The Negotiator is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray. It stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey as Chicago Police Department lieutenants who are expert hostage negotiators. The film was released in the United States on July 29, 1998, receiving generally positive reviews from critics and grossing $88 million worldwide. The film is considered by many to be one of Jackson's most underrated films and one of F. Gary Gray’s best films.
Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. was an American Marxist-Leninist revolutionary. He came to prominence in his late teens and early 20s in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the anti-racist, anti-classist Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all."
Medium Cool is a 1969 American drama film written and directed by Haskell Wexler and starring Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill and Harold Blankenship. It takes place in Chicago in the summer of 1968. It was notable for Wexler's use of cinéma vérité–style documentary filmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content.
The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 American documentary film by Errol Morris, about the trial and conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the 1976 shooting of Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood. Morris became interested in the case while doing research for a film about Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist known in Texas as "Dr. Death" for testifying with "100 percent certainty" of a defendant's recidivism in many trials, including that of Randall Adams. The film centers around the "inconsistencies, incongruities and loose ends" of the case, and Morris, through his investigation, not only comes to a different conclusion, but actually obtains an admission of Adams's innocence from the original suspect of the case, David Harris. The "thin blue line" in the title "refers to what Mr. Morris feels is an ironic, mythical image of a protective policeman on the other side of anarchy".
No Way Out is a 1987 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton, and Sean Young. Howard Duff, George Dzundza, Jason Bernard, Fred Thompson, and Iman appear in supporting roles. The film is based on the 1946 novel The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, previously filmed as The Big Clock (1948) and Police Python 357 (1976).
Harold Michael Gray was an American writer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film producer and director.
Fred Hampton Jr. is an American political activist, based in Chicago. He is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs. He is the only child of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party leader assassinated by police in Chicago on December 4, 1969, with his fiancée, now known as Akua Njeri.
The Fugitive is a 1993 American action thriller film, directed by Andrew Davis with a script co-written by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy, from a previous story draft which Twohy had written. Based on the 1960s television series of the same name which itself is loosely inspired from the trial of Sam Sheppard, the film stars Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Andreas Katsulas and Jeroen Krabbé.
Suspect is a 1987 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Peter Yates and starring Cher, Dennis Quaid, and Liam Neeson. Other notable cast members include John Mahoney, Joe Mantegna, Fred Melamed, and Philip Bosco.
Mark Clark was an American activist and member of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Clark was instrumental in the creation of the enduring Free Breakfast Program in Peoria, as well as the Peoria branch’s engagement in local rainbow coalition politics, primarily revolving around the anti-war movement. He was killed on December 4, 1969, with Fred Hampton, state chairman of the Black Panthers, during a predawn Chicago Police raid.
Untraceable is a 2008 American psychological thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, and Joseph Cross. It was distributed by Screen Gems.
The Organization is a 1971 DeLuxe Color American crime thriller film starring Sidney Poitier and directed by Don Medford. It was the last of the trilogy featuring the police detective Virgil Tibbs that had begun with In the Heat of the Night (1967), followed by They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970). In The Organization, Tibbs is called in to hunt down a gang of urban revolutionaries, suspected of a series of crimes. The screenplay was penned by James R. Webb, and the film co-stars Barbara McNair, Gerald S. O'Laughlin, Sheree North and Raul Julia.
Edward Vincent Hanrahan was an American attorney and politician who served as Cook County State's Attorney from 1968 to 1972. Hanrahan had been a prospective successor to Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley. His career was effectively ended after Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and member Mark Clark were assassinated in a raid by police coordinated by his office in 1969.
American Revolution 2 is a 1969 documentary on the 1968 Democratic National Convention and its aftermath. Part of the film focuses on the creation of an alliance between the Young Patriots Organization and local Black Panthers. On its release Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, while The New York Times reviewer Roger Greenspun was more critical. The film was released on DVD in 2007 and received generally positive reviews.
Howard Alk was an American filmmaker based in Chicago, Illinois, and an original co-founder of The Second City theater troupe. In the 1960s he began to work in film with the Chicago Film Group, filming and directing documentaries, completing American Revolution 2 (1969) and The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971). He also collaborated for years with singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, producing films with him through 1981.
Richard Rowley is a documentary filmmaker. His films and TV shows have received three Emmy awards, an Oscar nomination, and other awards and nominations, as well as recognition at film festivals around the world.
The Film Group was a Chicago commercial film production company that made television commercials and political documentaries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Filmmakers associated with the Film Group include Mike Gray, William Cottle, Howard Alk, Mike Shea, and Chuck Olin. The majority of their films reside at Chicago Film Archives within The Film Group Collection and Chuck Olin Collection.
Akua Njeri is an American writer, activist and former member of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Njeri was present at the December 4, 1969, police raid in which her fiancé, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark were killed at the Chicago apartment she and Hampton shared. She is the mother of their son Fred Hampton Jr., born after his father's assassination.
William O'Neal was an American FBI informant in Chicago, Illinois, where he infiltrated the local Black Panther Party (BPP). He is known for being the catalyst for the 1969 police/FBI assassination of Fred Hampton, head of the Illinois BPP.
