Classic Films
Related: About this forumTCM Schedule - Saturday February 3 - Black History Weekend Marathon
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TCM Schedule - Saturday February 3 - Black History Weekend Marathon
Saturday, February 3 At a Glance
BLACK HISTORY WEEKEND MARATHON
Get on the Bus (1996)
Murder of Fred Hampton, The (1971)
Cicero March (1966) (short)
American Revolution 2 (1969)
Black Moderates and Black Militants (1968) (short)
Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979) (short)
Emperor Jones, The (1933) (6:30 am ET)
Within Our Gates (1920)
Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
(2021)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
(P) Long Day's Journey Into Night (1982)
Raisin in the Sun, A (1961)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- TCM PRIMETIME
BLACK HISTORY WEEKEND MARATHON
When We Were Kings (1996)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
(P) Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975)
Jackie Robinson Story, The (1950)
Greased Lightning (1977)
12:00 AM Get on the Bus (1996)
A disparate group of African-American men travel by bus to Washington, DC for the Million Man March.
Dir: Spike Lee Cast: Ossie Davis, Charles S. Dutton, Andre Braugher
Runtime: 120 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-MA CC:
Trivia: First film directed by Spike Lee in which Lee himself did not act or appear. Rather than seek studio financing, Lee financed the film with monetary contributions from famous black men so as to reflect the spirit of the Million Man March. The contributors included (but were not limited to): Will Smith, Danny Glover, Wesley Snipes, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., and Robert Guillaume.
2:15 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
This film depicts the brutal murder of the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation.
Dir: Mike Gray Cast: Howard Alk, Howard Alk, Mike Gray
Runtime: 88 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-14 CC: Y
3:45 AM Cicero March (1966)
Short film which documents a civil rights march held on September 4, 1966, in Cicero, Illinois.
Dir: The Film Group Cast: Robert Lucas
Runtime: 9 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
4:00 AM American Revolution 2 (1969)
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A gritty but essential documentary charting social turbulence in late 1960's Chicago. American Revolution 2 includes footage of the 1968 Democratic Convention protest and riot, a critique of the events by working class African-Americans in Chicago, and attempts by the Black Panther Party to organize poor, southern white youths on the city's North side.
Dir: Howard Alk Cast: Mike Gray, William R. Cottle
Runtime: 80 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-14 CC: Y
5:30 AM Black Moderates and Black Militants (1968)
Three members of the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party, including future congressman Bobby Rush, respectfully debate with the principal of an African American high school on strategies for ending racism.
Dir: The Film Group Cast: Bobby Rush
Runtime: 15 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
5:45 AM Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)
This documentary covers the life, career, and activism of actor Paul Robeson.
Dir: Saul J. Turell Cast: Sidney Poitier, Jessica Huppert-Berman, Saul J. Turell
Runtime: 30 mins Genre: Biography Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
6:30 AM The Emperor Jones (1933)
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When his subjects revolt, a Caribbean dictator looks back on the path that led to his downfall.
Dir: Dudley Murphy Cast: Paul Robeson, Dudley Digges, Frank Wilson
Runtime: 72 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y
Trivia: Fredi Washington had to reshoot her scenes wearing dark make-up when the Hays Office deemed her as appearing too light-skinned in the first rushes. They feared audiences would think Paul Robeson was embracing a white actress.
Trivia: The jungle scenes were originally to be shot in the swamps of the American South, but when Paul Robeson signed for the film, he had a clause inserted in his contract that specifically prohibited filming in the South, due to that area's violent racist history and strict racial segregation. The scenes were filmed on a studio set in Astoria, Queens, NY.
8:00 AM Within Our Gates (1920)
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In this film, a black schoolteacher finds the battle against racism is everywhere when she goes North to raise money for better schools.
Dir: Oscar Micheaux Cast: Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin
Runtime: 79 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: N
Trivia: This is the earliest known surviving film directed by an African-American and Oscar Micheaux's earliest surviving directorial effort. The film was thought to be lost until it resurfaced in the early-1990s, in the Filmoteca Espanol in Madrid, Spain.
Trivia: The film has been repeatedly censored over the years. In its first outing, the rape and lynching scenes were heavily edited as they were deemed too provocative after the 1919 Chicago race riots. Originally seven or eight reels in length, this film was re-cut to six reels and reissued about six months after its first run.
9:30 AM Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking (2021)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14983798/mediaviewer/rm987232257/?ref_=tt_ov_i
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A look at the life and work of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneer of the African-American film industry.
Dir: Francesco Zippel Cast: Francesco Zippel
Runtime: 80 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-MA CC: Y
11:00 AM Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
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Desperate losers plan a bank robbery with unexpected results.
Dir: Robert Wise Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters
Runtime: 95 mins Genre: Crime Rating: TV-14 CC:
Trivia: Harry Belafonte starred in this, the first film-noir with a black protagonist. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky, who had written and directed a famous noir, "Force of Evil (1948)," to write the script. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's (In 1997, the Writers Guild of America officially restored Polonsky's credit).
12:45 PM Long Day's Journey Into Night (1982)
Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie.
Dir: William Woodman Cast: Thommie Blackwell, Ruby Dee, Rhetta Hughes
Runtime: 149 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC:
3:30 PM A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
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The Younger family strives to get out of their ghetto neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. When the patriarch of the family passes away and each family member is handed a slice of the insurance payoff, their escape finally seems possible.
Dir: Daniel Petrie Cast: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee
Runtime: 128 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
Trivia: There was a tense and antagonistic relationship between Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil during the making of this film. The tension between the actor and actress had first developed when they played these parts in the play on Broadway. McNeil felt that film should adopt her character's point-of-view, a stance supported by the Playwright Lorraine Hansberry, while Poitier believed his character's struggles should be the focal point of the film. The actor and actress' distaste for one another never quite diminished, and Poitier wrote many years later that he believed that McNeil hated him.
6:00 PM In the Heat of the Night (1967)
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A black detective teams up with a racist white sheriff to solve a murder in a small town in the South. Over time, they begin to find respect for one another.
Dir: Norman Jewison Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates
Runtime: 109 mins Genre: Suspense/Mystery Rating: TV-14 CC: Y
Oscar nominations:
ACTOR -- Rod Steiger {"Police Chief Bill Gillespie"} (WINNER)
DIRECTING -- Norman Jewison
FILM EDITING -- Hal Ashby (WINNER)
BEST PICTURE -- Walter Mirisch, Producer (WINNER)
SOUND -- Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department (WINNER)
SOUND EFFECTS -- James A. Richard
WRITING (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) -- Stirling Silliphant (WINNER)
Trivia: Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the North because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansmen during a visit to Mississippi. That's why Sparta, IL, was chosen for location filming. Nevertheless, the filmmakers and actors did venture briefly into Tennessee for the outdoor scenes at the cotton plantation, because there was no similar cotton plantation in Illinois that could be used. Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow during production in Tennessee. He did receive threats from local racist thugs, so the shoot was cut short and production returned to Illinois.
Trivia: Rod Steiger was asked by director Norman Jewison to chew gum when playing the part. He resisted at first, but then grew to love the idea, and eventually went through 263 packs of gum during shooting.
Trivia: The distributors hesitated to release the movie in the southern states because of the potential for trouble and violence due to its theme of racial conflict. As it turned out, there were no reports of violence occurring at any venues in which this film played.
8:00 PM When We Were Kings (1996)
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On September 25, 1974, in the wake of one of the greatest political scandals in its history, Watergate, America was poised to watch a knockout punch that would redefine it as a nation of champions. In the atmosphere of a three-ring circus, in a little known country ruled by a military dictator, on the little noticed continent ...
Dir: Leon Gast Cast: Malick Bowens, Lloyd Price, Thomas Hauser
Runtime: 90 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-14 CC: Y
Oscar nominations:
DOCUMENTARY (Feature) -- Leon Gast, David Sonenberg (WINNER)
Trivia: Almost all of the footage was shot in 1974, but the film took 23 years to complete because the negatives and rights were caught up in civil suits involving the Liberians who financed it.
Trivia: When the film won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali came to the stage with the filmmakers to show they had made peace. Foreman helped Ali, stricken with Parkinson's Disease, climb the steps to the stage.
9:45 PM Hoop Dreams (1994)
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A chronicle of the lives and high-school careers of two inner-city youths who both harbor legitimate hopes of playing professional basketball. The filmmakers followed William Gates and Arthur Agee for nearly five years, from the summer after they leave elementary school, through high school up to their entry into college ...
Dir: Steve James Cast: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates
Runtime: 171 mins Genre: Documentary Rating: TV-MA CC: Y
Oscar nominations:
FILM EDITING -- Frederick Marx, Steve James, Bill Haugse
1:00 AM Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975)
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A 12-year-old is traumatised by the murder of his friend, a star basketball player.
Dir: Joseph Manduke Cast: Moses Gunn, Rosalind Cash, Bernie Casey
Runtime: 95 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC:
Trivia: This film depicted the shooting and murder of an African American by law enforcement. Some researchers consider this film's plot similar to the real-life shooting and deaths of African Americans by law enforcement which the Black Lives Matter movement has exposed systemic racism when it concerns African American males and law enforcement--the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, years after the film was released, is deemed as life imitating art.
Trivia: Laurence Fishburne's film debut. He is credited as Laurence Fishburne III.
2:45 AM The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
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Jackie Robinson plays himself in this true story of the man who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.
Dir: Alfred E. Green Cast: Jackie Robinson, Ruby Dee, Minor Watson
Runtime: 76 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
Trivia: This was Jackie Robinson's only acting role.
Trivia: When Jackie Robinson gets a draft notice in the mail, he doesn't explicitly say what it is. He only says it begins with the word "Greetings." In 1950 audiences would have remembered that World War II draft notices began that way. It was a popular source of dark humor at the time.
Trivia: Dick Williams, the Hall of Fame manager of the "Impossible Dream" Boston Red Sox, appeared in this film as the pitcher and the second baseman for Jersey City in Jackie's first game with the Montreal Royals.
4:15 AM Greased Lightning (1977)
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The life of NASCAR racing champion Wendell Scott. Scott's struggle to overcome racism and follow his dream of becoming a champion is seen, beginning at the end of World War II through 1971.
Dir: Michael Schultz Cast: Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, Pam Grier
Runtime: 96 mins Genre: Biography Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
Trivia: Melvin Van Peebles was originally scheduled to direct the film, but he exited because of "artistic differences," and was replaced by Michael Schultz.
Trivia: Maynard Jackson, Jr., the first Black Mayor of Atlanta, appears in the film as the minister at Wendell and Mary's wedding.