Movies: Ossie Davis

Purlie is a musical based on Ossie Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious. In the early days of the civil rights movement, a Southern plantation owner holds his sharecroppers in virtual slavery. Purlie comes home as a preacher who will shake things up a...

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....

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 l...

This film is the true story of Medgar Evers, a successful insurance agent who moves to Jackson, Mississippi to direct the regional headquarters of the NAACP. Fighting segregation and racist politics, Evers becomes a leader in the black community....

A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau....

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....

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 th...

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...

A short documentary about the making of Spike Lee's biopic, "Malcolm X."...

A black soldier comes home to Harlem after a tour in Vietnam and discovers that his wife had become a heroin addict and died of an overdose. Infuriated, he gathers three of his ex-GI buddies and they lay out plans to fight the drug dealers....

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 ...

James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources....

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 be...

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, archi...

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....

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 discovere...

A private investigator endures the rigors of an insane asylum in order to locate $1 million in stolen loot....

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...

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 ...

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 ra...