escape Route," directed by Barry Shear. This film also served as a backdoor pilot for the TV series of the same name, which premiered on December 16, 1970.
Genres: TV Movie Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-11-08
Popularity:
The Sheriff
Overview: A rape case opens racial divisions in a small town. A black sheriff and his white deputy investigate allegations that a wealthy white businessman raped a black college student.
Genres: TV Movie Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-03-30
Popularity:
Death of a Prophet
Overview: After breaking ties with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X became a man marked for death...and it was just a matter of time before his enemies closed in. Despite death threats and intimidation, Malcolm marched on - continuing to spread the word of equality and brotherhood right up until the moment of his brutal and untimely assassination. Highlighted by newsreel footage and interviews, this is the story of the last twenty-four hours of Malcolm X. Featuring the music of jazz percussionist Max Roach.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-01-01
Popularity:
Theater Talk: 'A Raisin in the Sun'
Overview: Panel discussion about the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansbury's "A Raisin in the Sun."
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-06-14
Popularity:
The Client
Overview: A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-07-20
Popularity:
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
Overview: Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers celebrates the ground-breaking career of the first-ever African-American to join the major leagues, talented athlete Jackie Robinson. The video commemorates the 50th anniversary of Robinson's first major league game day. A tender tribute to the baseball legend, the program combines interviews with Robinson's family and friends, classic sports footage, newsreel clips, and black-and-white photographs from Robinson's life and stellar career.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-06-23
Popularity:
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Overview: This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-10-28
Popularity:
The History Makers: Success
Overview: Ossie Davis, Terry McMillan, Horace Julian Bond, Isaac Hayes, Dionne Warwick and many others share their inspiring stories of success in the first installment of this series about African-American history makers, including civil rights leaders, actors and authors. A good education, dedication to work, dogged determination and the courage to take risks figure prominently in these remarkable success stories told by notable African Americans.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-02-15
Popularity:
Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Overview: The story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the legendary pitcher, from his barnstorming days in the 1920s, hoping to break into organized "negro" baseball, to his emergence at age 43 in the major leagues with the Cleveland Indians the year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-05-31
Popularity:
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
Overview: Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-04-19
Popularity:
Proud
Overview: The true story of the only African-American crew to take a Navy warship into combat in World War II.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-07-02
Popularity:
Malcolm X: Make It Plain
Overview: Narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, this trenchant, eye-opening doc traces the radical civil rights leader’s life from his tumultuous childhood, through his rise in the ranks of the Nation of Islam, to his 1965 assassination.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-01-26
Popularity:
The Legend of the Candy Cane
Overview: The night a mysterious stranger rode into the lonely prairie town of West Sage, no one realized their lives would never be the same.
Genres: Animation TV Movie Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-06-01
Popularity:
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
Overview: A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-01-01
Popularity:
Sesame Street: Sleepytime Songs & Stories
Overview: Bedtime Stories & Songs is a 1986 Sesame Street direct-to-video compilation, released on VHS as part of the My Sesame Street Home Video label. The video was re-released with different segments under the new title of Sleepytime Songs & Stories in 1996, and on DVD in 2005. The framing story involves Big Bird speaking to the audience, offering advice on the best ways to fall asleep. A Honker and her baby stop by, and Telly arrives for a sleepover with heaps of cuddly toys that he couldn't sleep without. Buster the Horse demonstrates how to fall asleep standing up and Susan comments from her apartment window.
Genres: Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-01-01
Popularity:
Hands of Inge
Overview: The work of sculptor Inge Hardison is the subject of this beautiful short portrait of an artist. Hardison is perhaps best known for "Negro Giants in History," her important series of busts made during the early 1960s. Hands of Inge was edited by Hortense "Tee" Beveridge, a pioneer in her field who worked in the commercial industry and on independent, non-commercial films such as Amiri Baraka's 1968 film "The New-Ark". In the mid-1950s Beveridge became the first Black woman to gain admission to Local 771, the motion picture editors union.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-01-01
Popularity:
She Hate Me
Overview: Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-07-30
Popularity:
Kongi's Harvest
Overview: An African dictator (Wole Soyinka) needs to convince the former king (Rashidi Onikoyi) to legitimize his reign by offering him the ceremonial yam at the upcoming harvest festival.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-05-01
Popularity:
Shock Treatment
Overview: A private investigator endures the rigors of an insane asylum in order to locate $1 million in stolen loot.
Genres: Drama Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-07-22
Popularity:
The Unfinished Journey
Overview: A short about American life and history produced for the millennium New Year's Eve celebration.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-12-31
Popularity:
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
Overview: Paul Robeson: Here I Stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer, and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic champion of the rights of the poor working man, the disfranchised and people of color. He led a life in the vanguard of many movements, achieved international acclaim for his music and suffered tremendous personal sacrifice. His story is one of the great dramas of the 20th century, spanning an international canvas of social upheaval and ideological controversy.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-02-24
Popularity:
Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder
Overview: Ray investigates the murder of a judge.
Genres: Mystery TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-03-20
Popularity:
Ray Alexander: A Taste For Justice
Overview: Ray investigates the murder of a psychiatrist.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-05-13
Popularity:
Cop & ½
Overview: When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, a hardboiled cop is forced to take his new partner seriously as they race the clock to bring the bad guys to justice.
Genres: Action Comedy Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-04-02
Popularity:
Lincoln
Overview: Famous actors read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-12-26
Popularity:
Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
Overview: Louis Gossett Jr. takes viewers through a special documentary celebration of the groundbreaking achievements of African-American performers and their contributions to Hollywood filmmaking. Spectacular film clips, rare behind-the-scenes footage, archival photographs and fascinating interviews chronicle nearly a century of tribulation and triumph. Gazing at the outstanding range of African-American stars on today's movie screens, it is hard to imagine a time when there were no black leading men or women, a time when all of the roles available for people of color were considerably less heroic than they are now. Social progress came in small steps on the silver screen, film by film, for equal visibility and dignity on the silver screen; now it is possible to honor their struggles, their talent and their sacrifices.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-02-10
Popularity: