This feature film follows unapologetic and free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son, Terry, from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City.
Part of the Black Film Festival hosted by Justified Anger
" Set in Louisiana during World War II, this film tells the story of a murdered Black Master Sergeant and the tough Army Captain sent to investigate the crime. Dealing with issues of race, prejudice, and segregation, this gripping drama is a must see for movie and history fans alike." Part of a 2021 Wisconsin Veteran's Museum African-American History Month Event
Recommended by Wisconsin Veteran's Museum
Bryan Stevenson's book memoir/autobiography of the same name recounts his life's work as an attorney in Alabama defending wrongly convicted people, people on death row and his creation of the Equal Justice Initiative. The film condenses the book into a feature film starring Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson.
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right. Recommended by YWCA of Madison
In this film set in 1901 and based on a true story, Edward James Olmos plays a young Mexican named Gregorio Cortez. Cortez killed a sheriff in Gonzales, Tex. and flees, chased by a 600 man posse led by the Texas Rangers. Ultimately captured, his trial had essentially a pre-determined outcome. In the trial, it was revealed that an interpreter had inadvertently distorted the sheriff's meaning and turned an inquiry into a threat. The real Cortez served 12 years of a 50 year sentence, getting out only after a Governor's pardon.
In this drama, a nurse puts her own plans and dreams on hold when her husband is sentenced to eight years in prison. Despite the disapproval of some of her family and financial stress, she works to maintain her marriage and support her husband emotionally- making regular trips to visit him in prison. Writer/director DuVernay explores the lives of women waiting, and said in the Los Angeles Times she was inspired by the lives of women from her own neighborhood (she grew up in Long Beach and Compton).
In this feature film based on the book Push by Sapphire, in 1987 an obese, illiterate, black 16-year-old named Claireece 'Precious' Jones lives in Harlem with her dysfunctional family. She has been raped and impregnated twice by her father, Carl and suffers constant physical, mental and sexual abuse from her unemployed mother, Mary. After getting pregnant for the second time, Precious is suspended from her school. Her principal arranges to have her attend an alternative school where her new teacher, Ms. Rain, helps Precious learn to read and she responds to this glimmer of hope.
First time director Dee Rees (with executive producer Spike Lee) has created a film reflective of Rees’ own real-life young adulthood. Here, 17 year old Alike is a high achieving African-American high school senior, cautiously exploring her lesbian identity out-of-sight of her parents. While her sister knows her story, her parents --who are socially conservative-- act as if they do not. An exploration of identity across and within multiple cultures.
The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother, being a better partner to his girlfriend, and being a better father to T, their beautiful four-year-old daughter. Then he's gunned down by BART officers on New Year's Day in 2009, sending shock waves throught our nation. This film was Michael B.
12 Years a Slave is a feature film adaptation of Solomon Northup's slave narrative of the same name. Widely lauded by film critics and viewers around the globe, the film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Northrup was born free and living in New York state when he travelled to the Washington D.C. area for a short term job. There he is kidnapped and shipped south where he is sold - twice. After 12 years in slavery, he is finally identified as a free man by someone he once knew and returns to his family.
