The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary. It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence in Los Angeles, California. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman. The title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue.
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, singer, and producer. He began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Harry Belafonte was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
Face/Off is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by John Woo, from a screenplay by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary. It stars John Travolta as an FBI agent and Nicolas Cage as a terrorist, who undergo an experimental surgery to swap their faces and identities.
American Gigolo is a 1980 American neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. It tells the story of a high-priced escort in Los Angeles (Gere) who becomes romantically involved with a prominent politician's wife (Hutton), while simultaneously becoming the prime suspect in a murder case.
Higher Learning is a 1995 American drama film written and directed by John Singleton and starring an ensemble cast. The film follows the changing lives of three incoming freshmen at the fictional Columbus University: Malik Williams, a track star who struggles with academics; Kristen Connor, a shy and naive girl; and Remy, a lonely and confused man seemingly out of place in his new environment.
Swordfish is a 2001 American action thriller film directed by Dominic Sena, written by Skip Woods, produced by Joel Silver, and starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Vinnie Jones, and Sam Shepard. The film centers on Stanley Jobson, an ex-con and computer hacker who is targeted for recruitment into a bank robbery conspiracy because of his formidable hacking skills.
Candyman is a 1992 American gothic supernatural black horror film, written and directed by Bernard Rose and starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, and Vanessa E. Williams. Based on Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden", the film follows a Chicago graduate student completing a thesis on urban legends and folklore, which leads her to the legend of the "Candyman", the ghost of an African-American artist and son of a slave who was murdered in the late 19th century for his relationship with the daughter of a wealthy white man.
Island in the Sun is a 1957 drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, John Williams, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its on-screen portrayal of interracial romance.
Odds Against Tomorrow is a 1959 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Wise and starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky to write the script, which is based on a novel of the same name by William P. McGivern. Blacklisted in those years, Polonsky had to use a front and John O. Killens was credited. Polonsky's screenwriting credit was restored in 1996 in his own name.
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American mystery drama film directed by Norman Jewison, produced by Walter Mirisch, and starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. It tells the story of Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), a Black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. The film was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a 1989 American slasher film co-written and directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard, and starring Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, and Tamara Glynn. The fifth installment in the Halloween series, it follows serial killer Michael Myers who again returns to the town of Haddonfield to murder his traumatized niece, Jamie Lloyd, with whom he now shares a telepathic connection.
"The White Man's Burden" (1899), by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. Originally written to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the jingoistic poem was replaced with the sombre "Recessional" (1897), also a Kipling poem about empire.
I Am Wrath is a 2016 American vigilante action-thriller film directed by Chuck Russell and written by Yvan Gauthier and Paul Sloan. The film stars John Travolta, Christopher Meloni, Sam Trammell, Amanda Schull, Rebecca De Mornay, Melissa Bolona and Luis Da Silva. Principal photography on the film began on March 9, 2015, in Columbus, Ohio. The film was released on December 16, 2016 by Lionsgate, and received mostly negative reviews.
Leigh-Anne Pinnock, also known mononymously as Leigh-Anne, is an English singer and actress. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, which was formed and won the eighth series of, The X Factor UK. As part of the group, she won three Brit Awards and achieved 19 top-ten singles and five number one entries on the UK Singles Chart, before going on hiatus in 2022. In 2021, she made her acting debut in the film Boxing Day.
BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, loosely based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth, along with Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace. It was Harry Belafonte's last feature film before his death in April 2023. Set in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it follows the first African-American detective in the city's police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.
The Talk is a colloquial expression for a conversation black parents in the United States feel compelled to have with their children and teenagers about the dangers they face due to racism or unjust treatment from authority figures, law enforcement or other parties, and how to de-escalate them. The practice dates back generations and is often viewed as a rite of passage for black children.
Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power is a 2021 British documentary film directed by Natasha Gaunt that follows English singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock opening about racial issues and colourism she experienced in her life and in the music industry. The documentary aired on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer on 13 May 2021. The documentary was filmed in 2020 after conversations about racism raised awareness following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. The documentary also shows Pinnock participating in protests in the UK against racial injustice and discussing the issue with fellow activists and artists including Alexandra Burke and Sugababes' Keisha Buchanan.
Gerard Winston Bush is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and author. Since 2012, he has collaborated with husband Christopher Renz via the directing/screenwriting duo Bush Renz, whose work includes the 2020 Lionsgate film Antebellum – featured in Variety’s top 10 films of 2020 – the upcoming HBO Max TV Series Inkwell, and the documentary All Deliberate Speed.
