African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: C

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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CA TWISTE A POPONGUINE.
1993. 90 minutes. In French with English subtitles.
Comedy. Coming of Age Story. Africa, 1960s. Directed by Moussa Sene Absa.

This film is a "charming, fast-paced coming of age story, an African equivalent of George Lucas' American Graffiti, Spike Lee's Crooklyn or, for the less discriminating viewer, Beach Blanket Bingo! Set during the week before Christmas, 1964, in a remote beach side village, where the local teenagers are divided into rival cultural camps. The 'In' (or Inseparables) have adopted the names of French pop stars, they attend school, they have all the girls - but they don't have a record player. The Kings style themselves after African-American Rhythm and Blues legends, they work as fishermen, don't have any girls - but they do have a record player. the story of their rivalry is told through the memories of Bacc, a husky-voiced, street-smart orphan who acts as messenger for the older kids."


CABIN IN THE SKY.
1943. 99 minutes. (V831).
Musical. Directed by Vincente Minelli.

One of MGM's few films with an all black cast. Ethel Waters plays devout Petunia Jackson, whose husband Little Joe comes close to being won over by the devil. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson is Little Joe; Lena Horne is Georgia Brown; and Rex Ingram is Reverend Green/The General. A very enjoyable film with an all black cast. There isn't much of a story, but the performers are all legends, and seeing them in this film is nothing but pure pleasure. Also with: Louis Armstrong, Kenneth Spencer, 'Bubbles' (John W. Sublett), and Oscar Polk, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra provide the music, and the Hall Johnson Choir provides the choral singing.
Notes: Songs include "Taking a Chance on Love," "Shine," "Happiness is Just A Thing Called Joe," and "Honey in the Honeycomb." Screenplay by Schrank.


CALIFORNIA REICH.
1977. 55 minutes. (V995).
Documentary.

A film dealing with a revival of American Nazism in California. A look into the lives of a Southern California Nazi Group. Filmed in the early 1970s. A disturbing film about a desperate kind of American fringe group. The film documents the lives of ordinary people who blame failures in the system on race, and race only. For these people, there is no personal failure. Hatred has made them a part of their everyday logic -- its a commonplace of their daily lives, like taking a sip of water. Very well done documentary.
Notes: Produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Walter F. Parkes and Keith F. Critchlow. Music by Craig Safan.


CHARLES JOHNSON.
1992. 29 minutes.
African-American Authors. Charles Johnson.

"This program shows how Charles Johnson, A quintessentially multicultural novelist, blends black folk tales. Zen parables, 18th century picaresque novels, and 20th-century philosophy into storytelling of remarkable vitality. Here Johnson explains that he explores metaphysical questions against the backdrop of black African-American life. Oxherding Tales and Middle Passage are odysseys in search of individual identity and common values among conflicting cultures. Johnson concludes, 'I am looking for the universal in particulars of black experience. We are cultural variations on one world experience.'"
Notes: Johnson discusses the complex structure of his stories, how he blends his philosophical leanings and studies with his narrative style. He is described as a truly multicultural author, one who effectively makes use of the vast tapestry of intellectual influences for an African-American author. Written by Barbara Christian. Edited by Christiane Badgley. Music by Mary Watkins. Narrated by Edwina Moore. Voices - Marijo and Benny Ambush. Camera by Jim Mayer, Stefan Perreira. Produced and directed by Matteo Bellinelli.


CHOCOLAT.
1989. In French with English subtitles. (V2424).
French Cinema. Romantic Melodrama. Directed by Claire Denis.

In Africa a young woman returns to the place where her father was a colonial official. In flashback she remembers her childhood and the incidents and people of what seems like a far-off time. Spectacularly photographed film, charged with sexual images. Giulia Boschi plays the beautiful young wife of a busy French colonial officer in the Cameroons who resists the sexual attractions of Protee, the family's handsome African houseboy. The story also relates the friendship of the couples daughter, France, with Protee. One elegantly crafted, slow moving but interesting tease. With: Isaach de Bankole, Guilia Boschi, Cecile Ducassse, and Francois Cluzet.
Notes: Wim Wenders' production company produced the film. Music by Abdullah Ibrahim. Written by Claire Denis and Jean Pol Gargeau. Music by Abdullah Ibrahim. Photography by Robert Alazraki.


CLASSIFIED PEOPLE.
1987. 55 minutes. (V1847).
Documentary. Apartheid. South African -- Politics and Government. Produced by Yolande Zauberman.

A documentary detailing the nature of racial classification and segregation in South Africa. "Robert" a 91 year old man has been classified "coloured". His second wife is black, but the children of he and his first white French wife are somehow whites. A piercing look at the convoluted mechanics of Apartheid.
Notes: Camera by Dewald Aukema. Edited by Jean-Francois Naudon.


CLEOPATRA JONES.
1973. 89 minutes. (V1100).
Action Adventure. Blaxploitation Films. Directed by Jack Starrett.

Tamara Dobson plays Cleopatra Jones, a tall (6 feet 2 inches), beautiful black crime fighter out to clean up a dope peddling rig led by the ferocious "Mommy" (Shelley Winters). A moderately entertaining action film from the 1970s "black exploitation" film cycle. With: Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, and Esther Rolle.
Notes: Screenplay by Max Julien, and Sheldon Keler. Photographed by David Walsh. Music by Carl Brandt, J.J. Johnson, and Brad Shapiro. Title song by Joe Simon. Box-office gross: $4,100,000.


CLOCKERS.
1995. 128 minutes.
Drugs and Youth. Drama. American Popular Fiction. Novels Into Films. African American Directors. Directed by Spike Lee.

Harvey Keitel as Rocco Klein, John Turturro as Larry Mazilli, Delroy Lindo as Rodney, Mekhi Phfier as Strike, Isaiah Washington Victor, Keith David as Andre the Giant, Pee Wee Love as Tyrone Regina Taylor as Iris Jeeter, Tom Byrd as Errol Barnes, Sticky Fingaz as Scientific, Fredro as Go E. and O. Nolasco as Horace.
Notes: Produced by Martin Scorcese. Written by Richard Price and Spike Lee from his novel. Music by Seal, Marc Dorsey, Des'ree and Chaka Khan. Original Music by Terence Blanchard. Photographed by Malik Hassan Sayeed. Box-office gross: $13,000,000.


COLOR: A SAMPLING OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS.
1994. 57 minutes.
African-American Authors. Lannan Institute. Writers on writing.

COLOR is a production of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Program. The program is a overview of the history of African-American literature in the last 30 years. Lucille Clifton reading from Quilting. Rita Dove reading from O from Selected Poems [3/5/89].. Clarence Major reads from Surfaces and Masks, 4/26/90. Amiri Baraka reading from an unpublished manuscript, reminiscences of his early life and intellectual development [2/11/91] Alice Walker talking about The Color Purple [1/9/89]. Ishmael Reed, reading from a Lannan series interview [5/26/89]. Lusiah Teish in an interview at San Francisco State [9/17/87]. Mona Lisa Saloy reading from For Frank Fitch from Culture Juice. Etheridge Knight reading the segment Rehabilitation 7 Treatment in the Prisons of America from The Essential Ethridge Knight [9/26/74].
Notes: Written and narrated by Al Young. Xam Wilson Cartier a reading from Be-bop, Re-bop [2/7/89]. Lorenzo Thomas reading the poem My Office from Chances are Few [3/19/81]. George Barlow reading the poem AMERICAN PLETHORA: MacCorporate MacDream from Gumbo. Alice Walker reading from a talk about Zora Neale Hurston [10/2/80]. Ntozake Shange reading from nappy edges (a cross country sojourn) from nappy edges [11/17/76]. Conyus Calhoun reading the poem A Poem Can Change You (Skywalkers) for James Brown and David Thompson from an unpublished manuscript [2/18/84]. June Jordan reading My Victim Poem from an unpublished manuscript [4/20/77]. Ishmael Reed reading the poem Black Peter Calypso form The Terrible Threes [5/26/89]. Yusef Komunyakaa reading the poem The Edge from Dien Cai Dau [3/17/88]. Harryette Mullen reading from the book Trimmings [10/2/86]. David Henderson reading the poem Third Eye World from Black American Literature [8/2/85]. Colleen J. McElroy reading Memoirs of American Speech from Winters Without Snow [4/15/82]. Barbara Christian from a talk about Alice given at the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives' Women Working in Literature Conference: Political Issues in Women's Writing [4/14/85]. Written and narrated by Al Young. Executive Producer, Laura Moriarty. Associate Producers Jiri Veskrna and Judy Hearst.


COLOR ADJUSTMENT.
1991. 87 minutes.
Documentary. Blacks in Television. The American Dream. Media and Images. Film and Media Studies. Directed by Marlon Riggs.
Two segments included in the film: Part I Color Blind TV? (1948-68) 48 minutes./Part II Coloring the Dream (1968- 39 minutes.

"In COLOR ADJUSTMENT Marlon Riggs brings his landmark study of prejudice and perception begun in Ethnic Notions into the Television Age. From Amos 'n Andy to The Cosby Show, Color Adjustment traces over forty years of turbulent race relations through the lens of prime time entertainment. Black actors Esther Rolle, Diahann Carroll, Denise Nicholas and Tim Reid and Hollywood producers Norman Lear, Steve Bochco, Sheldon Leonard [producer], Herman Gray [Sociologist], Alvin Poussaint [psychiatrist], Bob Henry, Producer, Bruce Paltrow, Daphne Maxwell Reid [actress], Hal Kanter [Producer, Writer], Henry Louis Gates [cultural historian], David Wolper reveal the behind-the-scenes story of how prime time was 'integrated.' Revisiting such popular favorites as Beulah, The Nat King Cole Show, Julia, I Spy, Good Times."
Notes: Original music by Mary Watkins. Videography by Rick Butler, Michael Anderson. Narrated by Ruby Dee.


THE COLOR PURPLE.
1985. 154 minutes. (V1435).
Romantic Melodrama. Alice Walker. African-American Women. American Popular Fiction. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Controversial film of Alice Walker's feminist novel about a group of Southern black women early in the century, and the men in their lives. A lot of the controversy over the film came from some black organizations which disliked the image of the black male that the film's story projected, an ingenious argument since the script reflects the author's tone with some felicity. Some arguments felt the story should have been made by a black filmmaker. Later controversy emerged when the film did not receive as much consideration at the Academy Awards as was anticipated. The history of the film shows a schizoid history of attitudes about what the author wrote and about how to accept the screen adaptation of her work. The Color Purple is a "maturer" film than one has expected from Spielberg, it is a work that he felt emotionally and psychologically bound to do. It is effective in the main, because it addresses problems that have rarely been given such attention in mainstream, big budget American films. It is clear, from its popular success, that the film carried some emotional resonance for many people (or did it feed stereotypes of black males) -- it was very successful at the box-office, especially considering its subject matter. It is hardly a great film. Spielberg's earnest attempt to make a serious film about a subject that he found emotionally challenging got caught up in an incredible crossfire of cross purposes -- those who disliked the themes of the story, those who made political capital of how it was made, and critical doubts about his ability to deal with the subject matter. He was to doomed have this film declared a failure.. With: Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, Danny Glover as 'Mister', Margaret Avery as Shug and also with: Oprah Winfrey, Adolph Caesar (his last role), Rae Dawn Chong, and Akousa Busia. "
Notes: Screenplay by Menno Meyjes. Photographed by Allen Daviau. Music by Quincy Jones. Produced by Spielberg, Jones, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Peters. Box-office gross: $49,800,000. Academy Award nominations for best picture, actress (Goldberg), supporting actress (2 Winfrey and Avery), screen adaptation (Meyjes), cinematography, art/set decoration, song ('Miss Celie's Blues' (Sister) by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperson), score, costume design, and makeup.


COLOR US BLACK.
1968. 60 minutes.
Documentary. African-American Studies. Howard University, 1960s. [available only in 16mm].

"Covers the struggle of the black man for his own identity from the point of view of Negro students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and shows the four-day takeover of the administration building by the students and describes the results of the rebellion."
Notes: Produced and written by Dick McCutchen.


COME BACK CHARLESTON BLUE.
1972.
Detective Fiction. African-American Authors. Chester Himes. Directed by Mark Warren.

Godfrey Cambridge as Gravedigger Jones and Raymond St. Jacques as Coffin Ed Johnson. With: Jonelle Allen as Carol, Darryl Knibb as Douglass, Joseph Ray as Bubba, Percy Rodrigues as Captain Bryce, Minnie Gentry as her Majesty, Dick Sabol as Jarema, Leonardio Cimino as Frank Mago, Tony Brealond as drag queen.
Notes: Music by Donny Hathaway. Music supervised and conducted by Quincy Jones. Screenplay by Bontche Schwieg and Peggy Elliott from Chester Himes' novel The Heat's On. Photography by Dick Kratina. Title song by Donny Hathaway, lyrics by Quincy Jones and Al Cleveland. Song sung by Donny Hathaway and Valerie Simpson.


THE CONNECTION.
1961. 105 minutes. (V1091).
Experimental Cinema. Drug Addicts. Cinema Verite. Directed by Shirley Clarke.

A documentary style drama about a freelance filmmaker's attempt to get at the "real" world of a group of strung out dope addicts in a New York hang-out. the film has a kind of New York knowingness about it -- it delves into an area alien to the vast majority of Americans at the time it was released. It has a quality of real life just a little stylized. An interesting film from a time that seems long ago and far away about a drug culture that has become all too commonplace. Excellent acting. With: William Redfield, Roscoe Lee Brown, Jerome Raphael, James Anderson, Warren Finnerty, Carl Lee, and the Freddie Redd Quartet.
Notes: Screenplay by Jack Gelber based on his own play. Music by Redd.


COOLEY HIGH.
1975. 107 minutes.
High School. Black Youth. Drama. Directed by Michael Schultz.

In 1964 Chicago two close friends look to different futures one as a basketball player the other as a Hollywood screen writer. For the present, however, they want to have fun with girls and the guys. This events in this film take place in several packed days in the young men's lives. It ends tragically. The film is not badly done and the young black actors make the most of their chances. Despite the interest many of us might have in the film as a reflection of the life of urban youths in the '60s the film's story is very weakly written. It's imitative style makes it just a little more American Graffiti ghetto version. With: Glynn Turman, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis, Corin Rogers, Maurice Leon Havis, Joseph Carter Wilson, Sherman Smith, Norman Gibson, Maurice Marshall, Steven Williams, Jackie Taylor, Christine Jones, and Lynn Caridine.
Notes: Written by Eric Monte. Photography by Paul vom Brack. Original music, composed arranged and conducted by Freddie Perren. Songs include Fingertips (Stevie Wonder); Baby Love, Stop, In The Name of Love (The Supremes); Can't Help Myself (Four Tops); Dancing in the Streets (Martha and the Vandellas); Beechwood 4-5789, the ever ubiquitous My Girl and Mickey's Monkey. For Boyz to Men fans the last song will be a surprise. [Watch the scene on the school's basketball court late in the film. You'll catch a glimpse of a very young Robert Townsend as one of the bit players. He even says a line].


CONJURE WOMEN.
1995. 85 minutes.
Multi-Culturalism. African-American Women. Visual and Dance Performance Artists. Folk Art. African-American Folklore. Directed by Demetria Royals.

A wide range of black women folk, visual, and performance artists discuss their art, and give performances of their works. Intriguing look at African-American artists whose interests in their cultural past and present is represented and interpreted in their artistic work. Among the artists discussing and performing their works: Anita Gonzalez [choreographer/dancer], Dor Green [Dancer, Performance Artist], Robbie McCauley [Performance Artist performing her piece Sally's Rape with Jeannie Hutchins], Carrie Mae Weems [photographer/visual artist], Cassandra Wilson [Vocalist/composer],
Notes: Produced by Louise Diamond. Photographed by Ronald K. Gray. Original music composed by Tiyé Giraud. Assoc. Producer and Researcher, Pamela S. Booker.


THE COTTON CLUB.
1984. 128 minutes. (V691).
Romantic Melodrama. Crime Drama. Drama with Music. Cotton Club, Harlem. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Francis Ford Coppola directed this Robert Evans production about the gangsters who ran Harlem's famed Cotton Club at the height of prohibition and the Jazz Age. Richard Gere stars as a cornet player who becomes a big Hollywood star in gangster films. Gregory Hines plays a young singer/dancer who taps his way to the top. The film has some exciting moments, especially the dance sequences and a number of other fascinating moments -- the singing of "Ill Winds" by Lonette McKee and all the scenes between Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne. There are some very violent scenes including a brutal murder during a dinner party (a scene repeated by De Palma in The Untouchables (the one with the baseball bat)). With: Nicholas Cage, Allen Garfield, Diane Lane, Gwen Verdon, Maurice Hines, Jennifer Grey, Julian Beck, Tom Waits, Woody Strode, Diane Venora, and Joe Delessandro as Lucky Luciano.
Notes: Screenplay by William Kennedy and Mario Puzo. Gere plays his own cornet solos. Academy Award nominations for art/set decoration and editing. Box-office gross: $12,931,284.


COTTON COMES TO HARLEM.
1970. 97 minutes.
Detective Drama. Chester Himes. African-American Authors. Harlem. Ossie Davis. Directed by Ossie Davis.

Godfrey Cambridge is Grave Digger Jones and Raymond St. Jacques is Coffin Ed Johnson the team of tough Harlem police detectives created by Chester Himes in this film adaptation directed by the great Ossie Davis. The two detectives are on the shenanigans of a crooked youth preacher named Deke O'Malley. When a rally is held in Harlem for a back-to-Africa movement, a heist of the $87,000 looks funny to the two tough cops. This film was a step above the black exploitation action dramas of the time. Ossie Davis' aim was clearly to produced a film with roots in the specialness of Harlem and re-introduced Chester Himes to a new generation of detective fiction readers. With: Calvin Lockhart at Rev. Deke O'Malley, Judy Pace as Iris, Redd Foxx as Uncle Budd, Emily Yancy as Mabel, John Anderson as Capt. Bryce, Lou Jacobi as Goodman, Eugene Roche as Lt. Anderson, J. D. Cannon as Calhoun, Mabel Robinson as Billie, Dick Sabol as Jarema, Cleavon Little as Lo Boy, and Theodore Wilson as Barry.
Notes: Screenplay by Arnold Perl and Ossie Davis based on Chester Hime's novel of the same name. Music by Galt McDermot. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Photographed by Gerald Hirschfeld.


CRISIS: BEHIND A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITMENT.
1963. 58 minutes. (V2257).
Documentary. Integration of the University of Alabama. Robert Kennedy. George Wallace.

"Crisis presents an intimate, unstaged look at the potentially explosive confrontation of John and Robert Kennedy with George Wallace over the forced integration on the University of Alabama." The film uses raw film footage from television news and newsreel to depict the escalating crisis of the Kennedy administration's handling of the situation.
Notes: Narrated by James Lipscomb. Produced by Gregory Shuker.


CRISIS IN BLACK AMERICA.
1985. 64 minutes. (V1145).
Documentary. Teenage Pregnancy. Unmarried Mothers. African-American Families.

A disturbing look at the alarming increase of black children born out of wedlock hosted by Bill Moyers. The program looks at the role of welfare and the effects it has on changing values in the poorest black communities. Part of the CBS Reports' The Vanishing Family series broadcast by CBS television.
Notes: A 33 minute panel discussion which followed the original broadcast is not included. Written, produced, and directed by Ruth Streeter


CROOKLYN.
1994. 114 minutes.
Comedy. African-American Family Life. Brooklyn, 1960s. African American Directors. Directed by Spike Lee.

This light-hearted look backwards is Lee's tribute to black family life in 1960s Brooklyn. Alfre Woodard gives a gritty determined performance as a woman who not only must nurture and teach her children, but must also console her talented, but under-employed musician husband. It's a noisy, pleasantly entertaining comedy with just a touch of pathos and sentimentality. There is a hint of autobiography in the film which was co-scripted with Lee by his sisters Joie and Cinque. Most of the film is seen from the eyes of the eldest daughter. With: Delroy Lindo as Woody, Spike Lee, Zelda Harris.
Notes: Screenplay by Lee, Joie Susannah Lee, and Cinque Lee. Photographed by Arthur Jafa. Original Music by Terence Blanchard. Box-office gross: $13,000,000.


CRY FREEDOM.
1987. 157 minutes. (V1785).
Directed by Richard Attenborough.

A film about the events that led up to the death of South African activist Steven Biko while in custody of South African authorities. It is also about his friendship with white newspaperman Donald Woods. Attenbourough direction is tasteful and intelligent, and his films to date have been well-meaning documents of seriousness like this film GANDHI and the movie version of A Chorus Line. Denzell Washington is a proud, handsome, dignified Biko -- he's a magnetic screen presence and perfectly fit for the role of hero's like Biko. Kevin Kline's Woods is tensely played, like a man constantly looking over his shoulder. Not nearly as complex and penetrating a film about South African apartheid as A World Apart, but well done.
Notes: Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor (Washington), best song "Cry Freedom" by George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa, and original score.


CRY OF JAZZ.
1959. 34 minutes.
Documentary. Race Relations -- United States. Jazz Music. African-American Music.

"Examines difference between Negro and white Americans in background, temperament, and experience, and explains why the musical structure of jazz provides and interpretation of Negro life."