Ossie Davis Movies

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.

Based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious (which was later translated into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original...

An African dictator (Wole Soyinka) needs to convince the former king (Rashidi Onikoyi) to legitimize his reign by offering him the ceremonial jam at...

Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies...

The true story of the only African-American crew to take a Navy warship into combat in World War II.

Panel discussion about the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansbury's "A Raisin in the Sun."

Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.

The story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the legendary pitcher, from his barnstorming days in the 1920s, hoping to break into organized "negro" baseball,...

Spike Lee's filmmaking career is examined in this partial making-of for the film 25th Hour (2002). Interviews with cast members from this film and...

A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.

From the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning PBS series NEIGHBORHOODS: THE HIDDEN CITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO comes the remarkable story of San Francisco's...

A documentary filmed at Moton Field in Tuskegee Alabama, home to the airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron. They were the first African American...

A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer...

Produced in collaboration with Malcolm X and narrated by Ossie Davis, this call to arms layers revolutionary text from multiple sources with gritty,...

Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers celebrates the ground-breaking career of the first-ever African-American to join the major leagues, talented...

Narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, this trenchant, eye-opening doc traces the radical civil rights leader’s life from his tumultuous childhood,...

Goin’ Back to T-Town tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that prospered during the 1920s and 30s...

The story of Benjamin Banneker, the early American patriot whose achievements rival those of Benjamin Franklin!! Risking his life, working with the...

The Black middle class, torn between white goals and Black needs, are examined by producers William Greaves and William Branch in a 90-minute NET...

"Tyler Texas Black Film Collection" (1985) is a promotional film hosted by Ossie Davis.