African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: M

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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THE MACK.
1973. 110 minutes. (V1162).
Directed by Michael Campus.

Max Julian is The Mack, a sharp hustler who, after five years in jail, comes out to help clean the pushers and hucksters from the streets of his neighborhood. The hero of this film is amoral and inclined towards forms of sado-masochism. He seems to like punishment. He is a low life without anything resembling redeemable qualities, but because the relative lack of identifiable black movie role models at that time this kind of creature became the romantic representation of black macho. With: Don Gordon, Richard Pryor, Carol Speed, Roger E. Mosely, Dick Williams, William C. Watson, and Juanita Moore.
Notes: Screenplay by Robert J. Poole. Photographed by Ralph Woolsey.


MADE IN MISSISSIPPI.
1975. 20 minutes.
Documentary. Decorative Art. Black Folk Art. African-American Art.

"Made in Mississippi features folk art, crafts, and architecture in rural Mississippi. The people discuss their work and tell who they learned each tradition."
Notes: Made by Bill Ferris.


MAIDS AND MADAMS.
1987. 52 minutes. (V1848).
Documentary. Apartheid. Women, South Africa. Women, Black. Domestic Workers, South Africa. Directed and written by Mira Hamermesh.

A film about the separation of black women in South Africa from their families by an almost institutionalized system of hiring them as household workers. Over one million women work as maids, one for nearly every white household.
Notes: Produced by Christian Wrangler.


MALCOLM X see THE REAL MALCOLM X


MALCOLM X.
1983. 15 minutes. (V2822).
Documentary. Malcolm X. From the Films for the Humanities Series Against the Odds. Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company.

This is as concise a biographical treatment as one can find. In 15 minutes we get an excellent presentation of the outline of Malcolm X's life from childhood to death.
Notes: Spike Lee has planned a film of Malcolm's life to star Denzell Washington. At first glance, he doesn't seem to right man to play the slender, angry man with thick school-boyish glasses until you see him in an interview on the street and he flashes what surely was a rare smile before the camera.


MALCOLM X.
1992.
Biographical Drama. African-American Directors. Malcolm X [Little, Malcolm]. Directed by Spike Lee.

Spike Lee's magnum opus. A richly designed and structured film about the life of Malcolm X, the charismatic young man who, after a life of petty crime and incarceration in prison becomes the most notable spokesman for the burgeoning Muslim movement in American cities in the late '50s and early 1960s. The film has all the elements of cinematic bio-epics -- romantization of the central character, the re-creation of antagonists in one-dimensional light, and moments of stunning perception and beauty deflated by Lee's annoying tendency towards political and cultural cant. What is immense and memorable about the film is the magnificent performance of Denzel Washington as Malcolm. Washington is one of the most charismatic actors in the movies and his portrayal of Malcolm is what convinces us, not Lee's revisionist delusions. Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz, Albert Hall as Baines, Al Freeman, Jr. as Elijah Muhammad, Delroy Lindo as West Indian Archie, Spike Lee as Shorty, Theresa Randle as Laura, Kate Vernon as Sophia, Lonette McKee as Louise Little, Tommy Hollis as Earl Little, James McDaniel as Brother Earl, Ernest Thomas as Sidney, Jean LeMarre as Benjamin 2X, Joe Seneca as Toomer.
Notes: Screenplay by Lee with Arnold Perl based on the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As told to Alex Haley. Photography by Ernest Dickerson and David Golia. Music by Terence Blanchard and performed by the Malcolm X Orchestra. Academy Award nominations for best actor (Washington), costume design (Ruth Carter). Box-office gross: $24,000,000.


MANDABI.
1968. 90 minutes.
Drama. African Cinema. African Directors. (16mm only). Directed by Ousmane Sembene.

The story of a man whose life and values are thoroughly changed when he receives a money order for one thousand dollars. The story is symbolic of struggle between the desires for a modern Africa in the wake of colonial corruption and the wish of a burgeoning civilization to recapture is values and heritage. Cast includes: Mamoud Guye, Ynoue N'Diaye, Issa Niang, Serigne N'Diayes, and Sorigno Sow.
Notes: Produced by Jean Maumy. Written by Sembene from a story by Louis S. Senghor. Photographed by Paul Sopulignac. Edited by Bernard Lefebre.


MANDELA.
1987. 135 minutes. (V1857).
Directed by Philip Savile.

A dramatization of the life and struggles of Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Danny Glover is Nelson Mandela and Alfre Woodard his wife Winnie in this made for television feature. They give superior performance in an otherwise predictable, if well meaning, bio-drama about the legendary leader of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement. With: Warren Clarke, Allan Corduner, Julian Glover, and John Matshikiza.
Notes: Teleplay by Ronald Harwood.


MAPANTPASULA.
1988. 102 minutes. (V2844).
In South African native dialect and patois and Afrikaans. South Africa. Drama. South African Cinema. Directed by Oliver Schmitz.

A story is told in flash back of how a small time hood in Johannesburg and Soweto is slowly politicized while in prison after the Soweto slaughter. The authorities are trying to get him to provide damaging information on the whereabouts and actions of a young activist whom he has met only casually. The young thief is more affected by his failure to find the son of a family friend, a youth who had disappeared right after Soweto. This is a remarkable film, one that takes us into the daily life of black South Africans like no other film has done. Thomas Mogotlane gives a charismatic, excellent performance as the independent minded young thug. He wishes only for his pleasure and the thrill of his 'work' as a thief. Though he seems fearless, he sees his special little world collapsing when his search for his missing friend proves so fruitless. There are levels of complexity seen about life among the South Africans that many viewers will find startling. A fine, very fine film. With Thomas Mogotlane, Marcel Van Heerden, Thembe Mtshali, Dolly Rathebe, Peter Sephuma, Darlington Michaels, and Eugene Majola.
Notes: Director of photography, Rod Stewart. Music by the Ouens. Screenplay by Schmitz and Mogotlane


MARCUS GARVEY: TOWARD BLACK NATIONHOOD.
1983. 60 minutes. (V2820).
Documentary. Films for the Humanities presentation of a West German TV film.

This is a very fine documentary on the life of the Jamaican born black nationalist whose controversial stay in Harlem made him a folk hero among many African-Americans in the Harlem and elsewhere in the states. The program covers the key elements in his life and history -- his role in the nascent labor movement in Jamaica early in the century as a very young man. The formation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1907, and his arrival in Harlem in 1916. We get background on the formation on the Black Star Shipping line as both a tool for transportation peoples in the west back to Africa and as a move to establish economic independence among blacks in the Americas. In 1923 he was tried for fraud and arrested and, after early release returned to Kingston in 1927 where he re-established the efforts he had started in the days before Harlem. Garvey died in England in 1940. His body was not returned to Jamaica until the country gained its independence in 1962.
Notes: Produced by Orville Bennett, Beatrix Beuthner, Reginald Beuthner, Carry Breys, Roshan Dhunjibhoy, Alja Naliwaika, Franklyn St. Juste, and Bobby Shepherd.


MARTIN LUTHER KING: COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION.
1986. 60 minutes.

A film made in Atlanta, Georgia commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. The date coincides the first celebration of the King National Holiday. King's life is presented in pictures, words, and the memories of those who knew him best. Former classmates recall M. L. King as classmate and fellow student. They include: Charles Willie []Prof. of Education, Harvard; Albert Wardlaw [Retired School Administrator]; William Pickens [Prof. of English, Morehouse]; .
Notes: Among those appearing at the ceremony: Ralph David Abernathy, Joan Baez, Julian Bond, President Jimmy Carter, Bill Cosby, Christine King Farris, Dick Gregory, Tramaine Hawkins, Jesse Jackson, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Andrew Young. Program created and directed by Kell Kearns. Produced by Lori Kearns and Dave Marquis. Atlanta Producer Richard (Stoney) Johnson. Photography by Jay Rydman. Interviewer and consultant, Clarence Glover, Jr.


MARTIN LUTHER KING: HIS LIFE AND DREAMS.
198-. 14 minutes. (V1006).

A short program honoring the career and life of Martin Luther King.


MARTIN LUTHER KING: I HAVE A DREAM.
198-. 18 minutes. (V1005).

A video program of Dr. King's most famous speech -- I Have A Dream given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.


MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL.
1991. 26 minutes.
Documentary. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement, Birmingham, Alabama.

"On Good Friday in 1962, fifty-three blacks, led by Rev. Martin Luther, King, Jr., marched into downtown Birmingham to protest the existing segregation laws. All were arrested. The clergyman of this southern town had composed a letter appealing to the black population to stop their demonstrations. This letter appeared in the Birmingham News the very day King was jailed. In response, Martin Luther King drafted a document that would mark the turning point of the civil rights movement and provide enduring inspiration to the struggle for racial equality. This program, hosted by Robert Guillaume, sets the stage for these events, and presents the ideas King so courageously pronounced in his letter from Birmingham jail."
Notes: Cast re-enacting the parts in this dramatization include Frantz Turner as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Directed by Barry Clark. Camera by Christian Sebaldt. Edited by Susan Marangell.


THE MASSACHUSETTS 54th COLORED INFANTRY.
1991. 60 minutes. (V3188).
Documentary -- THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (series -- PBS)

"When the Civil War began, black men clamored for the chance to strike a blow for the liberation of the African-American race. They were ready to fight for the abolition of slavery and the extension of full citizenship rights by the war's end. Their desire to participate was rejected until the first officially sanctioned regiment of northern black soldiers was formed tin Boston. The feature film GLORY along with the public television series THE CIVIL WAR gave man Americans their first exposure to the fact that African-American men fought against slavery. This film tells the complete story of that regiment--who they were and why they fought. Commanded by white officers, led by 26-year-old Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th roster included shopkeepers, musicians, clerks, cobblers, seamen and other skilled hands. Frederick Douglass' two sons joined the 54th, as id Sojourner Truth's grandson. These soldiers knew many whites insisted that black soldiers were too cowardly to fight. The 54th proved them wrong."
Notes: Narrated by Morgan Freeman. Produced by Shearer. Teleplay by Shearer and Leslie Lee. Story by Shearer. Edited by Lilian Benson. Photographed by Arthur Jafa. Researched by Ann Craig, Eileen Mulvey, and Dale Edwina Smith. Among those interviewed are: Byron Rushing, Ruth Jones and Barbara Fields. Academic Advisers were. Barbara Fields, James Horton, Leon Litwack, and George Leveque. Music performed by Howard University Choir. Also available in Nonprint is the feature film on about 54th, GLORY.


MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS.
1986. 90 minutes. (V1094).
Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

In South Africa in 1950, Hally, a white South African youth learns that his crippled, alcoholic father is to be released from the hospital. In his fear and frustration he viciously turns on his black servants, showing his inherited racism for the first time. With: Matthew Broderick, Zakes Mokaes and John Kani. Extremely well acted photographed stage production.
Notes: Based on the award winning play by Athol Fugard.


MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE.
1984. 40 minutes. (V949).
Documentary. Maya Angelou. A program originally aired on Public Television.

Noted black author Maya Angelou discusses her life work with Professor Nell Irvin Painter, a longtime friend. Broadcast for North Carolina Public Television.
Notes: Produced by Steven A. Cahanning and John D. Wise. Directed by John Wise.


MEDAL OF HONOR RAG.
1981. 90 minutes. (V656).
Directed by Lloyd Richards.

Drama inspired by the 1971 news story of a black Vietnam vet -- winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor -- who was shot and killed whiled holding up a supermarket in Detroit. In the psychiatric ward of an Army hospital the soldier (Damien Leake) and the psychiatrist (Hector Elizondo) discuss the troubles for the soldier they feel traumatized the young man.
Notes: Produced by Joyce Chopra.


MEN OF BRONZE.
1977. 60 minutes. (V1362).
Documentary. Directed by William Miles.

Documentary account of The 369th or "Rattlesnake Regiment", an all black enlisted regiment who spent 191 days in front line trenches, longer than any other American unit in World War I. Sent as non-combat re-enforcement's, the 369th fought alongside French, Moroccan, and Senegalese soldiers at Champagne-Marne and Meuse-Argonne.


MENACE II SOCIETY.
1993. 104 minutes.
Ghetto Drama. Gang Violence. Black Directors. Directed by Allen and Albert Hughes.

An LA gang movie that has as its antecedents, not the conscience raising ghetto dramas of the last few years, but the gangland melodramas of the '30s and '40s. Caine and O-Dog are two young men from Watts whose life of petty crime spirals out of control when O Dog viciously kills a Korean grocer. The boys leave prints and take the store's video recording of their crime with them. The film becomes a boastful show piece for O Dog. Caine, orphaned and living with his very religious grand parents is being pulled in different directions by his girl, his best friends (who try to convince him to get out of the certain death he faces in the gang). O Dog becomes more virulent and dangerous. The efforts all prove for naught in the film's final, harrowing scenes. The brothers' Hughes have loudly proclaimed how antithetical there cinematic aims are to those of Spike Lee and John Singleton. They have a fix on the genre they've adopted and have turned the frightening mix of crime and fear among these young thugs into amazing film energy. With: Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett, Charles S. Dutton, Arnold Johnson, M C Eiht, Marilyn Coleman, Vonte Sweet, Clifton Powell, Julian Roy Doster, Glenn Plummer, Samuel J. Jackson, and Bill Duke.
Notes: Screenplay by Tyger Williams from a story by Williams and the Hughes Brothers. Photographed by Lisa Rinzler. Music by QD III. Box-office gross: $27,700,000.


MIDNIGHT RAMBLE.
1994. 60 minutes.
Documentary. African-American Cinema. Race Movies. Micheaux, Oscar. Subtitled Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies. "This documentary recounts the little-known story of a remarkable independent film industry outside of Hollywood that produced close to 500 movies for African-American audiences between 1910 and 1940. these 'race movies' were often shown at segregated screenings, many of them after hours. They were called 'midnight rambles.' They provided black moviegoers with images that didn't demean them, but, rather, depicted them as real people. The story of this forgotten chapter in America's movie history focuses on black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, a controversial director who wrote and directed more that 40 features. Using recently discovered films and interviews with black actors and critics who worked in the race movie business, Midnight Ramble explores the rise and decline of a unique film industry."
Notes: Interviewed includes Toni Cade Bambara [author], Robert Hall [historian], Elton Fax [illustrator], Pearl Bowser [archivist], Carlton Moss [filmmaker], Frances Williams [actress], Shingzie Howard McClane [actress], Herb Jefferies [actor], Edna Mae Harris [actress], Written by Clyde Taylor, Script Supervised by Beth Deare. Produced by Pamela A Thomas, Bestor Cram. Directed by Bestor Cram and Pearl Bowser. Narrated by James Avery. Edited by Bruce Johnson. Cinematography by Bestor Cram and Bruce Johnson.


MILES OF SMILES, YEARS OF STRUGGLE.
1983. 58 minutes.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters. Labor Unions. Black Labor Unions.

This film "chronicles the organizing of the first black trade union - the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This inspiring story of the Pullman porters provides the most in-depth account on film of African-American working life between the Civil War and World War II. Crafted from historical records, movies and photos, but mostly the reminiscences of six retired porters. The narrator is the remarkable Rosina Tucker, a 100-year old porter's widow and union organizer. Aboard an old Pullman car sitting ghostlike on an overgrown siding, the porters re-enact how they gave smiling service night and day. But these 'miles of smiles' disguised a monumental organizing effort. After a 12 year struggle, the Pullman Company caved in and signed in 1937, the first labor agreement ever with black workers. The Brotherhood soon became a training ground for black leaders -- from World War II to the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott to the 1963 March on Washington." The efforts to unionize the Pullman's was led by A. Philip Randolph and Ashley Cotten. On August 25, 1925, in Harlem, the Union was born. Mrs. Rosina Tucker tells of the pivotal role the Pullman Union leader E. D. Hill later played in the Montgomery bus boycott. Hill gives an strong endorsement to the place of Randolph in African-American history. The six surviving porters interviewed: Mr. Walter 'King' Cole of Chicago, Illinois; Mr. Lawrence W. 'Happy' Davis of Washington, D.C.; Mr. C. L. Dellums of Oakland, California; Mr. Ernest Ford, Jr. of Washington, D. C.; Mr. Homer Glenn of New York, New York; Mr. William D. Miller of Washington, D.C., and Mr. E.D. Nixon of Montgomery, Alabama; Mr. L. C. Richie of Washington, D.C.; Mr. Rex Stewart of Chicago, Illinois. "
Notes: Produced by Paul Wagner and Jack Santino. Directed by Jack Santino and Paul Wagner. Director of Photography, John Hiller. Interviews conducted by Santino. Editing by Wagner. The song at the end of the film is Lift Every Voice and Sing from the words by James Weldon Johnson with music by J. Rosamond Johnson, 1900.


MISSISSIPPI BURNING.
1989. 127 minutes. (V2207).
Directed by Alan Parker.

In a Mississippi, three young Civil Right workers (one black and two white), are murdered by Klansman and their supporters. It is an open secret among townspeople who the murderers are. Any effort by local people to bring them to justice ends in intimidation or other acts of violence. Outside help comes in form of F.B.I. and federal marshals. Their efforts stem the tide of racist terror and intimidation and bring the guilty to justice. Parker's film takes the famous 1964 rights murder case and presents it as traditional melodrama. The complexities of the racial antagonism have been reduced to melodramatic formula. The villains are thus easily made despicable and the blacks and their supporters weak, helpless victims who had little to do with the movement to remove the obvious injustices. The end result is an effective story that offers no psychological depths, or penetrating new dramatic insights. We get things easy to rage at, nothing to make us rethink or reconstruct the history or fundamental reality of the tragedy. The acting is very fine, and Peter Biziou's photography justly won an Oscar. With: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Gailard Sartain, Stephen Tobolowsky and Michael Rooker.
Notes: Screenplay by Chris Cerolmo. Music by Trevor Jones. Academy Award nominations included best picture, director, actor (Hackman), and supporting actress (McDormand). Box-office gross: $14,700,000.


MISS EVERS' BOYS.
1997. 118 minutes.
Social Drama. African-Americans. Tuskegee Experiment. Syphilis, Research and Study, Dramatizations. Directed by Joseph Sargent. Alfre Woodard as Nurse Eunice Evers, Laurence Fishburne as Caleb Humphries, Joe Morton as Dr. Brodus, Craig Sheffer as Dr. Douglas, Obba Babatunde as Willie Johnson, Thom Gossom, Jr. as Ben, Ossie Davis as Mr. Evers, and E. G. Marshall as Chairman of the Senate Committee.
Notes: Music by Charles Bernstein. Teleplay by Walter Bernstein. Photographed by Donald M. Morgan. Executive Producers, Fishburne and Robert Benedetti.


MISSISSIPPI MASALA.
1991. 117 minutes.
Romance. Inter-racial romance. Directed by Mira Nair.

Demetrius is a young black man in Mississippi with his own business, a carpet cleaning company. He strives for success and independence and to keep his younger brother from becoming irresponsible. When he meets Mina, an Indian girl whose parents had been forced to migrate from Idi Amin Dada's regime, he finds himself embroiled in an affair that is discouraged by his family and friends as well as that of Mina's. This intelligently crafted romantic drama is directed with subtlety and care by Mira Nair. It is a film that delves into the complexities of the young couples' relationship without hyperbole or cant. Nair and her scenarist Sooni Taraporewala also capably weave the story of Mina's family history in Uganda expertly. The cast led by Denzell Washington as Demetrius, Roshan Seth as Jay, Sarita Chodhury as Mina is uniformly excellent. With: Charles S. Dutton as Tyrone, Joe Seneca as Williben, Shamila Tagore, Tico Wells as Dexter, Yvette Hawkins as Aunt Rose, Anjan Srivastava, Ranjit Chowdhry as Anil, Mohan Agashe as Kanit Napkin, and Mohan Gokahle as Pontiac.
Notes: Written by Sooni Taraporewala. Photographed by Ed Lachman. Music composed by L. Subramaniam.


MISSISSIPPI TRIANGLE.
1987. 80 minutes.
Documentary. Mississippi Delta -- Social Conditions. Delta Cotton Plantations. Multiculturalism. Chinese Americans in Mississippi. Race Relations, Mississippi.

The diverging cultures of blacks, whites and Chinese in the Delta region of Mississippi is the subject of this fine film of painful reminiscences and social history. The filmmakers talk with farm hands, field workers and others who worked the large plantations who talk of the hardship working for low wages and subsistence. The plantation store kept them in hock to the farmers, in economic conditions that some of the old hands likened to slavery. With new implements fewer hands are needed -- the nature of the business has changed just as the social landscape has changed. The film subtly deals with the nature of life in the delta among blacks, whites and Chinese grocers and shopkeepers, the triangle of the film's title about the segregation of the three races and the social and political interaction over quality of schools and the quality of lives.
Notes: Associate Producers, Pearl Bowser and Yuet Fung Ho. Original Music Lee Ray. Unit Cinematography by Ludwig Goon. Principal photography by Christine Choy and Kyle Kibbe. Edited by Alan Siegel. Co-directed by Choy and Siegel with Worth Long.


MO' BETTER BLUES.
1990. 129 minutes. (V2791).
Romantic comedy. Directed by Spike Lee.

This is Spike Lee's jazz movie, his means of responding to Clint Eastwood's moody piece BIRD. It's also a film about devotion, love, family and friendship. Like all of his films about New York (as opposed to Woody Allen's and Sidney Lumet's New York.) At the center of the film is Denzel Washington as Bleek Gilliam, a handsome, womanizing musician who can't make up his mind about the woman he wants in his life. His best friend is his manager, a man who is a manic, obsessive gambler. The film's plot turns around the ineffectiveness of the manager and the conflict that emerges in his jazz quartet, especially with the most outspoken member -- an obvious rival in talent and in love (played extremely well by Wesley Snipes). Lee's sister Joie plays Indigo, a strong willed girl who wants commitment from Bleek. Cynda Williams is the other girl, the one whose singing Bleek doesn't want to believe in. The rest of the cast is gifted and interesting -- Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro and Dick Anthony Williams. The wonderfully vulgar funny man Robin Harris made his last appearance in this film. Mo' Better Blues is a fascinating showpiece for the gifted Lee, but its really not that well thought-out or focused a film. The story is pretty scatter shot, and there is, at the core of the film's existence, the nasty edge of Lee's tendency to condescend and pander to the ethnicity in his works. He hammers us with his message. It is technically stunning, and once again, his gifted cinematographer, Ernest Dickerson, has photographed the film in dark, rich colors. The score, by Lee's father, jazz musician Bill Lee is one of the better aspects of the film. Box-office gross: $7,000,000.


MONDAY'S GIRLS.
1993. 50 minutes.
Documentary. Initiation Rights. Iria. Nigerian Culture. Women in Nigeria. Directed by Ngozi Onwurah.

This film "provides an up-to-the-minute look at tradition in today's changing Africa. It examines the Iria, a women's initiation ceremony of the Niger River delta, through the contrasting viewpoints of two young women - Florence, who has lived all her life in the delta, and Azikiwe, who has studied in the city for ten years. The young women initiates, iriabos, are painted and paraded bare-breasted through an assembly of the entire town. An older woman, Monday Moses, examines their nipples."
Notes: Narrated by Caroline Lee Johnson. Photography by Alwin Kuchler, Simone Horrocks. Translators: Belema William-Park and Dr. Abi Derefaka. Consultant, Titus Anyanwu. Edited by Rod Iverson. A segment of a BBC series called Under the Sun.


MOOD INDIGO: BLACKS AND WHITE
(V3034)
World War II -- Isolationism -- Great Depression -- Race Relations -- Black Soldiers --

The documentary segment of a PBS series called American Goes To War: The Home Front, deals with the issues of continued racism and segregation in American culture during the war and at the abysmal efforts to address them. It shows African-American entertainers like Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Bubbles, and Lean Horne entertaining the troops on Armed Forces Radio. The Tuskegee Pilots are also highlighted. The film is about the 800,000 blacks who fought in the war or had some role in the conduct of the war. It is also about the role of blacks in the War industries.
Notes: Directed by Anthony Ross Potter. Executive Producers Potter, Frank J. De Meo. Series writer Patrick Trese. Segment writers Trese and Peter Foger. Edited by De Meo. Music by Bob Hardnick. Series Music by Promusic Inc. The Programs are narrated by Eric Severeid.


MOON OVER HARLEM.
1939. 67 minutes.
Musical Melodrama. African-American Cinema. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.

When a handsome young Harlem reformer promises to drive the rackets out of Harlem he comes into conflict with his girlfriend's two-timing stepfather. The situation goes from bad to worse when the girl's mother believes that her daughter is trying to seduce the slick husband and kicks the girl out. Bob, the reformer ultimately comes to the rescue, but only after much intrigue and murder have had their day. This all black cast feature is tautly produced and directed by Edgar Ulmer, who would become a cult picture in B budget melodramas in the '40s and '50s. The cast is, by and large, professional and proficient. With: Bud Harris as Dollar Bill, Cora Green as Minnie, Izinetta Wilcox as Sue, Earl Gough as Bob, Zerita Steptean as Jackie, Petrina Moore as Alice, Daphne Fray as Pat, Mercedes Gilbert as Jackies Mother, Frances Harrod as May, Alec Lovejoy as Tafs, and Walter Richards as Brother Hornsby. Notes: Original story and dialogue by Matthew Matthews. Screenplay by Sherle Castle. Photography by Edward Hyland and J. Burgi Contner. Musical score and numbers composed by Donald Heywood. Score arranged by Lorenzo Calduel and Kenneth Macomber. Orchestra and choir conducted by Heywood. Specialty acts include the Boys From Newark, Christopher Columbus and his Swing Crew and Sidney Bechet and his clarinet.


THE MOREHOUSE MEN.
1994. 60 minutes.
Colleges and Universities. Morehouse College. African-American Universities and Colleges. A film produced and directed by Sabita Kumari-Dass. "The Morehouse Men chronicles a year in the life of the students of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the only all-male, historically African-American college in the United States. Founded in 1867 by white missionaries, the school has evolved into one of the leading institutions of higher learning in the nation, molding the African-American leaders of tomorrow. To fulfill its mission. Morehouse seeks to instill moral, social, and spiritual values among its students, in addition to making rigorous academic demands. Included among Morehouse's noteworthy alumni are Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses and filmmaker Spike Lee. The program captures both the uniqueness of the school and the universality of the college experience by looking a Morehouse from the point of view of its students. The program covers the college's one-of-a-kind orientation--freshmen are challenged, Can you be a Morehouse man or just a Morehouse graduate?--as well as the very common difficulties of balancing studies, job and leisure."
Notes: Camera by Chris King and Ken Morse. Edited by Hugh Newsam, Stuart Davidson, Kimaathi Spence. Among those interviewed: Edwin Moses, Spike Lee, Sterling Hudson [Deputy VP for Academic Affairs].


MR. BOOGIE WOOGIE.
1978. 30 minutes.
Documentary. Mose "Mr. Boogie Woogie" Vinson, Ma Rainey II, Memphis Slim. Beale Street. Directed by Alexis Krasilovsky. Produced by Ann Rickey.

An intimate look at the lives and music of Beale Street blues performers such as Mose Vinson, Ma Rainey II, Memphis Slim and Big Sam. The blues artists above were interviewed by the filmmakers, all with particular reminiscences of Beale Street in the 1930s and of later gigs at Memphis Blues bars and clubs. The film especially focuses on the singular influence of Mose Vinson, 60 years of age at the time of the filming. They visit him at his home in Holly Springs, Tennessee. Also interviewed: Sonny Blake, Joe Gaston, John Paul Reagor, L. T. Lewis, Eveyln Young, Denitra Payne, Arlena Rhodes, Dorothy Rutherford, Paul Savarin, and James Wilkins.
Notes: Edited by Walter Baldwin, and Alexis Krasilovsky. Consultants: Dr. James Hurley, Bernard Keels, and Jim Mattson. Written by Krasilovsky.