Race and Film
The depiction of race and racial issues through film.
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- DirectorElia KazanJohn FordStarsJeanne CrainEthel BarrymoreEthel WatersA light-skinned black woman falls in love with a white doctor, though he is unaware of her true race.Story about a black girl who looks like a Caucasian and tries to pass for white. Once its discovered this causes problems in white antebellum southern society.
- DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsClaudette ColbertWarren WilliamRochelle HudsonA struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsLana TurnerJohn GavinSandra DeeAn aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsDavid BrianClaude Jarman Jr.Juano HernandezIn 1940s Mississippi, two teenage boys and an elderly woman combine forces to prevent a miscarriage of justice and clear a black man of a murder charge.
- DirectorGordon ParksStarsKyle JohnsonAlex ClarkeEstelle EvansA bittersweet, idyllic story about a year in the life of 14-year-old Newt Winger, born into a poor Black family in Kansas, who learns about love, fear, racial injustice, and immorality.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEvelyn PreerFlo ClementsJames D. RuffinAbandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black youths.
- DirectorGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsStefano SibaldiSusan HampshireDick GregoryTwo documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsJames MasonSusan GeorgePerry KingAn 1840s slaveowner trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsJacqueline LewisEthel MosesAlice B. RussellA young light-skinned Negress struggles to find her place in both the black and the white worlds.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsIris HallWalker ThompsonLawrence ChenaultRacists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.
- DirectorAlfred L. WerkerStarsBeatrice PearsonMel FerrerSusan Douglas RubesThis story is a true account of the lives of Scott and Marsha Carter. Having graduated from medical school, Scott Carter, a fair-skinned African American, marries Marsha Mitchell and moves to Georgia. When he arrives at the black clinic in Georgia, he discovers that the job must inconveniently go to a Southerner. Discussions between two nurses at this clinic suggest that Scott's light skin may have some bearing on the decision not to hire him. Defeated but not conquered, Scott returns to Massachusetts to live with his in-laws until he can get employment. He tries unsuccessfully to obtain employment as an African American. Because Marsha is pregnant, Scott decides to take a job at Portsmouth Hospital, but he reluctantly does so as a white man. While there, he manages to save the life of Dr. Bracket, who encourages him to take a postion in Keenham, New Hampshire. Scott decides to continue "passing" for white. In Keenham, Dr. Scott Carter proves to be quite a success for the town. For twenty years, Dr. and Mrs. Carter live peacefully in Keenham with son, Howard and daughter, Shelley. All goes well until Scott and Howard decide to enter the military during World War II. When Scott applies for officer status with the Navy, an investigation reveals his black heritage, and he is barred from receiving a commission.
- DirectorJohn CassavetesStarsBen CarruthersLelia GoldoniHugh HurdCassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorDelmer DavesStarsFrank SinatraTony CurtisNatalie WoodToward the end of World War II, two American soldiers fighting in Southern France become romantically involved with a young, American woman. Her background will reveal more about them than her.
- DirectorTed V. MikelsStarsRichard GildenRima KutnerHarry LovejoyAfter a black man's daughter is killed by the KKK, he seeks revenge by becoming a Klansman.
- StarsAnn-MargretPatricia ClarksonTim DalyThe son of a plantation owner has a daughter named Queen, with a slave. As Queen grows, she is faced with the struggle of trying to fit in with the troubled world around her.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsClark GableYvonne De CarloSidney PoitierAmantha Starr grows up as a privileged Southern belle in the ante-bellum South, but after her father dies broke, her world is destroyed when she discovers that her mother was Black.
- DirectorFred M. WilcoxStarsSonya WildeJames FranciscusPatricia MichonA young girl meets and marries the man of her dreams--only she hasn't told him that she is half-black, and he and his rich family and friends are white.
- DirectorFrank PereginiStarsHarry HendersonNorman JohnstoneAnn KennedyAn educated, upscale young black musician marries a woman from a lower socioeconomic class to get her out of the clutches of her stepfather, who beats and abuses her. However, once he "saves" her, he won't let his new wife meet his mother, as he knows she will be angry and disappointed with him for marrying someone "below his station".
- DirectorChi Muoi LoStarsChi Muoi LoSanaa LathanPaul WinfieldA Vietnamese brother and sister raised by an African American couple are reunited with their birth mother after 22 years.
- DirectorHaile GerimaStarsKofi GhanabaOyafunmike OgunlanoAlexandra DuahA self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
- DirectorGordon Parks Jr.StarsMoses GunnKevin HooksIrene CaraIn New York City, a young black boy and Puerto Rican girl fall in love despite objections from each other's families.
- DirectorSidney MeyersStarsGary MerrillDonald ThompsonClarence CooperA documentary account of the rehabilitation at the Wiltwyck School of an emotionally disturbed Black boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsDaniel L. HaynesNina Mae McKinneyWilliam FountaineA sharecropper decides to become a preacher after falling for a vamp from the city.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsPaul RobesonMarshall RogersLawrence ChenaultA malevolent phony preacher plots to take advantage of a woman from his congregation who happens to be in love with his long-estranged identical twin brother.