Ossie Davis
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He may be best known for his roles in Spike Lee-directed films such as School Daze (1988) and Do the Right Thing (1989). Other films Davis acted in include The Hill (1965), A Man Called Adam (1966), Let's Do It Again (1975), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Grumpy Old Men (1993), The Client (1994), Dr. Dolittle (1998), Dinosaur (2000), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, from 1948 until his death.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 1.0163 |
| Birthday | 1917-12-18 |
| Place of Birth | Cogdell, Georgia, USA |
| Also Known As | Ozzie Davis, Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis, Raiford Chatman Davis, |
1989
Do the Right Thing
7.766/2026
Sal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exh...
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Do the Right Thing
1998
Doctor Dolittle
5.727/3328
A successful physician and devoted family man, John Dolittle seems to have the world by the tail, until a long suppressed talent he possessed as a chi...
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Doctor Dolittle
1991
Jungle Fever
6.41/324
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference wo...
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Jungle Fever
2000
Dinosaur
6.578/2778
An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.
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Dinosaur
2001
Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco - The Fillmore
10/1
From the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning PBS series NEIGHBORHOODS: THE HIDDEN CITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO comes the remarkable story of San Francisco's Fil...
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Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco - The Fillmore
1993
Goin' Back to T-Town
0/0
Goin’ Back to T-Town tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that prospered during the 1920s and 30s despit...
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Goin' Back to T-Town
1990
Joe Versus the Volcano
5.81/590
Hypochondriac Joe Banks finds out he has six months to live, quits his dead end job, musters the courage to ask his co-worker out on a date, and is th...
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Joe Versus the Volcano
1993
Grumpy Old Men
6.685/763
For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nea...
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Grumpy Old Men
1965
The Hill
7.521/256
North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objec...
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The Hill
1969
Sam Whiskey
5.8/33
A widow hires an ex-gambler to retrieve gold bars from a sunken river boat in Colorado and discreetly return them to the Federal Mint, from where they...
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Sam Whiskey
1968
The Scalphunters
6.4/122
Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegad...
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The Scalphunters
1998
12 Angry Men
7.698/457
During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the guilty verdict handed down by the others as a result...
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12 Angry Men
2002
Bubba Ho-tep
6.487/707
The "true" story of what really became of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with...
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Bubba Ho-tep
2004
Baadasssss!
6.468/62
Director Mario Van Peebles chronicles the complicated production of his father Melvin's classic 1971 film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Playin...
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Baadasssss!
1975
Let's Do It Again
7/23
Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brother...
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Let's Do It Again
1996
I'm Not Rappaport
5.706/34
Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still...
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I'm Not Rappaport
1985
Avenging Angel
5.241/58
Molly Stewart, now a law student at UCLA, is determined to leave her prostitute past behind. After learning that the detective who helped save her lif...
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Avenging Angel
1996
Get on the Bus
6.348/79
Fifteen Black men gather in South Central LA to take a cross-country bus trip to attend the Million Man March in Washington, DC in October 1995. Among...
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Get on the Bus
1999
The Secret Path
7.458/24
14-year-old Jo Ann Foley lives in squalor in a rural Southern community during World War II. Abused by her bootlegging grandfather Hank, Jo Ann has, l...
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The Secret Path
1984
Harry & Son
5.85/70
Widower Harry Keach is a construction worker who was raised to appreciate the importance of working for a living. He takes a dim view of his sensitive...
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Harry & Son
2001
Feast of All Saints
4.792/12
Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught b...
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Feast of All Saints
1984
The House of God
3.2/5
Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.
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The House of God
1979
Hot Stuff
7.028/18
When a police department's burglary task force is facing the possibility of being shut down because of their low conviction rate decides to try a new...
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Hot Stuff
2000
Finding Buck McHenry
7/1
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 s...
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Finding Buck McHenry
1992
Malcolm X
7.554/1946
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 b...
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Malcolm X
2000
Here's to Life!
10/1
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...
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Here's to Life!
2005
The Peace!
5/2
Amid an escalating war in Iraq, rising terror levels and the threat of nuclear attack, a growing body of intellectuals, religious leaders and communit...
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The Peace!
1997
Miss Evers' Boys
6.5/22
The true story of the US Government's 1932 Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiments, in which a group of black test subjects were allowed to die, despite a cure...
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Miss Evers' Boys
1960
John Brown's Raid
0/0
White abolitionist John Brown and twenty of his men attempt to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virgini...
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John Brown's Raid
2003
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
7.25/4
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...
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The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
1990
The Red Shoes
10/1
In this animated contemporary interpretation of a Hans Christian Andersen morality tale, a pair of magic slippers help two young African-American girl...
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The Red Shoes
1977
Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid
8/1
A young ghetto kid despairs of ever getting out of that environment and making something of himself, until one day he gets a job as an assistant in a...
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Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid
1966
A Man Called Adam
6.5/17
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
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A Man Called Adam
2003
The Tuskegee Airmen: They Fought Two Wars
0/0
A documentary filmed at Moton Field in Tuskegee Alabama, home to the airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron. They were the first African American fighter...
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The Tuskegee Airmen: They Fought Two Wars
1969
Teacher, Teacher
10/1
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...
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Teacher, Teacher
1963
Gone Are the Days!
7.5/4
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 convinci...
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Gone Are the Days!
1976
The Tenth Level
5.313/8
Inspired by the Stanley Milgram obedience research, this TV movie chronicles a psychology professor's study to determine why people, such as the Nazis...
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The Tenth Level
1968
Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class
7/1
The Black middle class, torn between white goals and Black needs, are examined by producers William Greaves and William Branch in a 90-minute NET Jour...
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Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class
1999
The Soul Collector
7.292/12
Zachariah, makes a few mistakes and it is decided that he is to live as a human being for thirty days. Mordecai is his supervisor. Rebecca's husband d...
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The Soul Collector
1963
The Cardinal
6.51/51
A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
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The Cardinal
1994
Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World
9/1
Join tennis greats John McEnroe and Billie Jean King and world leader Nelson Mandela as they pay homage to the life and work of Arthur Ashe, the sport...
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Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World
2005
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
6/2
A short documentary about the making of Spike Lee's biopic, "Malcolm X."
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By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
2005
Unstoppable
0/0
An interview/overview on the influential careers of Gordon Parks, Ossie Davis, and Melvin Van Peebles.
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Unstoppable
1988
School Daze
5.678/115
Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.
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School Daze
1995
The Android Affair
5.286/7
Karen Garrett, a promising young doctor, is assigned to perform a difficult operation on Teach, an advanced android who has never "blanked" (had his m...
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The Android Affair
1976
Countdown at Kusini
7/1
An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa.
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Countdown at Kusini
2005
Deacons for Defense
6.409/11
Inspired by a true story, this drama is set in 1965, not long after passage of the Civil Rights Act. Despite the Act, the African-American citizens of...
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Deacons for Defense
2022
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
6.5/29
Never-before-heard personal recordings and archival footage tell the story of Louis Armstrong's life from his perspective. From musical phenom to civi...
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Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
1984
Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
0/0
A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer...
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Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
1969
Slaves
6.3/7
A Kentucky slave (Davis) fights for his freedom from a cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins him and the other slaves in their revolt.
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Slaves
1951
Fourteen Hours
7.255/53
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of...
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Fourteen Hours
1950
No Way Out
6.901/106
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one dies, the other accuses their Black doctor of murder.
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No Way Out
1998
Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist
8.25/4
A look at the confluence of the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles o...
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Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist
1967
The Outsider
8/2
Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies sta...
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The Outsider
1997
4 Little Girls
7.136/55
On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a cri...
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4 Little Girls
1972
Malcolm X
6.667/15
James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.
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Malcolm X
1969
The Fall
7.2/5
"The Fall" depicts certain scenes in New York City between October 1967 and March 1968, shot by the independent filmmaker, Peter Whitehead. It is a ve...
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The Fall
1965
The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
2.667/3
Promotional film depicting the production and Cannes premiere of the Sidney Lumet film "The Hill."
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The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
1965
The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
2.667/3
Promotional film depicting the production and Cannes premiere of the Sidney Lumet film "The Hill."
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The Sun... the Sand... the Hill
1989
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
6.9/8
The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
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Making 'Do the Right Thing'
1985
Tyler Texas Black Film Collection
7/1
"Tyler Texas Black Film Collection" (1985) is a promotional film hosted by Ossie Davis.
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Tyler Texas Black Film Collection
1980
All God's Children
6.5/2
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...
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All God's Children
1979
Freedom Road
5.188/8
Ex-slave and former Union soldier Gideon Jackson represents other ex-slaves at the constitutional convention, and is soon elected to the U.S. Senate d...
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Freedom Road
1979
Freedom Man
0/0
The story of Benjamin Banneker, the early American patriot whose achievements rival those of Benjamin Franklin!! Risking his life, working with the U...
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Freedom Man
2004
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
0/0
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks is a 2003 documentary about the life of Academy Award nominated actress Beah Richards. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, it wo...
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Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
1993
The Ernest Green Story
7.071/7
Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.
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The Ernest Green Story
1992
Gladiator
7.625/413
Tommy Riley has moved with his dad to Chicago from a 'nice place'. He keeps to himself, goes to school. However, after a street fight, he's noticed an...
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Gladiator
1967
Black Liberation
0/0
Produced in collaboration with Malcolm X and narrated by Ossie Davis, this call to arms layers revolutionary text from multiple sources with gritty, s...
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Black Liberation
2003
Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
6.292/12
In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in the United States that resulted in the murder of local slave owners and their families, the eventual exec...
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Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
1999
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve
7.857/7
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 dec...
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve
2003
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
5.188/8
When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors wer...
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Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
1999
A Vow to Cherish
6/7
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 ch...
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A Vow to Cherish
1969
Night Gallery
6.542/24
This anthology telefilm aired on NBC on November 8, 1969, and tells three strange tales: "The Cemetery," directed by Boris Sagal; "Eyes," directed by...
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Night Gallery
1971
The Sheriff
6/7
A rape case opens racial divisions in a small town. A black sheriff and his white deputy investigate allegations that a wealthy white businessman rape...
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The Sheriff
1981
Death of a Prophet
4.5/14
After breaking ties with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X became a man marked for death...and it was just a matter of time before his enemies closed in....
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Death of a Prophet
2002
Theater Talk: 'A Raisin in the Sun'
0/0
Panel discussion about the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansbury's "A Raisin in the Sun."
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Theater Talk: 'A Raisin in the Sun'
1994
The Client
6.689/1411
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a...
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The Client
1997
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
10/1
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers celebrates the ground-breaking career of the first-ever African-American to join the major leagues, talented athlet...
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Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
1991
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
8/7
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such me...
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Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
2005
The History Makers: Success
0/0
Ossie Davis, Terry McMillan, Horace Julian Bond, Isaac Hayes, Dionne Warwick and many others share their inspiring stories of success in the first ins...
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The History Makers: Success
1981
Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige
6.6/5
The story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the legendary pitcher, from his barnstorming days in the 1920s, hoping to break into organized "negro" baseball, t...
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Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige
1975
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
0/0
Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
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Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
2004
Proud
4.7/10
The true story of the only African-American crew to take a Navy warship into combat in World War II.
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Proud
1994
Malcolm X: Make It Plain
9/2
Narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, this trenchant, eye-opening doc traces the radical civil rights leader’s life from his tumultuous childhood, throug...
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Malcolm X: Make It Plain
2001
The Legend of the Candy Cane
9/1
The night a mysterious stranger rode into the lonely prairie town of West Sage, no one realized their lives would never be the same.
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The Legend of the Candy Cane
1997
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
6.5/2
A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.
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Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1986
Sesame Street: Sleepytime Songs & Stories
0/0
Bedtime Stories & Songs is a 1986 Sesame Street direct-to-video compilation, released on VHS as part of the My Sesame Street Home Video label. The vid...
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Sesame Street: Sleepytime Songs & Stories
1962
Hands of Inge
0/0
The work of sculptor Inge Hardison is the subject of this beautiful short portrait of an artist. Hardison is perhaps best known for "Negro Giants in H...
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Hands of Inge
2004
She Hate Me
5.2/124
Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
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She Hate Me
1970
Kongi's Harvest
7.5/2
An African dictator (Wole Soyinka) needs to convince the former king (Rashidi Onikoyi) to legitimize his reign by offering him the ceremonial yam at t...
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Kongi's Harvest
1964
Shock Treatment
6.75/8
A private investigator endures the rigors of an insane asylum in order to locate $1 million in stolen loot.
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Shock Treatment
1999
The Unfinished Journey
6.5/4
A multimedia short created for the U.S. millennium celebrations, The Unfinished Journey reflects on America’s history and spirit through six chapters—...
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The Unfinished Journey
1999
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
8/1
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer, and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic ch...
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Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
1995
Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder
7/1
Ray investigates the murder of a judge.
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Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder
1994
Ray Alexander: A Taste For Justice
10/1
Ray investigates the murder of a psychiatrist.
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Ray Alexander: A Taste For Justice
1993
Cop & ½
4.608/167
When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick,...
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Cop & ½
1992
Lincoln
7.333/6
Famous actors read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
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Lincoln
1998
Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
9/1
Louis Gossett Jr. takes viewers through a special documentary celebration of the groundbreaking achievements of African-American performers and their...
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Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
1973
Wattstax
6.7/20
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage...
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Wattstax
1992
Haiti: Killing the Dream
9/1
A documentary focusing on the the events in Haiti following the coup of September 30, 1991. The program includes interviews with exiled President Jean...
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Haiti: Killing the Dream
1992
The Real Malcolm X
8/1
CBS News looks at Malcolm X, focusing on his public life from 1959 to his assassination in 1965, suggesting that his death was a great loss to the nat...
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The Real Malcolm X
1967
Now is the Time
0/0
“Now is the Time” is a mosaic of marches, Black spiritual, emotional, and inner life set to the readings of Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Mari Evans...
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Now is the Time
2026
Love in Exile
0/0
Set to a jazz accompaniment, the dramatic performance centered on Black love and survival weaves together Bible verses, free-verse and prose Davis wro...
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