Background to the riots in Cincinatti

by John Ruhland, Free Press Contributor

The movies on this list are well-suited to watching as a group to stimulate political discussions, and may be especially pertinent in the wake of the Seattle WTO demonstrations. Most can be found on video at the Seattle Public Library, or independent video stores.

*highly recommended

**a “must see”

Anti-Black Racism and Slavery

ASHES AND EMBERS Haile Gerima 1983 African-American finds meaning after his return from the Vietnam war.

A SON OF AFRICA

*AT THE RIVER I STAND D. Appleby, A. Graham, S. Ross 1993 The Civil Rights Movement and the Labor movement join forces in MLKing Jr’s last fight.

*BETRAYED Costa Gavras 1988 White supremacists in rural America. Debra Winger, Tom Berenger.

BLACK ATHENA 1991 Explores Martin Bernal’s to some controversial thesis crediting Egyptians for foundation of Greek culture.

BLACK LIKE ME Carl Lerner 1964 White writer disguises himself as black man in order to try to understand life for blacks in America.

BOYZ IN THE HOOD John Singleton 1991 Condemnation of inner-city violence.

THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET John Sayles 1984 Man comes to Earth to escape slavery.

CAFE AU LAIT Mathieu Kassovitz.

*THE CITY David Riker 1998 Shows the lives of four different immigrants in the U.S.

*CITY OF HOPE John Sayles 1992 Emotionally intense story following the intersecting lives of several urban residents.

CRAZY IN ALABAMA

DO THE RIGHT THING Spike Lee 1989.

FOUR LITTLE GIRLS Spike Lee 1998 Documentary of the causes of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing and the anguish caused by it.

GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI Rob Reiner 1996 Killer of Medgar Evers, famous civil rights leader, was convicted 25 years after the murder.

THE GOLDEN CAGE: THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA’S FARMWORKERS

HATE Matthieu Kassovitz 1995 Powerful French film about life in the ‘hood, including the police brutality.

HOMECOMING

HOOP DREAMS 1994 Tremendous pressure put on urban poor who want to break the cycle of poverty through basketball scholarships.

*THE HURRICANE Norman Jewison 1999 The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a black man and a champion boxer who was framed for murder. Denzel Washington.

INTOLERANCE DW Griffith 1916 Epic film showing clearcut cases of injustice, although racism is accepted, due perhap to the film’s liberal viewpoint.

L’ELLISSE Michelangelo Antonioni. Bourgeois lifestyle revealed. Gives a view into the lives of people who profit from subjugation of Africans.

NOTHING BUT A MAN Michael Roemer.

RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE Charles Brabant, Marcel Pagliero.

ROLL OF THUNDER HEAR MY CRY 1978 Life of poor African-Americans in the Depression-era South.

ROOTS Epic adaptation of Alex Haley’s African Americans’ history.

WHITE MAN’S BURDEN 1995 what it would be like if African-Americans and Anglos had their roles reversed.

Black Liberation, Civil Rights, and the US Criminal (In)Justice System

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE The Black Panthers.

BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES Mark Kitchell 1990 Examines free speech fight, civil rights movement, and anti-Vietnam War movements in Berekeley .

*BLACK IS...BLACK AIN’T 1995 Marlon T. Riggs, who unfortunately followed conventional medical treatment and died of AIDS treatment, gives a beautiful depiction of what it means to be black, what it means to have AIDS, and more.

BLACK PANTHER Short California Newsreel documentary on the Black Panthers, with interviews of some of the party’s leaders.

BUSH MAMA Haile Gerima.

CASE FOR A REASONABLE DOUBT 1997 The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man on death row.

CHILD OF RESISTANCE Haile Gerima.

MALCOLM X 1972.

MALCOLM X Spike Lee 1992

MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW WITH JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO FEBRUARY 17, 1972, Interview with Black Panther leader Bobby Seale and other Black activists.

MISSISSIPPI BURNING Alan Parker 1988 Civil Rights film; See BETRAYED first.

NO VIETNAMESE EVER CALLED ME NIGGER

ONA MOVE: INTERVIEW WITH MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

PANTHER The story of the beginning of the Black Panther Party.

SAN FRANCISCO STATE: ON STRIKE Short California Newsreel documentary on this large strike by working class students.