African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: K

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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KEEP PUNCHING.
1939. 75 minutes. (V1828).
Race Pictures. All Black Casts. Melodrama Directed by John Clein.

As the an example of early black films go, this film about a hot young boxer on his way to the top is as slick and professional as they come. It is well produced, directed and acted and the cast includes some famous black actors and performers from the 1940s. The story about a boxer who moves into the fast and corrupt company once he becomes the champ is straight out of Body and Soul but it is entertaining. With: Canada Lee, Dooley Wilson, Mae Johnson, and Lionel Monagas.


KEITA.
1994. 94 minutes.
In Jula and French with English subtitles. African Cinema. Drama. Burkina Faso, Cinema. Oral Literature. Directed by Dani Kouyate.

"Keita introduces Americans, young and old, to one of the most important works of African oral literature, The Sundjata Epic. The film frames its dramatization of this legend within the story of a contemporary young African's initiation into the history of his family. When a djeliba, a master griot or bard, arrives mysteriously at the home of Mabo Keita to teach him 'the meaning of his name,' boy and griot are inevitably brought into conflict with his Westernized mother and schoolteacher, who have rejected African tradition. The griot reveals to Mabo the story of his distant ancestor, Sundjata Keita, the 13th Century founder of the great Malian trading empire. It describes the events leading up to Sundjata's birth as the son of the ugly, hunchbacked second wife of a Made king. Sunjata is crippled at birth by his father's first wife who fears a prophecy that he will displace her son as King. The film tells the story of how, from these unpromising beginnings, Sundjata first walks and gradually acquires the strength, wisdom and occult powers he will need to fulfill his destiny as one of the great leaders of African legend."


THE KILLING FLOOR.
1985. 118 minutes. (V3368).
Chicago Slaughterhouse -- 1900. Labor Movement -- History. Drama. Directed by Bill Duke.

In the Chicago stock yards during World War I, black workers and ex-farm hands find jobs in the stock yards once held by white workers, many of whom have marched off to war. The efforts of the unions to force change on management becomes tangled in the desire of the black men to have jobs at any cost. This film, produced for PBS broadcast, is well acted docu-drama. The re-enactment of the unionization of the stock yards in the wake of World War I, and the subsequent racial disharmony created when the meat packers tried to pair off white and black workers is well directed by Duke. Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Clarence Felder, Moses Gunn.
Notes: Screenplay by Leslie Lee adapted by Ron Milner. Story by Elsa Rassbach. Music by Elizabeth Swados. Photography by Bill Birch.


KING: FROM MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS.
1969. 105 minutes. (V623).
Documentary. Montgomery to Memphis March. Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. Directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph Mankiewicz.

A documentary on the life and work of slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King from the early days in Montgomery, Alabama to his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. A stirring tribute done in the wake of his assassination. Many of Hollywood's top stars of the era participated in the film -- Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, James Earl Jones and many others.
Notes: Produced by Ely Landau. The film is actually entitled King, a filmed record: Montgomery to Memphis.


KING, A FILMED RECORD: MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS see KING: MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS.


KINGS ON THE HILL: BASEBALL'S FORGOTTEN MEN.
1993. 60 minutes.
Baseball, Integration. Negro Leagues. Homestead Braves. Pittsburgh Crawfords.

Rube Foster's founding of the National Negro League when the major leagues were forcibly segregated in the 1890s. This film is a collective oral recollection of the game by some of its members. The perspective is from that of the players of the two Pittsburgh area teams the Crawfords and the Homestead Braves [many of whom were steel workers recruited from the Carnegie Mills in Homestead, Pa.]. Among those interviewed: Harold Tinker [Pittsburgh Crawfords], Monte Irvin [Newark Eagles & New York Giants], Mal Goode [Journalist], Teenie Harris [Pittsburgh Crawfords], Satchel Paige [1906-1982], Odile Posey Striblin [Homestead Grays], Bob Thurman [Homestead Grays & Cincinnati Reds], Clarence Bruce [Homestead Grays], John Edgar Wideman [author, Rhodes Scholar], August Wilson [playwright Fences], John Holway [Baseball Historian], Buck Leonard [Homestead Braves], Judge Norris Coleman [Negro League Historian].
Notes: Narrated by Ossie Davis. Produced by Rob Ruck and Molly Youngling. Directed by Youngling. Written by Ruck. Edited by Christine Ochtun. Camera and Lighting by Fred Roth and Allen Rosen. Historical consultants included Larry Hogan, Joe Troter and others.


KINGDOM OF BRONZE.
1976. 60 minutes.
Documentary. Bronze work, Africa. Metal Artifacts, Nigeria. Bronzes, Bini.

"Traces the development of the skillful bronze casting techniques practiced by the Beni tribe of Nigeria. Shows examples of Beni bronze artifact and explains the lost wax process used by the Nigerians in bronze casting today."
Notes: A segment of the BBC series The Tribal Eye. Written and narrated by David Attenborough.


THE KLAN: THE LEGACY OF HATE IN AMERICA.
1982. 30 minutes.
Ku Klux Klan -- History. This brief documentary is a short history of the Ku Klux Klan. From its start by Nathan Bedford Forrest after the Civil War [during Reconstruction] through its romanticized rebirth in light of D.W. Griffith's great film The Birth of a Nation. In the 1920's the Klan reached its zenith of power and membership. It was in the 1960s that the organization was finally confronted by the legal system and the people they most oppressed. In the wake of the church bombings in Birmingham and other race-related crimes the efforts of the Klans became much more open.
Notes: Directed and edited by Werner Schumann. Produced by Charles Guggenheim and Schumann. Written by Charles Guggenheim with Patsy Sims. Narrated by James Whitmore. Photographed by Wayne Ewing.


KKK: THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE.
1966. 47 minutes.
Documentary. Ku Klux Klan. Hate Groups, United States. United Klan of America Inc.

A CBS Reports on the history of the Klan from its casual start during Reconstruction through one of its several heydays [the late 19th century through the 1920s and in the post WW II and early Civil Rights periods. Other, activities, and organizational history are also explored. The film has excellent rare documentary footage of secret meetings and initiations. The film, in some details, explains the violent history of the Klan as well. The efforts by the Justice Department.
Notes: Correspondent, Narrator [Charles Kuralt], Among those interviewed: Richmond Flowers [Atty. General, Alabama]. J. Robert Jones [N.C. Klan], Matt Murphy [United Klans], Ralph McGill [Atlanta Constitution], [Tommy Lynch [preacher, speaker]. Produced and written by David Lowe. Edited by Joseph Fackovec and Charlotte Zwerin. Photography by Richard Leacock and Robert J. Clemens.


KLAN YOUTH CORPS.
1982. 11 minutes.
Documentary. KKK, Youth Recruitment.

A short feature about the attempts by the Klan to recruit and proselytize among children and teens. Using the offer of summer camps, clubs, youth groups and youth campaigns to add new members. Many are the children of adult Klansmen, but as many as 15% of visitors to some of the 1980s rallies depicted are under 18 years-of-age.
Notes: A CBS news broadcast. Young Youth Corps members are interviewed and kids who oppose their views. Also interviewed: Arnette Lewis.


THE KLANSMAN.
1974. 112 minutes. (V3104).
Racial melodrama. KKK. Directed by Terence Young. In an Alabama town in the early '70s the Klan reigns supreme. They are anticipating a protest led by local people and "radical outsiders." The eminent protest riles them and forces into the open the antagonism between Klansmen and other white locals against an aristocratic loner who is friendly towards poor blacks. That makes the story seem simple, but this is an exploitation film regardless of the presence of Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, and O.J. Simpson in the cast. Marvin plays a good man, the local sheriff caught between the beliefs he's grown with and the truths he knows. His best friend is played by Burton, a renegade aristocrat. O.J. Simpson plays a local black who is radicalized to the point of becoming a one man army. All in all there are rapes, murder, killings, castrations, and a veritable slew of other nastiness going on in this film. You can't say you'd like any of the characters that much. Overall it is a contemptible manipulation of a serious theme. With: Cameron Mitchell, Lola Falana, Luciana Paluzzi, David Huddleston, Linda Evans, and O.J. Simpson.
Notes: Screenplay by Millard Kaufman and Samuel Fuller based on a novel by William Bradford Huie. Produced by William Alexander. Photographed by Lloyd Ahern. Music by Dale Warren and Stu Gardner. The song "Good Christian People" sung by The Staple Singers.