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Da Capo (1985)
Character: Singing prisoner
Interwoven with scenes that are meant to grab attention by their stunning composition, this biographical look at Finland's violinist Arto Arsi is not so much a narration of his childhood and early years, as an attempt to artistically show what was happening inside his psyche during that time. Literally sold to a master teacher, Sergei Rippas (Tarmo Manni) by his mother when he was still a child, the violin prodigy was forcefully and strictly raised to practice, practice, and perfect his technique. Once an adult, Arsi finds a way to escape the rigors of a U.S. tour and drowns his overworked self in drink, or seeks out one-night stands, or otherwise lets off steam. The tightly-wound spring that has been coiled since he was forced into his grueling training and work sessions -- shown through symbolic images -- eventually snaps in a healthy way, freeing Arsi at last to continue on, simply for the love of music.
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Burning Bridges (1990)
Character: Mamie
Fact-based story of a woman who suffered a nervous breakdown after having an extra-marital affair.
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For Love of Olivia (2001)
Character: Ida Mae Boudreau
To protect his wife's "secret", a small-town Southern lawyer in the 1960s decides to defend a young man accused of murder, all while running for Congress and encountering personal threats to his family.
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The Feminine Touch (1995)
Character: Mama
Jenny Baron is a beautiful investigative reporter swept into a deadly conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the government. When she is assigned to get the story of charismatic Presidential candidate Senator Ashton, her job is complicated by a string of political assassinations and attempts. After her lover is killed, things get personal. Jenny finds herself in possession of a computer disk that holds a list of powerful politicians marked for elimination, and the key to the massive web of death and deceit — and now she's next on the list of targets! Pursued by hitmen and hunted by police, if she survives, she may discover a truth she's not prepared to accept.
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Inmates: A Love Story (1981)
Character: Agnes
Accountant Roy is sentenced to prison because he cooked up balances. He hopes that his companions, who profited from his cheat, will help him to a revision of his judgment. Meanwhile he has to adapt to a life in jail - which works out quite well, especially when he meets the self-conscious convicted thief Jane and falls in love. He starts to woo her. But then, while working in the prison's accounting department, he discovers that the prisoners' accounts are not properly kept. The director tries to keep him in her prison as long as possible.
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The Judge and Jake Wyler (1972)
Character: Mabel Cobb
A retired lady judge runs a private detective agency with a charming ex-con as her leg man and various parolees helping in the day-to-day operation.
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Off the Mark (1987)
Character: Velma
A teenaged boy's family once hosted a Russian exchange student in their home for a year. Several years later, as adults, the two find themselves competing against each other in a Triathlon competition.
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Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
Character: Effie
A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.
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The Toy (1982)
Character: Ruby Simpson
On one of his bratty son Eric's annual visits, the plutocrat U.S. Bates takes him to his department store and offers him anything in it as a gift. Eric chooses a black janitor who has made him laugh with his antics. At first the man suffers many indignities as Eric's "toy", but gradually teaches the lonely boy what it is like to have and to be a friend.
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The Lost Man (1969)
Character: Theresa
A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle."
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Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
Character: Ruby
Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.
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Raven Hawk (1996)
Character: Dr. Helen Harris
A Native-American woman, who was framed for the murders of her parents years before, returns to her reservation to seek revenge.
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There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
Character: Cook
A charming but ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison, where he enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
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White Mama (1980)
Character: Gorilla Sydney
A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy, and the two of them form a mutually beneficial relationship: he provides her companionship and protection, and she becomes the mother he never had.
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Original Intent (1992)
Character: Lily Reid
Matthew Cameron (Jay Richardson) is a lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis despite having a seemingly perfect life with his wife, advertising executive Jessica (Candy Clark), and his young son. When he champions a homeless shelter facing eviction, his problems only deepen. Matthew faces pressure from Jessica, whose agency is representing the corporate honcho pushing the eviction, and Matthew is forced to question his values and loyalties.
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The North Avenue Irregulars (1979)
Character: Cleo
When crooks set up operations in a traditional town, a minister and a group of church ladies are willing to do anything, no matter how wacky, to get them out.
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Taking Back Our Town (2001)
Character: N/A
A true story about a concerned housewife, Pat Melancon, who tries to block Shintech, a massive Japanese petrochemical conglomerate, from building a plant in her toxic township already known as "cancer alley". Pat and a few newly recruited, fledgling activitsts face the full force of Shintech's wealth and influence peddling, which has bought the cooperation of the government from the local level all the way up to the Governor's office.
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Backfire (1988)
Character: Maxine
Mara McAndrew's marriage is falling apart. Her husband, Donnie, a Vietnam veteran, suffers troubling flashbacks about the war, leaving him unresponsive to her needs. Mara wants out, but she also wants Donnie's money. When Mara meets a mysterious stranger, Reed, at a local bar, she believes she has found the right person to help her out of her predicament. But Mara worries that Donnie's sister, Jill, is on to her.
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The World's Greatest Athlete (1973)
Character: Native Woman
Stuck with a feeble sports department, college coach Sam Archer (John Amos) faces the ax unless he can reverse the school's athletic fortunes. An African vacation with his assistant (Tim Conway) answers Archer's prayers when he spots the athletically gifted Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent). Sam counts on Nanu's remarkable abilities to put the team back on the winning track. This upbeat farce boasts an impressive cast of comedians.
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Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Character: Florence Sparrow
After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.
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When You Remember Me (1990)
Character: Nurse Blandings
Fact-based story of Mike Mills, a teen with muscular dystrophy, who is placed in a state nursing home by his destitute single mother. There he must contend with being the only young person in the clinic and with an abusive head nurse.
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Big Jake (1971)
Character: Delilah
An aging Texas cattle man who has outlived his time swings into action when outlaws kidnap his grandson.
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Sunsplit (1997)
Character: N/A
As the California sun shines down from an Los Angeles sky, three unique individuals are about to collide in the most unexpected ways imaginable. Lyle is a psychotic serial killer who has formed a dangerous fixation on single mother and expert car thief Tess. As Lyle prepares to make his deadly move, widowed Greek Restaurant owner Shandor finds himself forced to take matters into his own hands when the law fails to protect and serve as promised.
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Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
Character: Mama Holiday
Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.
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Pacific Palisades (1990)
Character: Shirley
A woman from Paris, Bernadette, comes to the United States after being promised a job. When she arrives, however, she learns that she is a victim to a hoax. Unable to return to France, Bernadette looks for work while staying with her close friend Shirley, an actress looking for her big break. Their friendship is challenged when Bernadette finds herself falling in love with Shirley's boyfriend.
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House of Women (1962)
Character: Sarah
An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.
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The George McKenna Story (1988)
Character: Margaret Wright
Washington plays a school principal in a tough inner city Los Angeles high school out to rid it of drugs, gangs, low moral of teachers, and restore educational values. Based on a true story.
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Teachers (1984)
Character: Landlady
A teacher reconnects with an old student who is now an attorney representing a family who is suing the school for graduating their son who still cannot read or write. Amid the daily chaos of teaching in an inner city school, Alex Jurel tries to decide if he will lie at his deposition to protect the school or tell the truth and risk throwing away his career.
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Howard the Duck (1986)
Character: Coramae
A scientific experiment unknowingly brings extraterrestrial life forms to the Earth through a laser beam. First is the cigar-smoking drake, Howard, from the duck's planet. A few kids try to keep him from the greedy scientists and help him back to his planet, but then a much less friendly being arrives through the beam...
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Beethoven's 2nd (1993)
Character: Chemistry Teacher
Beethoven is back -- and this time, he has a whole brood with him now that he's met his canine match, Missy, and fathered a family. The only problem is that Missy's owner, Regina, wants to sell the puppies and tear the clan apart. It's up to Beethoven and the Newton kids to save the day and keep everyone together.
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Donor (1990)
Character: Mrs. Mantley
Dr. Kristine Lipton finds that something strange is happening in the hospital she works for when a friend is strangled by an elderly patient, who runs away but has an accident and dies. Kristine tries to find out more about this man, but discovers that all the personnel (including the hospital's director), are hiding something.
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Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
Character: Emma Ray
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks back on his life. Drifting off into memories of his troubled childhood, Jo Jo revisits his youth, recalling his eventual rise to fame and the decadence that followed. As he considers his existence, he must decide if he wants to go on living or not.
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Truman (1995)
Character: Elizabeth Moore
Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan, and subsequent election as the US' post-war President.
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