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The Tiger Woods Story (1998)
Character: Hank Aaron
With his father coaching him and his mother providing a strong spiritual influence, Tiger Woods rose to fame and fortune. But his success came at a price, as he endured personal struggles with racism, self-doubt and cultural identity.
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Cry Freedom (1981)
Character: Haraka
Balogun's most political film is a confrontation with the African wars of liberation. Based on Carcase for Hounds, Meja Mwangi's novel about the Mau-Mau uprising, it is set in an unnamed country and thus offers the vision of a pan-African struggle for freedom and against colonial oppression. The central figures in the straightforwardly and powerfully told story are the guerrilla leader Haraka and his adversary, the English colonial official Kingsley. In the end, the film becomes a homage to the freedom fighters from all over Africa: the final images show Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela and Amílcar Cabral, among others.
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Wedding Band (1974)
Character: Nelson Green
A drama which examines the enduring nature of love between a white man and a black woman in 1918 South Carolina.
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Midas Valley (1985)
Character: Dr. Aaronson
Set in Silicon Valley, California, follows the lives of a group of people involved in the competitive world of computer electronics and the greed, passion and intrigue amongst them.
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The Boys (1991)
Character: N/A
When Walter's diagnosed with lung cancer, despite his squeaky clean lifestyle, he has to tell his screenwriter partner, because that partner is a chain-smoker. As Walter fights cancer he also tries to put his affairs in order by teaching writing to prison inmates, talking to his son and ex-wife, and getting his partner to quit smoking.
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The Cold Equations (1996)
Character: Captain Keynes
Lieutenant John Barton is sent on a special mission to deliver a special vaccine to a distant mining colony. He is infuriated to find Lee, a stowaway aboard his spacecraft. Barton has only enough fuel to carry himself and his precious cargo, and Lee's added weight insures that they will crash if she stays on board. They have gone too far to turn back, and Barton's superiors make it clear: the mission takes precedence and Lee has to be dumped into space. But she won't go quietly.
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If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band (1972)
Character: T-Bone Sims
Life in a black ghetto isn't easy for 14-year-old Billie Jean Sims, who has a father in jail, a blind grandmother, and a brother with a drug habit. Growing up among drug pushers, prostitutes, and pimps, Billie Jean still has some things going for her: fierce pride, a loyal friend named Fish, and, at last, enough savings to visit her father 1200 miles away in prison.
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Malcolm X (1992)
Character: Baines
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.
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Major Payne (1995)
Character: Gen. Decker
Major Benson Winifred Payne is being discharged from the Marines. Payne is a killin' machine, but the wars of the world are no longer fought on the battlefield. A career Marine, he has no idea what to do as a civilian, so his commander finds him a job - commanding officer of a local school's JROTC program, a bunch of ragtag losers with no hope.
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Apocalypse Now (1979)
Character: Chief Phillips
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
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Music Box (1989)
Character: Mack Jones
A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.
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Betrayed (1988)
Character: Al Sanders
An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.
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Star (1993)
Character: Larry
When Crystal Wyatt was 16 her father passed away. From that time her life would never be the same. Crystal is banished from the family ranch, and starts a new life as a singer in a San Francisco nightclub.
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Ali (2001)
Character: Elijah Muhammad
In 1964, a brash, new pro boxer, fresh from his Olympic gold medal victory, explodes onto the scene: Cassius Clay. Bold and outspoken, he cuts an entirely new image for African Americans in sport with his proud public self-confidence and his unapologetic belief that he is the greatest boxer of all time. Yet at the top of his game, both Ali's personal and professional lives face the ultimate test.
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The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
Character: Henry
The lives of two struggling musicians, who happen to be brothers, inevitably change when they team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer.
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Swing Vote (1999)
Character: Justice Hank Banks
A newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice must settle a controversial moral and legal dilemma with his tie-breaking decision which may also have serious implications on his own family's harmony.
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Get on the Bus (1996)
Character: Craig
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.
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Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Character: Degan Odell
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
Character: Nichols
Benjamin Franklin Gates and Abigail Chase re-team with Riley Poole and, now armed with a stack of long-lost pages from John Wilkes Booth's diary, Ben must follow a clue left there to prove his ancestor's innocence in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
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Honeydripper (2007)
Character: Reverend Cutlip
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.
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Beloved (1998)
Character: Stamp Paid
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved". Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things start to happen...
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Rookie of the Year (1993)
Character: Sal Martinella
12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, whose late father was a minor league baseball player, grew up dreaming of playing baseball, despite his physical shortcomings. After Henry's arm is broken while trying to catch a baseball at school, the tendon in that arm heals too tightly, allowing Henry to throw pitches that are as fast as 103 mph. Henry is spotted at nearby Wrigley Field by Larry "Fish" Fisher, the general manager of the struggling Chicago Cubs, after Henry throws an opponent's home-run ball all the way from the outfield bleachers back to the catcher, and it seems that Henry may be the pitcher that team owner Bob Carson has been praying for.
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The Great White Hype (1996)
Character: Roper's Manager
When the champ's promoter, Rev. Sultan, decides something new is needed to boost the marketability of the boxing matches, he searches and finds the only man to ever beat the champ. The problem is that he isn't a boxer anymore and he's white. However, once Rev. Sultan convinces him to fight, he goes into heavy training while the confident champ takes it easy and falls out of shape.
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Willie Dynamite (1974)
Character: Pointer
Willie Dynamite is a pimp who operates in New York City. Willie was a big success as a pimp, but now, just as fast as he rose to the top, he has hit bottom. A former prostitute who has become a social worker tries to get Willie to clean up his life while it is still possible.
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Trouble in Mind (1985)
Character: Leo
The lives of an ex-con, a coffee-shop owner, and a young couple looking to make it rich intersect in the hypnotic Rain City.
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Leadbelly (1976)
Character: Dicklicker
The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.
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Anarchy TV (1998)
Character: Bobby
A group of anarchists use their public-access TV show to satirize the government until a right-wing preacher attempts to shut them down.
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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
Character: Self
A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.
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