Catalog Search Results
1) Men of honor
Summary
The courageous story of an African-American sailor who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a ruthless training officer and a tragic shipboard accident, Carl's iron will is never broken. Against all odds, he pushes on to achieve the impossible.
Summary
The story of the 'Fighting 99th' - the first squadron of black American pilots to be allowed to fight for their country. It is 1943 and the U.S. is suffering huge losses on the ground and in the air. Four newly recruited pilots are united by a desire to serve their country, at a time when black flyers were not welcomed in the Air Force. Now, the "Tuskegee Airmen" must undertake the riskiest mission of their lives and to prove to America that courage...
Series
Criterion collection volume 1106
Summary
A fictional account of one amazing night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the Civil Rights Movement and cultural turmoil of the '60s.
7) Sounder
Summary
Set in rural Louisiana during the Depression, this heartfelt story tells of a sharecropper family struggling to overcome adversity. After stealing to feed his family, Nathan is sent to a prison camp. In their fight for survival, his determined wife and their eldest son hold the family together. Once the boy becomes an adult, he searches for his father but instead discovers manhood.
Summary
Pennsylvania-born filmmaker Ephraim Asili has been exploring different facets of the African diaspora—and his own place within it—for nearly a decade. His feature-length debut, THE INHERITANCE, is a vibrant, engaging ensemble work that takes place almost entirely within the walls of a West Philadelphia house where a community of young people have come together to form a collective of Black artists and activists.
10) The Ball Method
Summary
Alice Ball, a 23 year old African American Chemist living in 1915 Hawaii fights against racial and gender barriers to find an effective treatment for leprosy before Kalani, a 10 year old patient is exiled into the leper colony of Molokai.
11) Till
Summary
Till is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie's poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother's ability to change the world.
12) The blackening
Summary
The film centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no motherf****** game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like a Man, Barbershop), this film skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
13) 12 years a slave
Summary
The harrowing account of a black man, born free in New York State, who was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in 1841. Having no way to contact his family, and fearing for his life if he told the truth, Solomon Northup was sold from plantation to plantation in Louisiana, toiling under cruel masters for twelve years before meeting Samuel Bass, a Canadian who finally put him in touch with his family, and helped start the process to regain his...
14) Carmen Jones
Summary
Joe, a military policeman about to make officer, is infatuated with the flirtatious and sexy Carmen Jones. Their ill-fated romance comes to a grisly end by the conclusion of the drama but not before their liaison has wreaked havoc with their lives and all who cross their paths.
16) Ganja & Hess
Summary
Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and the horror cinema, Bill Gunn's revolutionary independent film Ganja and Hess is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity. Duane Jones (Night of the living dead) stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant (director Bill Gunn), endowing him with the blessing of immortality, and...
17) Malcolm X
Summary
Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.
18) Waves
Formats
Summary
Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, and featuring an astonishing ensemble of award-winning actors and breakouts alike, this film traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family, led by a well-intentioned but domineering father, as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss. A heartrending story about the universal capacity for compassion and growth even in the darkest of times....
19) Within our gates
Summary
Created as a response to The Birth of a Nation which depicted southern whites in need of the Ku Klux Klan to protect them from blood thirsty blacks, Micheaux shows the reality of Dixie racism in 1920, where a black man could be lynched for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Summary
A collection of DVDs all gathered into one "binge box" for a spectacular movie night.
The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner is a literate American slave and preacher. His financially strained owner accepts an offer to use Nat's preaching to subdue unruly slaves. But as Nat witnesses countless atrocities, he orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.
12 Years a Slave: The harrowing account of a black man, born free in New...