Summary: This story begins on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It comes to a bloody end almost five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. In the years since those events unfolded, the man at the center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic figure, a minister whose...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: PBS Home Video 2005

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV CIT

Summary: The powerful documentary examines the life of Muhammad Ali beyond the boxing ring to offer a personal perspective on the American sporting legend. Investigating Ali's spiritual transformation includes his conversion to Islam, resistance to the Vietnam War draft, and humanitarian work. The documentary connects Ali's transcendent life story to America' struggles with race, religion, and war in...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF TRI

Summary: From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader's character, showing...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV KIN

Summary: "Backs Against The Wall: The Howard Thurman Story explores the extraordinary life and legacy of one of the most important religious figures of the 20th century. Born the grandson of slaves, Thurman became a "spiritual foundation" for the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring many of its leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr, Jesse Jackson and Congressman John Lewis. In the mid-1930s, Thurman was...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC BAC

Summary: Documents the obscure country blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist, Howard 'Louie Bluie' Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America. Director Terry Zwigoff honors him with an unsentimental but endlessly affectionate tribute. Full of infectious music and comedy, this is a humane evocation of the kind of pop-cultural marginalia that Zwigoff would continue to make...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2010

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC LOU

Summary: Employing a mix of documentary, performance, poetry, and music in his work, the transformative filmmaker Marlon Riggs was an unapologetic gay Black man who defied a culture of silence and shame to speak his truth with resounding joy and conviction.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: BLU-RAY DOC SIG

Summary: The award-winning feature documentary tells the inspiring journey of Cliff, Ahmani, and Nicholas, three underserved teenage boys from Atlanta, attempting to climb four 12,000 ft snowcapped peaks in the heart of the Colorado wilderness, all while overcoming their own personal mountains.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC THA

Summary: In his final film as director, Gordon Parks turned the camera upon himself and created a deeply personal and remarkably poetic self-portrait. Moments Without Proper Names blends Parks's striking photographs with newly-shot footage of the artist, his own musical compositions, and personal reminiscences performed by a trio of esteemed actors: Avery Brooks, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Joe Seneca.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC MOM

Summary: Inside the Black Box spotlights the world's greatest Black artists within the entertainment industry. A 2022 Television Series. With ten-hour-long episodes with hosts Joe Morton and Tracey Moore. Reminiscent of "Inside the Actor's Studio with Robert Lipton." Features prominent actors, directors, writers, and producers of color and helps to further the never-ending dialectic on race in American...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2022

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV INS

Summary: A look at the African-American photographer, poet, novelist, composer and filmmaker Gordon Parks.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: HBO Video 2006

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC HAL

Summary: James Gregory is a racist South African guard whose certainties of life are shaken to the core. During a twenty year span, James spent his time as Nelson Mandela's prison warden. Shows the daily application of a major historic abonimation, known as Apartheid, as seen through the eyes of the average White South African. These are 'ordinary' people who are neither heroes nor villains, but obtuse...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Image Entertainment 2008

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Drama DVDs, Call number: DVD DRAMA COL

Summary: Filmmaker Byron Hurt looks at the past and future of soul food, covering its roots in Western Africa, its incarnation in the American South, and the role it plays in the health crisis in the African American community. Examines the socioeconomics of the modern American diet, and how the food industry profits from producing cheap calories while healthy options remain expensive and hard to find.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: PBS 2013

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV SOU

Summary: "The essential memoir of fashion pioneer Bethann Hardison, INVISIBLE BEAUTY shines a spotlight on the singular and unapologetic Hardison, one of the fasion industry's most influential icons. Hardison and her codirector Frédéric Tcheng set forth an absorbing record of the racial evolution of fashion and an original contemplation on the life of an unparalleled trailblazer."--Container.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2023

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC INV

Summary: Follow the courageous journey of John Lewis, a civil rights hero, congressional leader, and human rights champion whose unwavering fight for justice spans the past 50 years. The son of sharecroppers, Lewis grew up in the segregated South and rose from Alabama's Black Belt to the corridors of power on Capitol Hill. His humble origins have forever linked him to those whose voices often go unheard.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV JOH