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. Travolta 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 and a BAFTA Award.
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 article by music writer Nik Cohn.
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.
Kelly Kamalelehua Smith, known professionally as Kelly Preston, was an American actress. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including Mischief (1985), Twins (1988), Jerry Maguire (1996), and For Love of the Game (1999). She married John Travolta in 1991, and collaborated with him on the comedy film The Experts (1989) and the biographical film Gotti (2018). She also starred in the films SpaceCamp (1986), The Cat in the Hat (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Sky High (2005), and Old Dogs (2009).
John Campbell McTiernan Jr. is an American retired filmmaker. He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). His later well-known films include the action-comedy-fantasy film Last Action Hero (1993), the action film sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), the heist-film remake The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and The 13th Warrior (1999). His last completed feature film was the mystery-thriller Basic, released in 2003.
Higher Learning is a 1995 American satirical 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.
Candyman is a 1992 American gothic supernatural 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 the son of a slave who was murdered in the late 19th century for his relationship with the daughter of a wealthy white man.
Staying Alive is a 1983 American dance drama film and the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977). The film was directed by Sylvester Stallone, who co-produced and co-wrote the film with original Fever producer Robert Stigwood, and writer Norman Wexler. Staying Alive stars John Travolta, reprising his Saturday Night Fever role as Tony Manero, with Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Julie Bovasso, Viktor Manoel and Kevyn Morrow.
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 neo-noir 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.
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a 1976 American made for television drama film inspired by the lives of David Vetter and Ted DeVita, who lacked effective immune systems. It stars John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Diana Hyland, Robert Reed, Ralph Bellamy and P.J. Soles. It was written by Douglas Day Stewart, produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, and directed by Randal Kleiser, who would work with Travolta again in the 1978 hit musical film adaptation of Grease shortly after. The original music score was composed by Mark Snow. The theme song "What Would They Say" was written and sung by Paul Williams. William Howard Taft High School was used for filming.
"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.
Joseph Allen Travolta is an American actor. He is the older brother of actor John Travolta.
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.
BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical, crime, and 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. In addition, it also marked Harry Belafonte's last feature film before his death in April 2023. Set in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the plot 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 Fanatic is a 2019 American psychological thriller film directed and co-written by Fred Durst. It stars John Travolta as Moose, an autistic man who develops an unhealthy obsession with his favorite actor Hunter Dunbar and stalks him. The film was given a limited theatrical and a VOD release, on August 30, 2019 by Quiver Distribution and Redbox Entertainment, and received mainly negative reviews, with some praise towards Travolta's performance.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
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.
