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Filmography: T

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TA DONA.
1991. 100 minutes. In Bambara with English subtitles.
Agricultural Development. Bambara Culture. Drama. Mali. Directed by Adama Drabo.

A tale of romance and mythic search. A young agricultural worker seeks the aid of a disparate group of shamans and wise men while searching for the key to an ancient Bambara myth. His search leads him towards self-discovery and to ways to help the rural farmers in the Bambara region. A fine film about cultural change in conflict with a country's social expectations and conflict with bureaucracy and habit. With: Fily Traore as Sidy, Djeneba Diawara as Koro, Balamoussa Keita as Fakoro, Mamadou Fomba as Fabou, Abdou Samake as Moty, Arouna Diarra as Balle, Djibril Kouyate as Samou, Diarrah Sanogo as Gnedjougou, Abdoulaye Ascofare as Karim, Fatoumata Toure as Oumou Sambi Karambe as Coumba, Ami Coulibaly as Tenia, and Sogona Diallo as Kia. Ta Dona, like Soulyemane Cisse's Yeelen, is the story of the quest for secret knowledge by a young Bambara man. Here the hero, Sidy, is not a 13th Century songhai warrior but a modern agricultural expert in the Ministry of Rivers and Forests.
Notes: Photography by Lionel Cousin. Written by Adama Drabo.


TAWANA BRAWLEY AND THE PRESS.
1992. 60 minutes.
Panel Discussion. Tawana Brawley Case. Race Relations, New York State. The Press and Race Relations.

A panel discussion in the Columbia University School of Journalism's PBS series about the press' role in modern American society. This discussion is among New York press members who participated in the reportage on the controversial Tawana Brawley story -- a young black girl alleges that several white men abducted and raped her. The subsequent efforts at getting at the bottom of the story created a storm of controversy about the press, New York State justice officials, and the police.
Notes: Panel participants include: David Diaz, WNBC-TV; Kim Dillon, WKIP Radio; Billy House, Poughkeepsie Journal; Jerry Nachman, New York Post; Mark Riley, WLIB Radio; Sydney Schanberg, New York Times; F. Gilman Spencer, New York Daily News; and Wilbert Tatum, New Amsterdam News. Program moderated by Fred W. Friendly. Produced by Jeffrey Crawford Brown and Mark Gongazza. Directed by David Deutsch.


TANZANIA: QUIET REVOLUTION.
1966. 60 minutes.
On 16 mm only. Tanzania--Social Conditions.

"A view of the geography and people of Tanzania and their struggle with problems of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and racism. Features an interview with President Julius K. Nyerere who discusses his policy of nonalignment."
Notes: A segment [program # 11] of the seers A Changing World.


THAT'S BLACK ENTERTAINMENT.
199-. 106 minutes total running.
African-Americans in Film and Music. Race Movies. Series produced by Barbara L. Kaye. Edited by Mary A. Santos. Script for part I by Dr. Thomas Cripps.



THELONIOUS MONK: STRAIGHT NO CHASER.
1988. 90 minutes. (V2706).
Biographical Documentary -- Jazz. Directed by Charlotte Zwerin.

This film used footage by Michael and Christian Blackwood from 1968 as the basis for this smoothly done bio-documentary about the gifted jazz pianist and compositor Thelonius Monk. What is evident is that jazz musicians have an increasing interest for filmmakers looking for introspective, romantic subject matter and black American jazz artists, who can't escape their art or their personal demons are evidently picturesque and cinematic. This film is produced by jazz enthusiast filmmakers Bruce Ricker and Clint Eastwood (who directed the Charlie 'Bird' Parker film Bird) and is presented in fairly objective if adulatory terms. The great fact of this film is that it is a stunning record of Monk's performing and recording his own music including -- Evidence; Rhythm-a-ning; On the Bean; 'Round Midnight; Well, You Needn't' Bright Missippi; Blue Monk; Trinkle Tinkle; Rhym-a-ning; Ugly Beauty; Ask Me Now; Just a Gigolo; Crepuscule with Nellie; I Should Care; We See; Osaka T; Evidence; Epistrophy; Don't Blame Me; Ruby, My Dear; I Mean You; Lulu's Back in Town; Off Minor; Pannoninica; Boo Boo's Birthday; Misterioso; Monk's Mood; and Sweetheart of All My Dreams.
Notes: Photographed by Christian Blackwood. The Thelonius Monk Quartet performed (Charlie Rouse on Tenor Saxophone, Larry Gates on Bass and Ken Riley of Drums) as did the Monk Octet (With Rouse, Gales, Riley and with Phil Woods on Alto Sax, Johnny Griffin on Tenor Sax, Ray Ropeland on trumpet, and Timmy Cleveland on trombone). Narrated by Samuel E. Wright.


THERE WAS ALWAYS SUN SHINING SOME.
1980. 60 minutes. (V430).
Documentary. Directed by Craig Davidson.

A documentary of life in the old Negro Baseball League, narrated by James Earl Jones. There is excellent footage from newsreels of the games and some of the great stars of the Negro Leagues are interviewed including Jimmie Crutchfield, Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, Judy Johnson and Ted Page.


THESE GIRLS ARE MISSING.
199-. 60 minutes.
Documentary. Women in Africa. Young Women in Africa. Women and Education in Africa.

"Everybody knows this instinctively-educate women and you will change society. Perhaps that's why in African countries, fewer than 20% of girls ever enter a schoolroom, and across the continent, only one woman in three learns to read. It's not official policy. In fact, an international industry devoted to changing the status quo exits. Still the deck is staked against African girls. How can a schoolgirl be such a threat to traditional concepts of appropriate gender roles and control of fertility? These Girls Are Missing offers small sets of stories, sharp glimpses into a few intimate relationships layered to mirror the complex reality: Nadouba and Bintu in their West African village; Taz and Patricia from elite St. Mary's Secondary School in Malawi; Ethel and her mother torn between village and the modern world; a relaxed and riotous conversation among a group of Malinke elders. Through knowing them, the audience grows to understand how deep cultural attitudes, more than economics, undermine the future of Africa's women. More provocative than prescriptive, this film aims to inspire reflection, argument and deeper understanding."
Notes: A film by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini. Edited by Jay Freund. Associate Directors, Anjimile Ntila Doka and Niamoye Maiga De Vries. Camera by Michael Camerini. Narrated by Kagendo Murungi


THESE HANDS.
1992. 45 minutes. In Swahili and Kimakonde with English subtitles.
Tanzanian Women. Human Labor. Working Women. Tanzanian Cinema. Women Directors. Directed by Flora M'mbubu-Schelling.

"Who would have suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks in a desolate Tanzanian quarry, with no narration or plot, would prove to be one of the most unforgettable experiences of recent African Cinema? Flora M'mbugu Schelling's quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the international economic order deepens into a profound meditation on human labor itself. These Hands will stimulate viewers to rethink the documentary, their role as its consumers and, indeed, as consumers in a global industrial system. As we watch these women do their back-breaking work, care for their children and sing their work chants, the film deliberately provides no interpretation, no political sloganeering, no sociological analysis. It gives us no easy way to get inside these women's lives, so we are forced to become more aware of our relationship to them. We are powerless to hold the women's suffering and powerless to stop looking on in fascination. Slowly we realize we are as hopelessly enmeshed in this same global economic system of production and consumption as these women. As Liberation puts it: These Hands is an exceptional documentary in both its ethical and aesthetic qualities, a hallucinatory voyage."
Notes: Written by M'Mbugu-Schelling. Edited by Evodia Ndonde. Camera by Suleinman Kissoky.


THREE TALES FROM SENEGAL.
1990, 1992, 1994.
Senegalese Cinema. African Cinema.

  1. Le Franc, 1994. 45 minutes In Wolof with English subtitles. Directed by Djibril Diop Mamberty. "A whimsical but sardonic parable, about the plight of everyday Africans buffeted by the changing winds of the international monetary system. The hero, Marigo, played by the rubber-legged Dieye Ma Dieye, is an African Charlie Chaplin, an Everyman whose dreams of being a musician help him survive in a world of bureaucratic red-tape, urban decay and economic chaos."
  2. Fary L'Anesse. 1990. 17 minutes In Wolof with English subtitles. Directed by Mansour Sora Wade. "Is a touch fable revealing the exploitation of children in Africa's teeming cities. Two destitute boys escape the predatory demands of adults to spend one day of freedom together. Celebrated Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour provides a running commentary on their fate with a folk song about a bird which flies free of a crocodile."
  3. Picc Mi. 1992. 20 minutes In Wolof with English subtitles. Directed by Mansour Sora Wade. "Is a timeless tale of a man led into filly by his pursuit of the 'perfect' woman. When he thinks he has finally found her, she turns out to be a donkey. The moral: The man who falls in love with beauty forgets that there are other qualities in women."


A THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE & HATE.
1996. 106 minutes.
Romantic Comedy. Sexual Comedy. African-American Directors. Directed by Martin Lawrence.

Darnell Right, the young manager of a hot L.A. night spot for young blacks is a notorious womanizer. He's always juggling several women at once, much to the dismay of his mother and the girl he may really love, but can't commit to. When he meets rich, beautiful, and willful Brandi Web [Lynn Whitfield] he discovers that he can't play that game anymore without serious repercussions. This comedic variation on the fatal attraction theme or m*****f****r [to paraphrase the hero's preferred terminology] is hard to define. Martin Lawrence, who wrote and directed the film, and appears as Darnell, shows some skill at handling scenes and actors. But his screenplay suffers from too many uncertainties and too much unpleasantness in the portrayal of his central character. The problem is that Darnell's tendency towards petty smart-ass cynicism is irrevocably matched with the same negative trait in Lawrence's own comic persona - there's a core of nastiness that just hangs about the character and the actor. In the end, Darnell is redeemed but God knows why. There is never any real clear explication given for the madness of Whitfield's character [the same applied for Glenn Close's in Fatal Attraction]. These kind of women exist so that straying or profligate men can get righted, but does anyone know why this particular male punishment fantasy exists in the movies? With: Regina King as Mia, Bobby Brown as Tea, Della Reese as Ma Wright, Daryl Mitchell as Earl, Roger E. Mosley as Smitty, Simbi Khali as Adrienne, Tangie Ambrose as Nikki, Wendy Robinson as Gwen, and Staci Jae Johnson as Peaches.
Notes: Screenplay by Lawrence with Bentley Kyle Evans, Kenny Buford and Kim Bass. Photographed by Francis Kenny. Music by Roger Troutman. Box-office gross: $34,700,000.


THURGOOD MARSHALL: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO.
1985. 28 minutes. (V3054).
Documentary.

Using photographs, interviews, and film footage this film is a brief look at the life of Thurgood Marshall. Born in Baltimore, Maryland. Went to Lincoln University. Expulsion for a hazing incident in his sophomore year. Howard University Law under Charles Houston. Founded the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1938, which he would lead for 21 years. He argued 41 cases before the Supreme Court losing only 7. In 1961 President Kennedy would appoint him to the U.S. circuit court, and President Johnson would make him the first black Solicitor General. LBJ would appoint him the first black justice to the Supreme Court in 1967, a seat from which he would resign in June of 1991.
Notes: Among those interviewed: Parrin Mitchell, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Wiley Banton, Jack Greenberg, Essie Hughes, and James Murphy. Produced by Wayne C. Sharpe. Researched and Written by Dexter R. Reed, Jesse W. Matin, Wayne C. Sharpe. Narrated by Marvin Hunter. Camera by Donald Brawner, Julius Fantleroy and others.


TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
1962. 129 minutes. (V94).
Directed by Robert Mulligan.

The film version of Harper Lee's story about life in the Deep South. Gregory Peck plays a fair minded lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl. A movie whose themes and sentiments appeal to a lot of people. It is hard to determine how much people respond to the story or to some since of relief at wanting to believe in the simple goodness and homespun optimism of what the film espouses. Peck gives a solid performance. With: Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Robert Duvall, Rosemary Murphy, James Anderson, Collin Wilcox, William Window, Frank Overtone, Richard Hale and Brock Peters.
Notes: Screenplay by Horton Foote. Music by Elmer Bernstein. Photographed by Russell Harlan. Academy Awards for best actor (Peck), best screen adaptation (Foote- from Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize novel) and art/set decoration (b/w). Nominated for best picture, best supporting actress (Badham), director, cinematography) and score (Bernstein).


TO SIR WITH LOVE.
1967. 105 minutes. (V977).
Directed by James Clavell.

A novice teacher in the slums of 1960s London tries to reach an understanding with his tough young students. The teacher is a West Indian among predominantly white working class kids who resist his authority no more or less than that of others. The film evokes memories of its star's school days -- as a juvenile delinquent with a heart of gold in Blackboard Jungle. One of Sidney Pouter's most popular films. With: Judy Gees, Christian Roberts, Faith Brooks, Patricia Rutledge, Suzy Kindle and Lulu (who also sings the hit title song). Notes: The director is the best selling author of Shogun, King Rat and others. Poitier also did Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967. The big box-office made him the number 1 star in the movies, the first black actor to reach such giddy heights. The song "To Sir, With Love" became a huge hit as well. Box-office gross: $19,100,000.


TO SLEEP WITH ANGER.
1990. 102 minutes. (V2966).
Drama. Directed by Charles Burnett.

A black family in Los Angeles is undergoing some minor strife -- the youngest of two married sons is often angry about how he thinks his family treats him especially, his older brother and his father. As these little things are developing, a wily old friend from back home returns. With an assured charm and a dangerous sense of humor, the visitor begins to affect the lives of all the people around him. Death and disorder seem to be accompanying him. When the father of the family nearly dies from a mysterious disease, his wife asks the friendly stranger to leave their home. Before he does he almost tempts the youngest son away -- a situation that strikes at the heart of the family. This is a quietly powerful and witty film about family, friendship, pride, and mysticism. It is rather episodic in shape -- the scenes are like handsome set pieces set off by a gentle fade-out to the next scene. The script is subtle and filled with wonderful bits of humor. This film breaks no cinematic bounds - it is simple narrative film making, given a fresh perspective because of the fine cast and an interesting new talent in director Burnett. Danny Glover gives a beautiful, subtle, and rich performance as the troublesome friend as does Mary Alice as the mother and wife whose kindness and charity finds a tough edge when it's needed. With: Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumpy, Vaunt McGee, Richard Brooks, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Julius Harris, Sy Richardson, and Davis Roberts.
Notes: Photographed by Walt Lloyd. Written by Burnett. Music by Steven James Taylor.


TONGUES UNTIED.
1991. 55 minutes.
Documentary. Gay African-Americans. African-American Homosexuals. Marlon Riggs. African-American Directors. Directed by Marlon Riggs.

". . . tribute to the joy and complexity of Black gay life. Using poetry, personal testimony, rap and performance, Tongues Untied describes the homophobia and racism that confront Black gay men. Some of the tales are not pretty: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his color or the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing. Yet Riggs also presents, in a layered work of astounding beauty, their rich flavor of the Black gay male experience . . ."
Notes: Cast includes: Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs, Michel Bell, Bernard Branner, Ben Callet, Gerald Davis, Kenneth R. Dixon, Darnell Stephens Durio, Larry Duckette, Brian Freeman, A. J. Honey, Paul Horrey, David Hunter, Wayson Jones. Produced, Edited and Photographed by Riggs. Poetry performance by Essex Hemphill and includes the poems Without Comment, Homocide, In the Life, Conditions, Black Beans, and Now We Think. Poems by Reginald Jackson, Craig Harris, Steve Langley, Alan Miller, and Donald Woods.


TONI MORRISON.
1992. 29 minutes.
Instructional. Biographical Studies. Toni Morrison. African-American Authors. Black Women Authors. Multicultural Studies.

"This program introduces one of the greatest contemporary American authors: winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature 'a literary Moses stripping away the idols of whiteness and blackness that have prevented blacks from knowing themselves.' Readings from Beloved and Jazz show how she returns to the pain of slavery and segregation to restore wholeness to the black psyche. 'The past,' Morrison says, 'is more infinite than the future. . .It's avoiding it, deceiving ourselves about it, that paralyzes growth.'"
Notes: Segment of the program In Black and White: Conversations with African American Writers. Produced and directed by Matteo Bellinelli. Morrison is interviewed by the filmmakers. She discusses how the storytelling tradition of her parents influenced her work. The role of black language and idiom in her development as an author is also explained. Camera by Renato Volger. Edited by Alberto Eishenhardt. Music by Andre Knecht.


THE TORTURE OF MOTHERS.
1980. 60 minutes.
Drama. Directed by Woodie King, Jr. Ruby Dee.
Notes: Narrated by Adolph Caesar.


TOUKI BOUKI.
1973. 85 minutes. In Wolof with English subtitles.
Action melodrama. Senegal. Directed by Djibril Diop Mamberty.

A Senegalese film about a pair of young lovers whose adventures are not unlike those the heroes of Bonnie and Clyde and A Bout De Souffle [Breathless]. The film is a depiction of the curious underworld in Africa's cities in the 1970s. There are scenes of startling violence in the film, and the film also has some especially lyrical images of the hero and heroine on the lam from the authorities. The couple dream of making a big enough deal to go to Paris but the hero, at the last minute, hesitates. Magaye Niang and Mareme Niang are Mory and Anta, the central characters of the film and they are intriguing personalities. With: Cristophe Colomb, Moustapha Toure, Aminata Fall and Ousseymou Diop [in the role of Charlie]. Also with the voices of Josephine Baker, Mado Robin and Aminata Fall.
Warning Note: The film begins with very explicit scenes of the actual slaughter of cattle. There are other scenes throughout the film of slaughter and sacrifice of animals.
Notes: Photography by George Bracher.


A TOWN MEETING WITH NELSON MANDELA.
1990. 90 minutes.
Interview. Ted Koppel Reports, June 21, 1990.

"Considered the father of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and an international symbol of the human rights movement, Nelson Mandela was released February 11, 1990 after serving more than 27 years in South African prisons. Commemorating Mandela's first visit to the United States, A Town Meeting with Nelson Mandela contains the entire historic Ted Koppel interview with the 71-year-old leader of the African National Congress, uncut and unedited."


TRESPASS.
1992. 101 minutes.
Crime Melodrama. Directed by Walter Hill.

Two Arkansas firemen inherit what is apparently a treasure map from a man who has died in a fire they were fighting. Forty years before, the man, janitor at a large Midwestern church, had stolen a collection of valuable gold religious artifacts. Consumed with guilt over his theft, he never cashed in on his haul, but buried it in the ceiling of an East St. Louis industrial plant. It's 1992 and the plant is abandoned, and in a danger zone, one dominated by St. Louis drug gangs. The two treasure hunters find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walter Hill's best films have a speed, energy and grace that it is hard to find in other films in the genre. Trespass is action filmmaking at its purest -- script, acting, editing are all precise, with precious little waste and coolly stylized imagery. The film's violence comes out the Hill's use of those cool images, and the forceful personalities of his actors. Ice T, Ice Cube, Bill Paxton, William Sadler, Art Evans, DeVoreaux White, Bruce A. Young, Glenn Plummer, Stoney Jackson, John Toles-Bey, and Tico Wells are some crew. With this film Hill and his actors (with a huge helping hand from the precision made script by Gale and Zemeckis) have re-defined and re-tooled the action genre for the 1990s. This is one hell of an exciting movie.
Notes: Photographed by Lloyd Ahern. Music by Ry Cooder. Written and produced by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis.


TRYIN' TO GET HOME: A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SONG.
1993. 55 minutes.
Musical Anthology. African-American Music, History.

"This film presents a one-man musical odyssey from slavery's spirituals to contemporary rap, conducted by multi-talented 'tour guide' Kerrigan Black. black sings and performs seventeen songs as he places the music in historical context and skillful monologues. Extensive use of still photos and documentary film footage further dramatizes the film's message documenting the significance of African American contributions to United States and international musical culture. In 1986 Kerrigan Black developed and began performing Tryin' to Get Home. Thousands of people have enjoyed his educational and entertaining performances at schools, colleges, museums, and libraries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and California."
Notes: Written and performed by Kerrigan Black.


THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN.
1996. 106 minutes.
Drama. Black Pilots in World War II. Tuskegee Air Corp. Fighting 99th Fighter Squadron. 332nd Fighter Group. African-Americans in the Military. Directed by Robert Markowitz.

This HBO production is well acted account of the ordeals and challenges faced by a group of the earliest black pilots in the U.S. armed forces. The cast is led by Laurence Fishburne as Hannibal Lee, Allen Payne as Walter Peoples, Malcolm Jamal Warner as Leroy Cappey, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Daniel Hugh Kelly as Col. Rogers, and Mekhi Phifer as Lewis Johns all of the "best and brightest" of young black men with a keen desire to blaze a path for those who would follow in there footsteps. With: Courtney B. Vance as Lt. Glenn, Andre Braugher as Benjamin O. Davis, Chris McDonald as Major Joy, and John Lithgow as Senator Conyers.
Notes: Teleplay by Paris Qualles, Trey Ellis, and Ron Hutchinson from a story by Robert Williams and T.S. Cook. Music by Lee Holdridge. Photographed by Ronald Orieux.


TWO BLACK CHURCHES.
1975. 20 minutes.
Documentary Footage. Black Churches in the South. Folklore.

A film by William Ferris, Yale University. Rose Hill Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Researchers look at the daily and cultural routines of two small churches in the black community in around Vicksburg, Mississippi. The churches' and church members histories are explored.
Notes: Photography by Dale Lindquist. Edited by Robert Slattery. A production of the Yale University Media Design Studio in cooperation with the Center for Southern Folklore.

 
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