|
Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World (1994)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
|
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers (1997)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Here's to Life! (2000)
Character: Duncan Cox
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.
|
|
|
The Red Shoes (1990)
Character: N/A
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.
|
|
|
|
Proud (2004)
Character: Lorenzo DuFau
The true story of the only African-American crew to take a Navy warship into combat in World War II.
|
|
|
Kongi's Harvest (1970)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
|
The Peace! (2005)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003)
Character: Himself
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.
|
|
|
|
|
The History Makers: Success (2005)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
|
The Tuskegee Airmen: They Fought Two Wars (2003)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
|
Lincoln (1992)
Character: Frederick Douglas (voice)
Famous actors read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hands of Inge (1962)
Character: Narrator (voice)
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.
|
|
|
Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco - The Fillmore (2001)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood (1998)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
|
Unstoppable (2005)
Character: Self
An interview/overview on the influential careers of Gordon Parks, Ossie Davis, and Melvin Van Peebles.
|
|
|
|
Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood (1984)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker (2003)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
The Android Affair (1995)
Character: Dr. Winston
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freedom Man (1979)
Character: Benjamin Banneker
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!
|
|
|
The Ernest Green Story (1993)
Character: Grandfather
Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.
|
|
|
Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1981)
Character: Chuffy Russell
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.
|
|
|
John Brown's Raid (1960)
Character: Dangerfield Newby
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.
|
|
|
The House of God (1984)
Character: Dr. Sanders
Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.
|
|
|
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003)
Character: N/A
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.
|
|
|
Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
|
The Unfinished Journey (1999)
Character: Narrator (voice)
A short about American life and history produced for the millennium New Year's Eve celebration.
|
|
|
|
|
Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid (1977)
Character: Dr. Fredericks
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.
|
|
|
Teacher, Teacher (1969)
Character: Charles Carter
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.
|
|
|
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (1999)
Character: Caretaker
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.
|
|
|
The Legend of the Candy Cane (2001)
Character: Julius (voice)
The night a mysterious stranger rode into the lonely prairie town of West Sage, no one realized their lives would never be the same.
|
|
|
The Outsider (1967)
Character: Lt. Wagner
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.
|
|
|
Shock Treatment (1964)
Character: Capshaw
A private investigator endures the rigors of an insane asylum in order to locate $1 million in stolen loot.
|
|
|
The Stand (1994)
Character: Judge Richard Farris
After a deadly plague kills most of the world's population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a malevolent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.
|
|
|
The Tenth Level (1976)
Character: Reed
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."
|
|
|
Bubba Ho-tep (2002)
Character: John F. "Jack" Kennedy
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.
|
|
|
I'm Not Rappaport (1996)
Character: Midge Carter
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'.
|
|
|
The Sheriff (1971)
Character: James Lucas
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.
|
|
|
A Vow to Cherish (1999)
Character: Alexander Billman
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.
|
|
|
Jungle Fever (1991)
Character: Reverend Purify
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.
|
|
|
No Way Out (1950)
Character: John Brooks (uncredited)
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.
|
|
|
Malcolm X (1992)
Character: Eulogy Performer (voice)
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.
|
|
|
The Secret Path (1999)
Character: Too Tall
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.
|
|
|
She Hate Me (2004)
Character: Judge Buchanan
Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
|
|
|
Feast of All Saints (2001)
Character: Jean-Jacques
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.
|
|
|
4 Little Girls (1997)
Character: Self - Actor and Playwright
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.
|
|
|
Gone Are the Days! (1963)
Character: Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson
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.
|
|
|
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022)
Character: Self (archive footage)
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.
|
|
|
Gladiator (1992)
Character: Noah
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.
|
|
|
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks (2004)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
All God's Children (1980)
Character: Blaine Whitfield
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.
|
|
|
Let's Do It Again (1975)
Character: Elder Johnson
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.
|
|
|
Death of a Prophet (1981)
Character: N/A
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.
|
|
|
Wattstax (1973)
Character: Self (uncredited)
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.
|
|
|
Goin' Back to T-Town (1993)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
Finding Buck McHenry (2000)
Character: Buck McHenry
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.
|
|
|
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand (1999)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
Night Gallery (1969)
Character: Osmond Portifoy
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.
|
|
|
Sesame Street: Sleepytime Songs & Stories (1986)
Character: Anansi the Spider (Sleepytime Songs and Stories) (voice)
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.
|
|
|
Miss Evers' Boys (1997)
Character: Mr. Evers
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.
|
|
|
School Daze (1988)
Character: Coach Odom
Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.
|
|
|
Grumpy Old Men (1993)
Character: Chuck
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.
|
|
|
Doctor Dolittle (1998)
Character: Archer Dolittle
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!
|
|
|
Deacons for Defense (2003)
Character: Reverend 'Rev' Gregory
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."
|
|
|
Fourteen Hours (1951)
Character: Cab Driver (uncredited)
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.
|
|
|
Dinosaur (2000)
Character: Yar (voice)
An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.
|
|
|
Cop & ½ (1993)
Character: Detective in Squad Room
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.
|
|
|
Sam Whiskey (1969)
Character: Jed Hooker
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.
|
|
|
Get on the Bus (1996)
Character: Jeremiah
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.
|
|
|
Baadasssss! (2004)
Character: Granddad
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.
|
|
|
Countdown at Kusini (1976)
Character: Ernest Motapo
An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa.
|
|
|
Harry & Son (1984)
Character: Raymond
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.
|
|
|
A Man Called Adam (1966)
Character: Nelson Davis
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
|
|
|
Malcolm X (1972)
Character: Eulogy (voice)
James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.
|
|
|
The Hill (1965)
Character: Jacko King
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.
|
|
|
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)
Character: Self
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.
|
|
|
Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Character: Marshall
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.
|
|
|
The Cardinal (1963)
Character: Father Gillis
A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
|
|
|
12 Angry Men (1997)
Character: Juror 2
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.
|
|
|
The Soul Collector (1999)
Character: Mordecai
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Slaves (1969)
Character: Luke
A Kentucky slave (Davis) fights for his freedom from a cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins him and the other slaves in their revolt.
|
|
|
Freedom Road (1979)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
The Fall (1969)
Character: N/A
"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.
|
|
|
The Scalphunters (1968)
Character: Joseph Lee
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Character: Da Mayor
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.
|
|
|
Avenging Angel (1985)
Character: Capt. Harry Moradian
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...
|
|
|
Black Liberation (1967)
Character: Narrator
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.
|
|
|
The Client (1994)
Character: Harry Roosevelt
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.
|
|
|
Hot Stuff (1979)
Character: Captain John Geiberger
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.
|
|
