Films with: Bassett, Angela

Africans in America America's journey through slavery /

A four part series portraying the struggles of the African people in America. This series exposes the truth through surprising revelations, dramatic recreations, rare archival photography, riveting first-person accounts and defines the reality of slavery's past through insightful commentary.

DVD 8078

Akeelah and the bee

Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She is a smart girl, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah decides to participate in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from Dr. Larabee, an English professor, for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with someone to rally around and be proud of. First Akeelah has to overcome her insecurities, her distracting home life, and the knowledge that there is a field of more experienced and privileged fellow spellers.

DVD 4595

American horror story

Elsa Mars is the proprietor of a troupe of human "curiosities" on a desperate journey of survival in the sleepy hamlet of Jupiter, Florida, in 1952. Her menagerie of performers includes a two-headed, telepathic twin, a take-charge bearded lady, a vulnerable strongman, and his three-breasted wife. But strange emergence of an entity will savagely threaten the lives of the townsfolk and freaks alike.

DVD 11310

Black Panther

King T'Challa returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from divisions within his own country. When two enemies conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must join forces with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Wakandan Special Forces, to prevent Wakanda from being drawn into a world war.

DVD 12724

Chi-Raq

Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play 'Lysistrata' by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's South Side creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

DVD 11762

Contact

Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway receives an encrypted message, apparently from a solar system many light-years away.

DVD 145

Malcolm X

Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.

DVD 289

Masked and anonymous

Uncle Sweetheart is an unscrupulous concert promoter who has figured out a way to cash in on the feelings of doubt and uncertainty that plague his nation. Sweetheart has decided he will stage a massive benefit concert, with the monies going to Sweetheart instead of charity. Sweetheart hires television producer Nina Veronica to help promote the show and sell it as a nation-wide event, while Sweetheart pulls a few strings to arrange for the perfect headliner, Jack Fate.

DVD 8021

Mission: Impossible.

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.

DVD 13306

Music of the heart

A single mother with little more than talent and the determination to make a difference teaches violin to students in a tough inner-city neighborhood.

DVD 319

Score

Persuaded to help a desperate friend for a $6 million payday, an expert safecracker postpones his retirement to pull off one last heist with a novice thief. Their foolproof plan turns into a high risk gamble when a clash of egos threatens to bring them both down.

DVD 1254

Strange days

A thriller set in the urban inferno of 1999 Los Angeles. Lenny Nero sells dreams and hustles nightmares available on small disks that are viewable via a compact headpiece that makes every sensation immediate. Nero replays scenes of happier days with Faith Justin, who has run off with sadistic Philo Gant. As he attempts to win Faith back, he hooks up with an old friend, Lornette "Mace" Mason, and the two of them are caught in a deadly fantasy of conspiracy, murder and betrayal.

DVD 1251

Sunshine state

A portrait of a richly diverse town on a sleepy Florida island threatened by real estate developers.

DVD 1767

Unchained memories readings from the slave narratives /

When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than 4 million slaves were set free. By the late 1930's, 100,000 former slaves were still alive. In the midst of the Great Depression, journalists and writers traveled the country to record the memories of the last generation of African-Americans born into bondage. Over 2,000 interviews were transcribed as spoken, in the vernacular of the time, to form a unique historical record.

DVD 5499

Waiting to exhale

A portrait of four African-American women who learn to depend on each other while waiting for that one good man who will take their breath away.

DVD 3690

What's love got to do with it

The turbulent relationship of Ike and Tina Turner eventually forces Tina to leave and find the courage to believe in herself.

DVD 589

Why we laugh

Celebrates African-American comedians and their cultural influence on American society. Includes performances, interviews, and insights from some of the most celebrated and outspoken comedians of all time.

DVD 9295