African American Film Biographies

Iconic leaders of the African American Civil Rights Movement are the focus of this series that presents the struggles for Afrocentric identity as seen through the eyes of African American filmmakers immersed in the Black Experience.

Screenings Tuesdays at 8 pm | FREE ADMISSION

1 February - Boycott

Clark Johnson, USA, 2001, 120 minutes. Martin Luther King’s first major campaign is convincingly re-created by the Canadian/American actor and director Clark Johnson, with an electrifying Jeffrey Wright in the central role as Dr. King.

8 February - The Rosa Parks Story

Julie Dash, USA, 2002, 90 minutes. December 1st, 1955 is the date when the legendary Rosa Parks refused to move to the “Blacks Only” section of a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Actress Angela Bassett and director Julie (Daughters of the Dust) Dash bring the story vividly to life.

15 February - Malcolm X

Spike Lee, USA, 1992, 205 minutes. Actor Denzel Washington is mesmerizing as the charismatic African American leader whose controversial life and teachings still resonate more than forty years after his assassination.

22 February - A Huey P. Newton Story

Spike Lee, USA, 2001, 95 minutes. Taking the opposite approach from the epic scope of Malcolm X, Spike Lee’s adaptation of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show retains its theatricality, while adding news reel footage of the Black Panther movement from whence Newton emerged.