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Eyes on the Prize

Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Motherland

Bobby Kennedy for President

Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart

Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley

Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist

We Are the World

Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity


            From 1968-1973, America got SOUL! television's first all-black entertainment/variety show. The film celebrates the groundbreaking PBS series from its genesis to its eventual loss of funding against the backdrop of a swiftly changing political and social landscape, while profiling Ellis Haizlip, the charismatic man behind one of the most culturally significant and successful television shows in U.S. history.Ellis Haizlip was the producer and host of SOUL!, the first black arts television showcase of its kind. Conceived in 1968 as the first "black Tonight Show," SOUL! launched as a local, New York broadcast. By 1973, Haizlip had produced over 130 Emmy Award-winning, nationally-broadcast shows for WNET/PBS featuring a staggering array of A-list guests: Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Earth, Wind & Fire, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni and Muhammad Ali. Even a 16 year-old Arsenio Hall made his television debut performing magic tricks.Part nightclub, part salon, SOUL! offered classic live performances by up-and-coming soul, jazz, and world musicians, juxtaposed with in-depth interviews featuring actors, literary figures, prominent politicians and intellectuals. Haizlip championed early acts such as Ashford and Simpson, Roberta Flack, Al Green, Billy Taylor, Bill Withers and Patti LaBelle, pairing them alongside Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali, Cicely Tyson, The Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Jesse Jackson, Merry Clayton and more.Produced by Melissa Haizlip and Sam Pollard, the film offers a behind-the-scenes look at this revolutionary program, from its initial conception to its final broadcast, including the very public battle to keep it on the air despite a shifting political landscape. Directed by Melissa Haizlip and Samuel D. Pollard, edited by Giovanni Autran, Annukka Lilja and Blair McClendon with supervising editor Doug Blush, Mr. SOUL! features rare archival performances and new interviews with many of the African American icons of the twentieth century.SOUL! captured a seminal moment in American broadcast history, a turning point in an era of immense struggle. It marked the emergence of undiluted black culture and entertainment on television, and the advent of 20th century black pop music. Mr. SOUL! presents a vivid portrait of this largely unknown yet enormously influential television series and the remarkable man who brought his personal vision of inclusion and social change to people across America.
    

Mr. Soul!

Free to Be... You & Me

Under African Skies


            William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th Century. He fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., and represented the Chicago 8 who faced jail for protesting the Vietnam war. When inmates took over Attica prison, or Native Americans stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked Kunstler to be their lawyer. To his daughters, Emily and Sarah, he was a hero from legend, who stood at the center of everything important that had ever happened.But the girls weren't around for their fathers glory days. Born in the late 1970s when Kunstler was almost 60, the father they knew publicly kissed the cheek of a Mafia client and condoned assassinations he viewed as political. He represented an Islamic fundamentalist charged with murdering a rabbi, a terrorist accused of bombing the World Trade Center, and a teenager charged with participating in a near-fatal gang rape.By the time Kunstler died in 1995, his teenage daughters thought he had stopped standing for anything worth fighting for. Once idolized, he had become an embattled, if still dazzling, loner.In Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler, filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler investigate their father's transformation from a middle-class family man into a person of courage who risked everything for his beliefs. In 1960, Kunstler, a married 40-year-old lawyer handling estate and divorce cases left his safe, suburban life and traveled south to join the civil rights struggle.Within a few years, Kunstler was catapulted into international fame when he defended the Chicago 8, protesters charged with inciting riots outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He defied the judge and put the Vietnam War and American racism on trial. But the trial changed Kunstler. He had once believed that the law an instrument of justice. Now he saw a legal system that enabled those in power to exercise social control and at all costs, to perpetuate themselves.Kunstler witnessed the power and the costs first hand at Attica Prison when he was called in as an observer for the inmates during the 1971 rebellion. The audience sees it, too, though devastating archival images that show what happened when state troopers stormed the prison, covered the yard with tear gas, and opened fire on the prisoners, killing 29 inmates and nine hostages and wounding hundreds. With clear eyes, the film addresses both the viciousness of the state and the charges that Kunstler did more harm than good by hardening the prisoners resolve and giving them unrealistic expectations of amnesty.Throughout the film, in historical footage and interviews, Kunstlers critics, defenders, and clients talk about how one man made a difference. Some still hate him, some credit him with saving their lives and freedom, others acknowledge that he irrevocably and improbably changed their view of race and politics.A string of sensational trials and stunning victories fed Kunstlers belief that because he was skilled, passionate, and right, he could convince anyone. But while that made him a great lawyer, it did not make him an easy father. His daughters pleaded with him not to represent Yusef Salaam, a black 15 year old accused of participating in a savage attack on a female jogger in Central Park.The media, captivated by the case, ran headlines calling the accused monsters. We see this monster years later, as a gentle and introspective adult who, it turns out, had been innocent all along, and was exonerated by DNA evidence after six and a half years in prison. Kunstler was right: It was racism and a biased legal system that had failed."I suspect," says Kunstler talking to a crowd during the Chicago 8 trial, "that more people have gone to their deaths through a legal system than through all the illegalities in the history of man: 6 million people in Europe during the Third Reich. Legal. Sacco and Vanzetti. Legal. The hundreds of great trials throughout the South where black men were condemned to death. All legal. Jesus. Legal. Socrates. Legal. ...All tyrants learn that it is far better to do this thing through some semblance of legality than to do it without that pretense."And there is the heart of the film: Kunstler inspires by choosing justice over law and order, by defending pariahs because pariahs are most in need of defense, and by doing it all while grandstanding for the media. In the end, his daughters reconcile Kunstlers uncomfortably complex parts into an all too human, all too familiar, whole.
    

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte hosts the Tonight Show

Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me

Sing Your Song


            Tony Curtis, the man who influenced Elvis Presley and James Dean, was one of the very first teen idols and one of the last real movie stars. From his difficult upbringing in the Bronx, where he was born Bernie Schwartz, to his unprecedented fame and infamous way with women, this programme presents Mr. Curtis's life in all its rags to riches glory.Interviews with Tony's family, friends and co-stars (Hugh Hefner, Harry Belafonte, Debbie Reynolds, Mamie Van Doren, Piper Laurie, Theresa Russell, Jill Curtis among others!) along with exclusive footage and film clips are given deeper meaning and clarity by the most honest and intimate interview the actor may have ever given.Tony Curtis: Driven to Stardom explores the man's rebellious demeanor, his struggle as a Jew in Hollywood, his difficult childhood, the brief love affair with Marilyn Monroe and his failed marriages to actresses Janet Leigh and Christine Kaufman, his courageous stance to break the color barrier with The Defiant Ones (the film that earned him an Oscar Nomination), and his entire six-decade career. A sex symbol, a matinee idol, a powerful and magnetic actor, Tony Curtis was the original movie star.
    

Tony Curtis: Driven to Stardom

Fidel

Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something

Mama Africa

Bobby

Uptown Saturday Night

Buck and the Preacher


            In the South Bronx, New York City, hip-hop disc jockey Kenny "Double K" Kirkland (Guy Davis) heads out for the night with his friends, Ramon (Jon Chardiet) and Chollie (Leon W. Grant), leaving behind his younger brother, Lee Kirkland (Robert Taylor). On their way to the house party they are hosting at an abandoned building, Ramon, and another graffiti artist, Luis (Franc Reyes), photograph the subway cars they tagged the previous night.The hip-hop dance party draws a crowd, including the uninvited Lee and his dance crew, the Beat Street Breakers. However, Lee wins over the audience with his dance moves. Kenny spins records and introduces a trio from the neighborhood, called Us Girls. When Kenny, Ramon, and Chollie hear an odd noise, they discover a young man named Henri (Dean Elliott) playing percussion on the buildings pipes in the building basement. Henri is looking for a conga player named Tito, but the boys tell him Tito left years earlier when the landlord burned the building for insurance. Later that night, Lee's crew scuffles with a rival group, the Bronx Rockers, but Henri diffuses the situation.The next day, while Kenny and Lee's mother, Cora Kirkland (Mary Alice Smith), cooks breakfast, she begs Kenny not to stay out so late because she already lost one son who was killed to gang violence. Chollie arrives and informs Kenny that he has complimentary tickets to the Roxy, one of Manhattan's most popular nightclubs. Meanwhile, Ramon's father, Domingo (Shawn Elliott), wants his son to stop desecrating subway cars, get a job, and marry Carmen (Saundra Santiago), the young mother of his illegitimate baby.That night, at the Roxy, the Breakers and the Rockers square off on the dance floor in a break-dancing row. A pretty college student named Tracy Carlson (Rae Dawn Chong) catches Kenny's eye, but she is most impressed by Lee's dancing and she invites Lee to her school.The next day, Ramon is upset because a rival graffiti artist, a shadowy and taciturn street punk known only as Spit (Bill Anagnos), has painted over his artwork on a subway car. Kenny, Ramon, Chollie, and Henri join Lee as he visits Tracy at the City College of New York (CCNY), where she is contributing a dance composition to a television program. The group is disappointed upon discovering that Lee was not actually invited to perform in the show, and Kenny accuses Tracy and her teachers of being condescending toward his brother.Later, Ramon visits with Carmen and their baby. They are interrupted by Carmen's mother, who accuses Ramon of shirking his responsibility. Carmen begs Ramon to take her and the baby away. Meanwhile, Tracy visits the Kirkland's apartment to apologize. Kenny plays her some of his musical mixes and the two find common ground. Later, Kenny takes Tracy to the subway tunnels, where Ramon and Lee are spray-painting a wall. Ramon longingly watches a clean, white train pass, claiming it his dream canvas. Startled by a noise, the friends leave, as the hooded Spit tags a freshly painted wall.Kenny walks Tracy home and explains that his older brother, a gang member named Franklin, was killed a year ago. They kiss goodnight and Kenny arrives home at dawn.Later that day, Chollie informs Kenny that he has a tryout that night at a club, the Burning Spear, run by Kool Herc. With Tracy at his side, Kenny spins records to the delight of the crowd, and Kool Herc hires him for the following weekend. The next day, Ramon asks his father, Domingo, if Carmen can live with them. Referring to his son as a criminal, Domingo refuses, then orders his son to marry Carmen and provide for his child.Later, Chollie takes Kenny to the Roxy, where a talent scout is auditioning local performers... among them are Tina B., Andy B. Bad, and The Fantastic Duo. Chollie asks Kenny to wait outside and invites the scout to see Kenny deejay at club Burning Spear. Afterward, Kenny drops by CCNY to surprise Tracy and sees her in an intimate embrace with her professor, Robert (Duane Jones).Meanwhile, Henri fixes up the basement of the abandoned building and moves in.Ramon tells his friends that he plans to move Carmen and the baby into an empty apartment upstairs. Ramon gets a job at a hardware store and his friends help him make the apartment habitable. They surprise Carmen with a small housewarming party.On Saturday night at the Burning Spear, Kenny impresses the talent scout, who invites him to deejay at the Roxy on New Year's Eve.The next day, the Breakers and the Rockers engage in a dance-off in a subway station and Lee is arrested.Meanwhile, Tracy arranges for Kenny to use the college's computerized studio, while she works with Robert at a nearby piano. Kenny accidentally deletes his work, and rejects Robert and Tracy's attempts to help him. He tells Tracy they both may be too bust to continue seeing one another.Later, Cora picks Lee up at the police station and defends her son, telling the officer that there are worse things kids can do besides dancing.At the college, Tracy conducts the premiere of her dance composition. Waiting for a train with Ramon, Kenny worries that he made a mistake with Tracy, and wonders if his talented friend is wasting his time on graffiti. Ramon explains he needed to take a job at the hardware store, but it interferes with his artwork. He sees an all-white train on the "A" line and realizes he can achieve his dream by painting it that night after work.Later that evening, Kenny meets Ramon and helps him paint the train. Lurking nearby is Spit, who tags the train even before Ramon can finish the other side. Ramon chases Spit through a tunnel, they scuffle, and fall onto an electrified rail, killing them both.After Ramon's funeral, Kenny is not sure about performing at the Roxy's New Year's Eve show. However, Tracy and Chollie help him assemble his idealized line-up of Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five, twenty-five break-dancers, the City College Dancers, and a Bronx gospel choir, and together, they produce a celebration of Ramon's life. Domingo, Ramon's father, is moved when he sees his son's artwork on the wall of a tenement building.
    

Beat Street

Kansas City

A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps

Hava Nagila


            A hip African-American angel returns to Earth to help a Jewish tailor re-examine his life. (Josiah Howard, "Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide.")The story opens with Morris Mishkin, an elderly Jewish tailor (played by Zero Mostel) at the welfare office trying to get assistance paying for his wife's medicine. When he returns home we see that he and his wife, Fanny, live in a deteriorating neighborhood in New York City. Fanny (played by Ida Kaminska) is in bed and appears to be very ill. Morris tries to make her comfortable and then sits down to rest. Fanny tells Morris that she'd promised her friend that Morris would sew a new suit for her friend's son. Morris tells Fanny he will not, as the woman still owes him for a suit he made for her. Fanny says that she told her friend not to worry about the money. This upsets Morris, who tells Fanny angrily that they need the money, and he will not make the suit. Fanny becomes so upset she knocks over the tray of medications on her nightstand and then falls limp on the bed. Morris goes to her, worried, and tries to revive her. It appears as though she has died. Morris summons a friend to come immediately. He then recites a prayer to God to help him and falls asleep from exhaustion.When Morris awakens, it is dark and as he gets up to turn on lights, he finds a young black man sitting at his kitchen table. He is frightened that the man is there to harm him, and frantically searches for a weapon, coming up with a ladle instead of the knife that he he'd been reaching for. The man (played by Harry Belafonte) calmly takes the ladle and puts it away. Morris is having difficulty breathing, so the man helps him sit down and asks if he can help. Morris asks for water and when the man opens a cupboard to get a water glass, Morris jumps to grab a jar that has some money in it. The man returns the money jar to the cupboard and takes out a water glass. Morris also indicates he needs a pill that is near the sink, which the man gets for him.Having finally regained his composure, Morris asks the man who he is. The man introduces himself as Alexander Levine. Confused, Morris asks him, "You're Jewish?" Alex answers that he was Jewish and had been so willingly up until then. When Morris asks why he is no longer a Jew, Alex reveals that he is an Angel sent by God to help Morris. Morris cannot believe the man is an Angel and asks why he has no wings. Levine says that he is only recently deceased and has to help somebody first. Morris asks him to perform a miracle and Levine says he cannot yet perform miracles. Morris keeps trying to get the man to leave, as his wife is gravely ill. When he says this, the angel tells him that she is resting. Morris rushes to Fanny's side and sees that she is indeed resting and is in a different position on the bed from when he last saw her.The doorbell rings and Morris rushes to answer. He looks in the kitchen quickly; Alex is still in there. When Morris answers the door, he finds Dr. Berg (played by Mila O'Shea), the friend he'd called earlier. When Dr. Berg asks what the emergency was, first Morris tells him about his visitor. Dr. Berg looks in, and there's no one there. Morris tells Dr. Berg that Fanny was very ill. They enter her bedroom, where she's sitting up, alert and healthy looking. She does not seem to recall the earlier argument or that she'd either fainted or possibly died. The doctor sends Morris out of the room so he can examine Fanny, who he is surprised to find feeling well.Meanwhile Morris tries to return to the kitchen, but the door is locked... and Morris goes around to look in a tiny window to see Levine on the telephone. Alex has called a woman named Sally (played by Gloria Foster). In their conversation it comes out that Alexander owed some money to a someone who is sending people to collect it or kill him, and they've been harrassing Sally. He arranges to meet with her at a bar.When Dr. Berg finishes the exam, he exits the bedroom and wonders just what it was that made Morris call him earlier. Morris asks Dr. Berg to look in the kitchen. This time he sees Alex just as he's hanging up the phone. The Dr. Berg introduces himself and asks Alex who he is. He replies that he's an angel and asks Dr. Berg if he believes that. Dr. Berg replies yes... and Alex says 'just like that?' ...and Dr. Berg reaffirms and calls his wife to let her know he will be home soon. Alex asks Dr. Berg what's wrong with Mrs. Mishkin, and he explains that her heart does not properly pump blood. The trouble is, he explains it in a very technical way and Alex doesn't understand. Dr. Berg finally tells him that Fanny is dying and that no angel or medicine will stop it.Alex becomes upset that nobody believes he is an angel, and he leaves. Almost immediately Fanny starts coughing uncontrollably. When Dr. Berg and Morris go in to check on her, she complains that she cannot breath and that she feels almost as if she's drowning. The doctor makes her as comfortable as possible and gives Morris a prescription to get filled at the local pharmacy. He leaves and Morris rushes to the drugstore. When he gets there, he finds out that the meds cost more than he has and pleads with the pharmacist to sell it to him at a discount. The pharmacist explains it is a new medication and must be sold as prescribed. During this exchange, we see Alex watching through the window. Morris leaves with the prescription in his hand, which Alex snatches and goes in to the store, where he creates a distraction, sneaks behind the pharmacy counter, and pockets the pill bottle on the counter. He then exits the store and gives the pills to Morris.When they return to the apartment, Morris keeps asking Alex how he got the pills without the prescription and how he paid for them. He realizes that Alexander stole the pills and begins complaining. Alex than tells him to take the money from the jar in the kitchen and go pay for the pills. Morris states that is their grocery money, and Alexander retorts, "Do you want to eat, or do you want your wife's pills"? Morris realizes he needs both. He then invites Alex to a drink at a bar. When they get there, Sally shows up and Morris uses that as an opportunity to ditch Alexander.Morris returns home and checks on Fanny... Morris wants to go to bed and Fanny wants to talk. Alex and Sally show up... Alex has a few private words with Morris who first shuts the door on Sally, then reopens it and beckons her in. Morris lets them in and allows them to use a spare room to talk. Sally tells Alex about the people looking for their money and asks if he has it. He tells her that the money won't be a problem anymore, but does not tell her he is an angel. They talk, and at one point start to kiss and fool around on the bed. Morris opens the door to check on them, closes it, and starts to make a lot of noise in the bathroom, then running the sewing machine to make a suit, which Fanny tells him to stop. Alex tells Sally she is all he has, all that will be left of him when he's gone and tells her he truly loves her... and Sally tries to talk with Alex about their future and states that she wants to marry him. He tells her he can't but won't say why. They argue, Sally provokes Alex with insults, and Alex slaps Sally so she leaves.Morris finds Alex lying listlessly on the bed and offers to talk and help. Alex doesn't say much, puts on his coat and leaves the apartment, going up to the roof. Morris follows him and finds him standing on the ledge as if about to jump. He states that no one believes in him or cares, and Morris tells him that he believes and cares, and that Alex should come back to the apartment and be welcome.When they return, Fanny is up and has set the table for dinner. She asks about Alex, and when Morris introduces him as a friend, she says, "Be welcome" and sets another place at the table. Alex states he is an angel, and Fanny stops, looks at him, and asks if he has come to take her. He replies that no, he's come to help her live, and she states that she wants no help and has been ready to die for some time now. She then leaves the two men alone and lies down on the bed. Morris and Alexander eat dinner, drink wine, and enjoy the meal.As they talk, Alex says he can feel a change ever since Fanny saw him. Morris still won't believe Alex is an angel sent from God, and he begins to tell Alex that he doesn't believe in God anymore. This conversation has begun to upset Alex who begins to cry out. The two men begin to argue, and as Morris continues to complain about God, Alex begins to fade away until he is gone. Morris looks in on Fanny, then sits down and begins laughing hysterically, finally falling asleep.Later Dr. Berg shows up and goes to examine Fanny, who tells him that she does not feel well; he suspects her time has come. He wants to call an ambulance to take her to a hospital, but she refuses, saying she wants to die in her own bed in her own home. He wants to call in Morris, but Fanny says no. He tells her that Morris has a right to be there, to which she replies that over the years they shared many things, but that she did not want to share this. She allows Morris to look in and they start speaking in the their old language (Yiddish perhaps), and finally as he turns to go, he looks at her lovingly, waves his hand, and says a final goodbye.As he exits the room, he notices a hat that Alex left behind. We then see Morris wandering around New York with the hat, showing it to various black people, who shake their heads. He then spies a synagogue and goes in. He sees a group of young black people praying and sits down in a pew. Then he's gone and has left the hat behind. As he wanders back home, through an open lot, a black feather floats overhead. He tries to catch it, but it stays just out of his reach... and the last we see is the feather dancing in the sky.
    

The Angel Levine

Swing Vote

Grambling's White Tiger

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

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Harry Belafonte

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