African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: G

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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GENERAL COLIN POWELL: WHAT I'VE LEARNED.
1991. 28 minutes. (V2821).
Documentary, Bio-interview. Military Heroes. African-Americans in the Military. Films for the Humanities.

From the cover -- "This portrait shows how far a disadvantaged minority can go--and how Colin Powell was able to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he was born in Harlem and grew up in the South Bronx. He says he didn't know he was a minority because everyone was minority; that, yes, there were drugs in the neighborhood but that they were not tolerated among those with strong family ties; and that he did not do well at college but found his mission in the Army. General Powell comes across in this program, as he does in the midst of battle, as an extraordinarily capable, intelligent, self-aware, and self-controlled man: an exceptional role model for those who must carve out their own road to success; living proof of how far an American Black can go with only a strong and loving family to back him. This program offers a striking portrait of a new and human U.s. Army, and its striking potential for doing peace-time social good."


GENERATIONS OF RESISTANCE.
1980. 52 minutes. (V2114).
Documentary. Apartheid. South Africa -- Social Conditions. Directed by Peter Davis.

"This classic film is the definitive history of South African's century-long history of black resistance to white rule. It combines the testimony of survivors of early battles with rare archival footage to retrace the long and arduous path to freedom traveled by black South Africans..."
Notes: A documentary produced by the United Nations. Edited by Anabel Compton. Narrated by Motlatsi Motsoasele. Written by Davis.


GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SINGERS.
1963. 20 minutes. (V4035).
African American Spiritual singers and songs. Folk songs. Georgia Sea Island traditional singing.

This short film presents the performance of tradition Georgia Sea Island African American spirituals. The islands, off the coast of Northern Georgia have their own rich tradition of folk and spiritual culture which has been passed down from the antebellum slave and African culture of the people. Folk myth and stories mix with biblical stories.
Notes: Singers include John Davis, Emma Ramsay, Henry Morrison, Mabel Hillary and Bessie Jones. Songs include Bright Star Shining in Glory, Yonder Comes Day. Production crew included Archer Goodwin, Edmund Carpenter, Bess Lomax Hawes, Alan Lomax, Stanley Croner, Isidore Mankofsky, Fred Hudson, and William Varney. BUCKDANCER is also included on this tape [see under that title for more information].


GET ON THE BUS.
1996. 122 minutes.
Social Drama. African-American Men. Million Man March, October 16, 1995. African-American Directors. Directed by Spike Lee.

Director Spike Lee wanted to capture the spirit of the Million Man March organized by Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan by filming a story of a disparate group of black men from L. A. who board a bus making a cross country trip to be a part of this pilgrimage to black male solidarity. What he has fashioned is one of his most cohesive narratives for his dramatic films. The story is simply and honestly told and the acting solid and forceful. The film is absent much of the emotional cant and posturing one finds in even the best of Lee's dramatic films [most strikingly in Jungle Fever and Do the Right Thing] and has to be attributable to the screenplay being written by someone other than Lee. Reggie Blythewood has fashioned a straight-forward traditional script, one using the time honored Hollywood trick of putting a group of men of varying backgrounds, life-styles and points-of-view together who are forced by circumstances to overcome barriers of pride, prejudice, and fear. The story has worked effectively for every good war and action film ever produced, and is just as effective has a dramatic stratagem for this subject matter. It is very satisfying to see a film that offers so varied a presentation of black male voices and visions. Well done. With: Richard Belzer as Rick, De'Aundre Bonds as Junior, Andre Braugher as Flip, Thomas Jefferson Byrd as Evan Thomas, Sr., Gabriel Casseus as Jamal, Albert Hall as Craig, Hill Harper as Xavier, Harry Lennix as Randall, Wendell Pierce as Wendell, Roger Guenveur Smith as Gary, Isaiah Washington as Kyle, Steve White as Mike, Ossie Davis as Jeremiah, Charles S. Dutton as George, Joie Lee as Jindal, Kristin Wilson as Shelly, Frank Clem as Jefferson.
Notes: Written by Reggie Rock Blythewood. Photographed by Elliot Davis. Music composed by Terence Blanchard.


GIRL FROM CHICAGO.
1932. 69 minutes.
Crime Melodrama. Oscar Micheaux. African American Cinema. Directed by Oscar Micheaux.

A young secret service agent named Alonzo Smith is dispatched to a little Mississippi town to discover the actions of a small time local hood. While there, he falls in love with a lovely school teacher. When the hoodlum tries to impose himself on Norma, the teacher, he is arrested and the couple moves to a better life in New York. There, Norma's best friend and mentor, is in thrall of a numbers racketeer. A scheming woman from Mississippi kills the racketeer and Norma's friend is blamed. Alonzo and a detective colleague devise a plan to exonerate the woman wrongly accused. Alonzo follows the villainess to Europe and entraps her. This sound version of an earlier, controversial silent film by Micheaux called The Spider's Web is badly acted and over archly written [to be kind]. The earlier film was criticized for the color consciousness of the film -- Micheaux's tendency to have very light skinned actors in the most positive roles. The narrative flow of the film is erratic, and the class/color consciousness is still evident, though not as deliberate. The acting in the film is uniformly bad -- the one exception being the small part played by the magnificent Juano Hernandez as a minister. Carl Mahon, Starr Calloway, Grace Smith, Frank Wilson, Eugene Brooks, Minta Cato, Juano Hernandez, Erwin Gary, John Everett, Alice B. Russell, Cherokee Thornton, Chick Evans, Bud Harris, Rhythm Rascals Orchestra.


GIRL 6.
1996. 108 minutes.
Romantic Comedy. African-American Directors. Telephone Sex Comedy. Directed by Spike Lee.

A beautiful, gifted young black actress struggles to jump start her career. She works as a hat check girl at a swank dance club, hands out street bills. When she lands a job as a phone sex operator she uses her acting range to become the most popular girl in the shop. Theresa Randle is smart, charming and sexy as the girl. The movie is better than one might expect. It's smoothly done. With: Isaiah Washington, Spike Lee, Jennifer Lewis, Debi Mazar, Peter Berg, Michael Imperioli, Dina Pearlman, Maggie Rush, Naomi Campbell. Special appearances by Richard Belzer, Halle Berry, Madonna, Ron Silver, Quentin Tarantino and John Turturro.
Notes: Songs by Prince. Photography by Malik Hassan Sayeed. Written by Suzan-Lori Parks.


GLORIA NAYLOR.
1989. 36 minutes.
Documentary. Interview. African-American Authors. Black Women Authors. From the series Writers Talk: Ideas of our Time.

"Naylor discusses her life and writings, especially as she attempts to represent the experiences of Black women in America. "
Notes: Roland Collectio of Films on Art. Interviewed by Nicholas Shakespeare, recorded in England.


GLORY.
1989. 122 minutes. (V2629).
Blacks in the Military--History -- Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry -- Civil War Drama. Directed by Edward Zwick.

Zwick has produced a brilliantly, if erratic tribute to the brave black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of the Civil War. The film is beautifully constructed, and emotionally satisfying, even with some of its haphazard editing and minor anachronisms (casting and writing mostly). Zwick has the advantage of excellent ensemble acting, but importantly he has captured what surely was the atmosphere of the black troops who courageously came from throughout the Union to participate in what became the war for Emancipation. It is an emotionally honest film, and largely historically correct. It presents the events of black troop involvement without excessive editorializing and without rancor. Overall an excellent, powerful film on a great theme and subject. With: Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw, Denzel Washington as Trip, Cary Elwes as Major Forbes, Morgan Freeman as Sgt. Rawlins, Jihmi Kennedy as Sharts, Andre Braugher as Searles, John Finny as Mulcahy, Donovan Leitch as Morse, and Cliff DeYoung as Colonel Montgomery.
Notes: Screenplay by Kevin Jarre. Photographed by Freddie Francis. Music by James Horner. Washington received the best supporting actor for his magnetic performance as the hot tempered Trip. Broderick's performance as Shaw was extremely underrated. He plays a man of conscience, who has the very human traits of fear and doubt, with grace and intelligence. He makes Shaw a complex man, just as Washington makes Trip a bold (if somewhat anachronistic) voice. Jarre's script is based on the letters of Robert Gould Shaw and on Lincoln Kirsten's Lay This Laurel and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard. The choral voices are those of the Harlem Boys' Choir. Box-office gross: $13,000,000.


GO DOWN DEATH.
1944. 54minutes. (V1823).
Religious Melodrama. Directed by Spencer Williams.

The words of James Weldon Johnson's poem of the same title anchor a story about a crusading preacher who is falsely accused of taking liberties with several of his young female parishioners. The young minister's protectress discovers that her wicked nephew, a local sin palace owner plans to set up the minister. When she presents the bar owner with her knowledge he kills. The man becomes overwhelmed with his guilt and is "hounded to death by his conscience." Like The Blood of Jesus is like a spiritual passion play. With: Myra D. Hemmings, Samuel H. James, Eddye L. Houston, Spencer Williams, and Ames Drouhan.
Notes: Story by Jean Roddy. Screenplay Sam Elljay. Photography by H. W. Kier. Edited by L. J. Powell. Prints in fair condition.


THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY.
1984. 109 minutes. (V1270).
SOUTH AFRICAN. (In English). Directed by Jamie Uys.

Xi, a Bushman, is intrigued by a coke bottle dropped from the sky. When the bottle turns his tribes people against one another, the concerned Xi goes on an odyssey to return the troublesome thing back to the Gods. A slapstick comedy from South Africa that was inexplicably very popular in the United States. The film is very simple, not a little patronizing, and just too cute. With: Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo and Xao, The Bushman as the central character.
Notes: Written, edited, produced, and photographed by Uys. Music by John Boshoff.


GOIN' BACK TO T-TOWN.
1994. 60 minutes.
Documentary. African-American Studies. Greenwood, Oklahoma. Black Townships. Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

"Even before the Civil War, African-Americans, both slave and free, were settling in Oklahoma. By the turn of the century, the territory was dotted with all-black communities, but none as extraordinary as Greenwood, in Tulsa. Segregation kept blacks apart from white Tulsans, but black Greenwood thrived. Black residents built and supported two movie houses, two newspapers. 15 grocery and drug stores, 13 churches, and a number of restaurants, funeral parlors, clubs and hotels. In 1921, angry whites looted and burned Greenwood to the ground in one of the most vicious race riots the nation had ever seen. But tough, enterprising black citizens rebuilt a new Greenwood from the ashes, stronger and more alive than ever. By 1936, the neighborhood boasted the largest concentration of black business in the United States. But Greenwood couldn't survive the progressive policies of integration d urban renewal of the 60s. In a nostalgic celebration of old fashioned neighborhood life, the black residents of 'T-Town' relive their community's remarkable rise and ultimate de line."
Notes: A segment of the PBS series The American Experience. Produced by Sam Pollard and Joyce Vaughn. Narrated by Ossie Davis. Among the survivors, relatives and children of Greenwood residents interviewed: Currie Ballard, Rosa B. Skinner, Robert Fairchild, James Homer Johnson, Joe R. Burns, Hobart Jarrett, James O. Goodwin, Maxine Cissel Corner, John Hope Franklin, George D. Monroe. Written by Carmen Fields. Edited by Betty Ciccarelli. Cinematography by Robert Shepard. Music coordinator, Rena S. Kosersky. Historical Advisors, Jimmie Lewis Franklin [Professor of History Vanderbilt University, and John Hope Franklin [James B. Duke Professor of History, Emeritus].


GOIN' TO CHICAGO.
1994. 71 minutes.
Documentary. Black Migration, 1940-1970. Chicago, African-Americans. Directed by George King.

"This film chronicles one of the most momentous, yet least heralded sagas of American history - the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North and West. Four million black people created a new dynamic urban culture outside the South, changing America forever. GOIN' TO CHICAGO tells this history through the personal stories of a group of older Chicagoans born in the Mississippi Delta. A newspaper editor, steelworker, blues musician and others movingly recall their journey north on Highway 61 from the poverty of share-cropping to better-paying factory jobs in Chicago. On the South Side they built a vibrant city-within-a-city of thriving black businesses, proudly referred to as 'Bronzeville.'"
Notes: Produced by George King. Photographed by Rick Butler. Written by Lou Potter. Edited by Amy Carey. Narrated by Vertamae Grosvenor. Newsreel Voice, Bill Ratner. Home Movie Narrator, Viethel Wills.


GOOD MORNIN' BLUES.
1979. 58 minutes. (4023).
Documentary. Blues Music, History -- Mississippi Delta.

"B.B. King narrates this documentary about blues music from its earliest origins until World War II. The program explores the music of the Mississippi Delta, the home of country blues music which later provided the basis for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and soul. Performers include the late Son House, Bukka White, Nathan Beuregard, Big Joe Williams, Furry Lewis, Johnny Shines, Honey boy Edward, Mrs. Van Hunt, Memphis Ma Rainey and Hacksaw Henry. The recordings of the late Willie Brown, Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson are also featured." This documentary places the strong heritage of the blues in the Mississippi delta -- its association with poor black laborers and farmers -- prison work songs (with scenes of laborers from Parchman, the infamous prison farm. The incredible influence of hard driven, hard living Robert Johnson, who died at the startling age of 26 is also noted. Johnson's music reflects the role of men's hard times with their women. As the music passed from the desperate delta it moved northward, through Beale Street where it faced some changes to Chicago, where what is known as Urban blues emerged with the likes of Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. The Blues' deep connections with what became jazz and gospel music is discussed.
Notes: Footage includes some of these bluesmen singing their own songs: Sam Chatman sings St. Louis Blues; Willie Brown sings The Mississippi Blues; Son House sings Low Down Dirty Blues; Nathan Beauregard, 97 years old and a contemporary of Charlie Patton sings Patton's Spoonful. Directed by Walt Lowe. Produced by Rob Cooper, Written by Edward Cohen. Cinematography by Cooper, Lower, George Johnson, Joe Akin and Russell McCullough. Edited by Cooper


GRAVEL SPRINGS FIFE AND DRUMS.
1972. 10 minutes.
Documentary. Black Folk Music. (16mm only).

"A documentary on black folklore. Uses the words and music of Othar Turner, a farmer-musician from Gravel Springs, Mississippi, to focus on the way of life of the townspeople, and to compare their fife and drum music to that traditionally played in West Africa. "
Notes: Made by Jude Peiser, Bill Ferris, and David Evans.


GREASED LIGHTNING.
1977. 96 minutes.
Biographical Drama. Stock Car Racing. African-American Stock Car Drivers. Directed by Michael Schultz.

Richard Pryor stars as Wendell Scott, the first black NASCAR stock car driver. The film is nothing spectacular but was a good dramatic vehicle for most of the cast, especially the black actors and actresses. Pryor gives a solid, simple dramatic performance. With: Beau Bridges, Pam Grier, Cleavon Little, Vincent Gardenia, Richie Havens.
Notes: Written by Kenneth Vose, Lawrence DuKore, Melvin Van Peebles, and Leon Capetanos. Music by Fred Karling. Songs performed by Roberta Flack and Richie Havens. Box-office gross: $7,600,000.


A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM.
1995. 60 minutes.
Documentary. Jazz Musicians.

"In 1958, Art Kane, one of New York's most promising young art directors, conceived the idea of an all encompassing group shot of 'everyone' in the jazz world. The word went out to meet uptown at 10:00am on a summer morning--quite an early hour for musicians who usually played till dawn. It's a wonder anyone show up at all. Jazz greats like Martin McPartland, Maxine Sullivan, Art Blakey and Milt Hinton mingled with legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, and Coleman Hawkins to name a few--all but ignoring the man who was trying to get them to pose. Eventually, with the help of a makeshift megaphone and an inexperienced assistant, the artists found their places, Kane shot his photograph and history was made. A Great Day In Harlem features rare, never-before-seen home movie footage of the jazz stars arriving and greeting each other the morning of the shoot. Also included are conversations with jazz greats and archival performance footage. A Great Day in Harlem is a salute to the people and the music style that has been called America's only original art form: Jazz."
Notes: Edited by Susan Peehl. Music Consultant, Johnny Mandel. Photography by Steve Petropoulos. Original 8mm film and black cover photos by Mona and Milt Hinton. Narrated by Quincy Jones. Written by Jean Bach, Susan Peehl & Matthew Seig. Co-produced by Matthew Seig and Jean Bach.


THE GREAT WHITE HOPE.
1970. 103 minutes.
Directed by Martin Ritt.

Jack Jefferson is a black boxer in the early years of the century whose swagger, bravado, and strength made him a target for white sports fans. Jefferson's confidence and diffidence brought him into open conflict with law enforcement officials and promoters of the game. His marriage to a white woman caused a public outcry. When he was brought to trial on a variety of charges he was convicted and sentenced to jail but managed to leave the country by escaping to Canada and then to Europe. The authorities, seeking to remove him as a visible symbol to the black community interfere his efforts to fight in England. Reduced to exhibitions and then to minor theatrics he finally agrees to fight a chosen candidate by the promoters -- the Great White Hope -- and to take a dive, thus assuring that the new champion would be white. Howard Sackler's screenplay took few liberties with the facts of the life of Jack Johnson, the factual basis of his play, (the key one was having Johnson have one white wife). The film makes us conscious of the rabid racism in the country at the time the proud, arrogant, and sometimes brutish man lived. The film is a theatrical showpiece, however. It is structured like classic Greek theater (it even has an oracle scene), and though shot in open scenes it feels stagebound. At the center of the film is the magnetic performance of James Earl Jones as Jefferson/Johnson. It is nearly all bravado -- an entertaining performance though one always played at the same bewildering speed. Jane Alexander plays the composite figure of the women in his life gallantly. With: Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen, Chester Morris, Robert Webber, R.G. Armstrong, Hal Holbrook, Beah Richards, and Moses Gunn.
Notes: Screenplay by Sackler. Academy Award nominations for best actor (Jones) and actress (Alexander). Photography by Burnett Guffey. Music by Lionel Newman. Dance sequence choreographed by Donald McKayle. Song "Let Me Hold You In My Arms Tonight" by Jesse Fuller. Excellent factual accounts of the real Jack Johnson can be found in Arthur Ashe's The Hard Road to Glory and The Dictionary of Sports Biography: Basketball and other Indoor Sports both in the Reference collection of the Undergraduate Library.


THE GREEN PASTURES.
1936. 93 minutes. (V737).
American Theater. All Black Cast. Folktales. Directed by William Keighly with Marc Connelly.

This film of Marc Connelly's "entertainment" about the biblical folklore of Southern blacks in the early part of the 20th century was one of the earliest films with an all black cast made by the major Hollywood studios. The story is that of group of Sunday school children are told Old Testament stories as black southern folk tales. This film has a quaintness that stems from its considerable innocence. Using biblical stories as a context, the film entertains us with its simplicity and harmlessness. The folksy images of blacks depicted in the film were typical of mainstream moviedom's general image of African-Americans. With: Rex Ingram plays "De Lawd" and also appears as Adam. Also with Eddie Anderson, Frank Wilson, George Reeves, and Oscar Polk. Note: The score is traditional spirituals sung by the famous Hall Johnson Choir.


GREYSTOKE, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE JUNGLE.
1984. 130 minutes. [V639].
Directed by Hugh Hudson.

Story: In the jungles of deepest Africa an aristocratic couple is shipwrecked. They survive for a short while, but shortly after the birth of their son they are killed by apes. A female "adopts" the child and raises it as an ape man. The rest is schlock literature history. The most recent, and elegiac film version of the popular Ape Man myth created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. French actor Christopher Lambert plays Tarzan. This film has moments of such wondrous beauty that you are enraged by the absurdity of its didactic prattle about class, race and man. The first half has an elemental, naturalistic quality that promised more than the Hudson and his crew could finally deliver. With: Ian Holm, Andy McDowell, James Fox, Ian Charleson, Cheryl Campbell, Nigel Davenport and, in his last film, the magnificent Sir Ralph Richardson.
Notes: The original screenplay for the film was written by Robert Towne who disowned the finished product. The excellent ape makeup is by Rick Baker. The voice of Tarzan's wife, played by Andie McDowell is actually the voice of Glenn Close.


GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER.
1967. 108 minutes. (V984).
Directed by Stanley Kramer.

Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy are the stars of this popular "social" drama about the pending marriage of a liberal couple's daughter (Katharine Houghton) to a distinguished black doctor. The film describes the uncertainties it raises in the both set of parents' minds. Poitier had almost perfected the movies' liberal stereotypical ideal black man -- proud, intelligent, handsome, successful -- an absolute paragon. The idea seemed almost to be to create a black "white" man to counter the other types. This film is not much more than a romance in socially significant clothing. The presence of Hepburn and Tracy with Poitier legitimized it in ways it never deserved. Whatever the case this film played big in the theaters -- it grossed over $25,000,000. Also in the cast are Beah Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Roy E. Glenn Sr., and Virginia Christine.
Notes: Poitier became one of the few stars before the 1970s whose acting ability and good roles made him box-office. From 1967-1969 he was listed among the top box-office stars in the movies. No other black actor would come close until Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy made top ten lists in the '80s. Katherine Hepburn won her third best actress Oscar for her role in this film and William Rose won for best screenplay. The good-intentioned film received Academy nominations for picture, actor (Tracy), supporting actor (Kellaway), supporting actress (Richards), director (Kramer), art direction, music scoring and editing. Tracy would die within days of the completion of the film.


GULLAH TALES.
1986. 20 minutes. (V4005).
Folk tales; Sea Island Folk tales -- Gullah Tales. Dramatization. Directed by Gary Moss.

This charming short subject is a dramatization of two Gullah folktales [which inspired the folksy Uncle Remus tales of Joel Chandler Harris]. Set in 1830, the film shows the joy the plantation children [slave and master's] had in the African tales of Mama Nancy. Told in Gullah dialect are tales about the Buh Rabbit and clever John the slave. With: Jerry G. White as Buh Rabbit and John. Mrs. Janie Hunter as Mama Nancy. Steve McDaniel as Bolifam and Hayes. Barbara Gagrinsky as the Governess and Mrs. Hayes. Glenn Rainey as Buh Whale and Mr. Johnson.
Notes: Written by Moss. Photographed by Kurt Henry. Original music by Dutch Knotts, and Tomas Valenti. Traditional music by the Georgia Sea Island Singers. Edited by George DeGolian. Produced by DeGoalian and Moss.