African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: R

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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RABI.
1992. 60 minutes. In More with English subtitles.
Folk Tales, Dramatization. Children's Tales. Burkina Faso. African Cinema. African Directors. Directed by Gaston Kabore.

"A beautiful modern day fable using traditional African story-telling techniques about a young boy in Burkina Faso. Nine-year-old Rabi acquires a pet tortoise after his father falls off his bicycle swerving to avoid it. The boy's fascination with nature manifests itself in turning his pet on its back and watching it struggle. The boy is heartbroken when the tortoise is taken away from him, but his grandfather helps him find his own tortoise which speaks to him so eloquently about his abuse that the boy eventually sets it free." Yacouba Kabore as Rabi, Tinfissi Yerbanga as Pusga, Colette Kabore as Kudpoko, Joseph Nikeima as Kuilga, Josephine Kabore as Tusma, Chantal Nikeima as Laale.
Notes: Written by Gaston Kabore. Music by Rene B. Guirma, and Wally Badarou. Photography by Jean Noel Ferragut. One title in a BBC produced series called Developing Stories.


RACE FOR MAYOR: CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY, 1983.
1983. 12 minutes. (V2350).
Documentary - Raw Film Footage.

This film of raw footage of news and television coverage of the 1983 Chicago mayoral race, the one in which Harold Washington emerged as victor was produced for the National Black Program Consortium by Howard Gladstone and James Ylisela. Among those interviewed in the program are Al Raby, Washington's campaign manager; John Stroger, Ward Politician; William Daley, son of the late mayor and campaign manager for his brother, who also ran; Tony Roque, head of Hispanics for outgoing mayor Jane Byrne. Reverend Jorge Morales, and Roman Purinski, another ward politician interested in the outcome of the primary.


RACISM 101.
1989-. 58 minutes. (V2923).
Documentary -- Race Relations, United States -- Racism, College Campuses -- Hate Crimes. A segment of the PBS series Frontline. Introduced by Judy Woodruff. Directed by Orlando Bagwell.

A disturbing look at racial or racially inspired incidents at several major U.S. universities. Incidents at Dartmouth (involving the Dartmouth Review), University of Massachusetts, are covered in some detail, but the largest focus of the program's attention is at the University of Michigan.
Notes: Written and produced by Thomas Lennon. Directed and Co-produced by Orlando Bagwell. Camera work by Chuck Clifton, Bill Charette, Peter Hoving, and David West. Narrated by Larry Lewman.


A RAGE IN HARLEM.
1991. 108 minutes.
Caper Comedy. Chester Himes. African-American directors. Directed by Bill Duke.

Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, Robin Givens, Zakes Mokae, and Danny Glover star in this film version of a Chester Himes novel. Givens plays a southern femme who's run off with the gold from a murderous heist. During the shoot-out she manages to escape with the loot to Harlem, where she meets a naive young funeral parlor assistant. This young man's brother, a streetwise hustler, works a con game to get the bounty. An attempt at '30s type action melodrama. It's a period piece managed intelligently by director Bill Duke, but its only fair entertainment. The cast is amusing and talented.
Notes: Screenplay by John Toles-Bay and Bobby Crawford from the novel by Chester Himes. Music by Elmer Bernstein. Photography by Toyomichi Kurita. Box-office gross: $4,200,000.


RAGTIME.
1981. 156 minutes. (V241).
Directed by Milos Forman.

Milos Forman's large scale film of E. L. Doctorow's novel about turn of the century America and New York. The film was generally greeted with disdain, much of it deserved when it was first released. What was revision through the haze of distance in Doctorow's book was turned into a series of set-piece indictments of America by Forman and his scenarist. It is an episodic film with moments of rage and power, but more often it is out of focus with the presentation of its thesis. The acting is adequate for the most part, but the appearance of James Cagney in his first film in over twenty years attracted more attention than any of the performances in the film. With: Mary Steenburgen, Howard E. Rollins, Kenneth McMillan, Elizabeth McGovern, Pat O'Brien, James Olson, Mandy Patinkin, Debbie Allen, Jeff DeMunn, Robert Joy, Jeff Daniels, Frankie Faison, and Norman Mailer in a short bit as Stanford White.
Notes: Screenplay by Michael Weller. Photography by Miroslav Ondricek. Music by Randy Newman. The film cost $32,000,000. Box-office gross: $10,000,000. Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor (Rollins), supporting actress (McGovern), screen adaptation (Weller), cinematography (Ondricek), art/set decoration, music (Newman), song (One More Hour) by Newman and sung by Jennifer Warnes and for costume design (Anna Hill Johnstone).


A RAISIN IN THE SUN.
1961. 128 minutes. (V261).
Domestic Drama. American Literature. African-American Authors. American Theater. Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Daniel Petrie.

Hansberry's most famous work is A Raisin in the Sun. The film version of her drama about the struggles of a black family towards self respect and dignity is an emotionally satisfying and very well acted production. Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, and a very young Louis Gossett, Jr. star in this film. At the center of the film is Claudia McNeil's great performance of the mother of the family. This film was the first full-fledged presentation of a black family in films. It defied every stereotyped known on film. Hansberry's play is extremely well-written social drama. It is also very traditional theater -- the characters are black but their problems are universal to those of the characters in other working class drama. The key symbolic role is that of the main character, played by Poitier. Poitier's roles in the 1950s were the prototype of the black male of dignity and intelligence in mainstream films. In Raisin In The Sun he plays a man struggling against the odds with every fiber in his body. It's a sterling performance. As the family matriarch Claudia McNeil is fierce, proud, and vivid, a truly great performance.
Notes: Produced by David Susskind and Philip Rose. Written by Lorraine Hansberry from her own play. Cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr. Music by Laurence Rosenthal.


A RAISIN IN THE SUN.
1990. 171 minutes. (V2617).
Domestic Drama. American Literature. African-American Authors. Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Bill Duke.

Danny Glover and Esther Rolle, star in the second version of Hansberry's play available in Nonprint. The play has become a set theatrical piece for fine black ensemble casts. This version, produced for The American Playhouse on PBS, has a different kind of power -- the actors' naturalistic performances are not like the raging dignity of the cast in the first feature version. Danny Glover may be closer to the author's conception of Walter Lee. He is more clearly a working class man that the regal Poitier could be. The performance is also different because Glover does not have a need to be restrained. The result is a telling sign of how expressive a role the part is. Rolle's work can not realistically be compared to that of McNeil -- one had the sweep of classic theatrical tradition while Rolle gives us hearty earnestness. Whatever the case, this new version has some fine attributes. Starletta Dupois and Kim Yancey must suffer comparison with Ruby Dee and Diana Sands, they hold up fine. With Kimble Joyner as Travis Younger, Lou Ferguson as Joseph Asagai, and Joseph C. Phillips as George Murchison. The one real complaint is that neither Joseph Asagai or George Murchison are characters -- they are just an author's sketch work.


RAP, RACE & EQUALITY.
1994. 58 minutes.
Documentary. Rap Music. African-American Music.

A film that "exposes the music that is rap and places it within its political and social context. Some of rap's most important and controversial artists speak openly, passionately, and at times humorously about their music. The documentary demystifies these artists who speak for many of today's African-American youth. The documentary is an energetic and informative look at the issues which rap artist attempt to deal with, such as racism, economic and social inequality, and race relations. It tries to understand the popularity and passion which fuels rap/hip-hop music. It suggest that rap music flows out of the African storytelling tradition and shows how it enhances the African-American sense of identity. Rap, Race & Equality features rap artists as Ice Cube, Ice T and the band Naughty by Nature who articulate their views on race relations and African-American pride. The film shows how the mass media marginalizes rap music and black culture in general. Jon Pareles of the New York Time and Dr. Tricia Rose discuss such controversial areas as sexism and censorship as it applies to rap music."
Notes: Among those interviewed, Russell Simmons, Professor Molefi Asante [Temple University], Chuck D [Public Enemy], Kris Parker [KRS One], Rakim [Eric B. & Rakim], Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, Ice T. Camera, Lighting, Sound and Research by Stephen and Grant Elliott.


READY TO BE A WISE MAN.
1988. 30 minutes.
Short Stories. Racism. Race Prejudice. Directed by Robert Clem.

"In a relaxed and beguiling fashion, this film tells the story of seven-year-old David, a minister's son growing up in a small Southern town in the late 1950s. It is a troubled time when there is considerable tension between blacks and whites. David is too innocent to be fully aware of such things, but racial discrimination begins to color even his own sheltered life." Actors include Joseph Borden as David, John Nixon as Joe, Jeff Gilliam as Franky, Lyn Presker as Mother, Kneeland Wright as Father, Rebecca Caine as Miss Johnnie, and David Laney as Mr. Ogle.
Notes: Music by David Gaines. Photographed by Norton Dill. Produced by Robert Clem and Cindy Kirkpatrick. Written by Clem.


THE REAL MALCOLM X.
1992. 60 minutes.
Little, Malcolm. Malcolm X. Muslims.

"Twenty-five years after his assassination, Malcolm X provokes controversy as never before. Now, CBS News examines the facts of his extraordinary life to find the man behind the myth. See and hear Malcolm X in exclusive, never-before-shown footage and excerpts from some of his most important speeches. Discover him through the words of those who knew him best, including his widow, Betty Shabazz, Quincy Jones, Dick Gregory, Andrew Young and Lionel Hampton. Listen to contemporary artists like Public Enemy and Malcolm Jamaal Warner discuss his legacy in the black community today."
Notes: Hosted by Dan Rather. Directed and written by Brett Alexander and Andrew Lack. Produced by Alexander. Edited by Pamela McDonough. Camera by Mark Falstad. Also interviewed are Mike Wallace, Maya Angelou, James Farmer and childhood friends and family of Malcolm.


RESURGENCE.
1981. 60 minutes.
Documentary. Ku Klux Klan. Race Relations, Labor. Resistance to Klan Activity.

A film about the resurgence of extreme right, violent groups as a reaction to increased civil rights for blacks and labor demands increased. The film focuses on the Sanderson Chicken Plant in Laurel, Mississippi, managed by convicted Klansman Charles Noble. The United Racist Front in Benson, N.C. and the Mississippi Klan and other racist groups became more active when workers at Sanderson Farms began a strike. Footage of the shooting of Communist Workers Party members in Greensboro, N.C. in 1977 is shown.
Notes: Directed by Pamela Yates and Thomas Sigel. Edited by Peter Kinoy. Photographed by Sigel.


RICHARD PRYOR, HERE AND NOW.
1984. 94 minutes.
Concert Performance. Richard Pryor on stage. Directed by Richard Pryor.

Filmed live at the Saenger Theater on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, this one-man show by the brilliant and astonishingly talented comic Richard Pryor. Pryor, a fine actor, was an even greater actor when performing his own material before live audiences. In his concert films his acerbically acid wit, his incisive comic rage and his wonderful gift for mimicry are the work of a comic genius. Profanity in his act is not for shock, not for effect, it is something inseparable [he may have invented the word m-----f----r as we now know it]. This, his fourth concert filmed is marred by an inordinate number of hecklers in the audience -- he fends them off effectively. The film was also his first after his near death experience from free-basing. There is less inspired rage and more communing with the audience who are there because they love his work regardless of its flaws. Pryor is aware, maybe too aware of that love, it seems to soften his edge just that little bit.
Notes: Executive Producer, Jim Brown.


RICHARD PRYOR LIVE IN CONCERT.
1979. 76 minutes. (V1690).
Directed by Jeff Margolis.

A "concert" film in which Richard Pryor exhibits his considerable talents more fully than he's been able to do in his dramatic features. This film shows one of America's finest comic actors at his most brilliant. What we see is the controlled rage that hits every target he aims at. Pryor's manic gifts for mimicry may be surprising to those who have only seen him in his comedies. The film is definitely scatological -- the language is choice.
Notes: Box-office gross: $18,367,000.


RICHARD WRIGHT - BLACK BOY.
1994. 86 minutes.
Documentary. African-American Authors. Richard Wright. Literary Biography.

"The first film on the life and legacy of Richard Wright. His earliest major works, the novel, Native Son, and his autobiography, Black Boy, became runaway best sellers. They were the first works by an African American writer to confront a broad reading public with the pain and anger of the black experience. According to critic Irving Howe, 'The day Native Son appeared American culture was changed forever.' The film traces Wright's development as an author back to his brutal childhood in Jim Crow Mississippi: his father deserted his family, his uncle was lynched and Wright often went hungry. It follows his involvement in many of the most important social events of his time: The Chicago black cultural renaissance of the '30s, the Communist Party during the Depression, the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, the Pan-African liberation movement of the '50s."
Notes: Produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy. Executive Producers, Jeff Judin and Guy Land. Among those interviewed: Mary Emma Graham [Literary critic], Margaret Walker Alexander [Author], Ralph Ellison [author], Allen Willis [Chicago South Side resident], Michael Dyson [literary critic], Cedric Robinson [political scientist], Constance Webb [Wright biographer], Minnie Farish [schoolmate], Eugene Frederick [postal worker], Ishmael Flory [activist], Ben Burns [Communist activist], Mark Naison [Historian, African-American Studies], Amiri Baraka [author], Ollie Harrington, Willie Morris, Michel Fabre [French biographer] and Julia Wright [Wright's daughter]. Dramatic Scenes directed by Horace Ove. Edited by Adam Zucker. Narrated by J. A. Preston. Original music composed and performed by Randy Klein. Photography by Ngaio Killingsworth.


THE RIVER NIGER.
1979. 108 minutes. (V552).
Directed by Krishna Shah.

The River Niger is a film based on the Pulitzer prize play by Joseph Walker. The story is about a young black man who has difficulty determining the conflicting paths his life can take from the ghetto. He is pulled in so many directions -- by radical friends, by devoted family and especially by the proud assurances of his father -- that he can't seem to make decisions. Walker's play seems to reflect the friction of the times -- the confusing options open to Blacks about what to believe in, what personal faith to follow. The setting for the play as produced on stage was in the New York. The filmmakers chose Los Angeles and Watts. The change makes no sense dramatically or emotionally. The indecision of the son seems like too much time spent in the slow, nulling sun of California. The grit of Walker's play must have been in the corrosive, explosive edginess the New York environment offers. The film moves along slowly. It is still worth seeing for its cast which includes: Glenn Thurman, Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett, Roger E. Mosely, and Theodore Wilson.
Notes: Screenplay by Walker.


THE ROAD TO BROWN.
1989. 50 minutes.
Documentary. Civil Rights. Charles Houston, Dean of Howard Law. Desegregation. Cases to note Plessy Vs Ferguson; Murray v. Maryland; Gaines v Houston; Spruel v Oklahoma Regents; Sweatt v Painter, McLauarin v Oklahoma Regents; Steele v Louisville & Nashville RR, Teacher's Salaries Cases. Brown v Board of Education included several other cases Clarendon City, SC Prince Edward City, Va., Delaware, and Washington D.C. Constance Motley, Robert Carter, Louis Redding among Marshall's group of attorneys and consultants such as John Hope Franklin. John W. Davis was the defending attorney.
Notes: Produced and directed by Mykola Kulish. Edited by Gary Weinberg and Yasha Aginsky. Written by William Elwood, Larry Adelman, Larry Dares, Kulish, and Weimberg. Narrated by Steven Anthony Jones. Camera by Brad Shapiro. Among those interviewed are: Genna Rae McNeil [Houston's biographer]; Jay clay Smith [former Dean, Howard University Law School]; Hon. Juanita Kidd Stout [Judge, Pennsylvania Court, Houston' former Legal Secretary]; Steven Wright [former Maryland School principal]; Florence Bryant [retired teacher]; Hon A. Leon Higgenbotham, Jr. [3rd U.s. Court of appeals]; Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. [Attorney Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]; Edward C. Mazique, MD. [Houston's personal physician]; Frederick R. Morrow [NAACP Field Secretary 1937-42]; Hon. Constance Baker Motley [Judge Federal District Court]; Juanita Jackson Mitchell [former NAACP Youth Secretary].


THE RODNEY KING CASE: WHAT THE JURY SAW IN CALIFORNIA v. POWELL.
1992. 126 minutes.
Documentary. Criminal Justice, California Vs Powell. Police Brutality. Rodney King Case.

"What did the jury see in the courtroom in Simi Valley? Was the jury's verdict supported by the evidence? So that you can answer these questions for yourself, Court TV, the nations new 24 hour basic cable channel, has condensed 150 hours of gavel-to-gavel coverage into a 1 hour and 56 minute videotape that presents the key portions of both the prosecution and defense cases as well as the entire 81-second amateur videotape that recorded the events that occurred during evening of March, 3, 1991."
Notes: This video program covers the King case in great detail. Fred Graham, narrates and offers analysis of the court proceedings. It is a thoroughgoing, objective documentary by Fred Graham. Edited by Kiernan McKinney and Jim Valver. Directed by Dominic Palumbo. Produced by Peter Aronson and Kristin Jeanette-Meyers.


ROOTS.
1977. 780 minutes. (V675).
African American Family Heritage. African-American Authors. Popular Fiction. Alex Haley. Directed by David Greene, John Erman, Marvin J. Chomsky, and Gilbert Moses.

One of television's most famous achievements. In effect, a history of blacks in America through the history of one family based on the huge historical best seller by Alex Haley, Jr. The program was at the time, the highest rated program in the history of television (ironically only the broadcast of Gone With the Wind surpassed it) and spurred a national craze for genealogical searches. The program is available here in six segments of approximately two hours length. Roots is generally well acted, produced, directed and written and provided a show case for many fine young black actors and actresses. With: Lou Gossett, O. J. Simpson, Ed Asner, Chuck Connors, Robert Reed, Ralph Waite, LeVar Burton, Ben Vereen, Lynda Day George, Vic Morrow, Raymond St. Jacques, Sandy Duncan, John Amos, Leslie Uggams, Richard Roundtree, Lloyd Bridges, Doug McClure, Ian Machane and MacDonald Carey.
Notes: Music by Quincy Jones and Gerald Fried. Written by William Blinn, Ernest Kinoy, James Lee, and M. Charles Cohen.


ROOTS OF REBELLION: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
60 minutes. (V2614).
Documentary. Slavery, United. States. Underground Railroad. Produced and Directed by Orlando Bagwell.

A documentary that chronicles the history of the Underground Railroad and the great input slaves had in directing and guiding the movement of escapees from slavery in the South. A segment of The American Experience from PBS.
Notes: Narrated by Ruby Dee. Written by Theodore Thomas. Photographed by Michael Chin.


ROUND MIDNIGHT.
1986. 132 minutes. In French and English. (V1415).
France. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

"The Blue Note nightclub. Paris, 1959. Inside an aged, ailing jazz man coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy as much as a glass of vin rouge strains to her a few of those notes. Sometime Round Midnight the two men will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius in the fading musician." Much acclaimed film based on the lives of jazz legends Bud Powell and Lester Young while they were in Paris. The film is slow and calm. It is rich with the music of the musicians. Fine, graceful film but it is often too slow and in some ways enervating. Dexter Gordon makes an incredible acting debut, one that netted him an Oscar nomination for best actor. Also in the cast are: Francois Cluez, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Lonette McKee, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, John Berry, Phillipe Noiret, and Martin Scorsese.
Notes: Screenplay by David Rayfield and Tavernier. Music composed and conducted by Herbie Hancock also won an Oscar.