Burt Young

Tony Todd

James Earl Jones

Thomas Ian Griffith

Excessive Force

Excessive Force (1993)

Robert Duvall

Lukas Haas

Carlin Glynn

In 1902 Texas, thirteen-year-old Horace goes to work on old Soll's farm to earn enough money to buy a headstone for his father's grave. Unfortunately for Horace, Soll's senility, ill health, and obsession with the convict labor he uses to work the farm, make it unlikely that Horace will ever be paid the twelve dollars and fifty cents Soll owes him for six months work.—JeanneArmintrout@juno.com

Convicts

Convicts (1991)

Frank Welker

Kath Soucie

Don Knotts

Pinocchio has been a real boy for a year. So his creator, Geppetto makes him a cake to celebrate. After a visit from the Pinocchio's Fairy Godmother (who had turned Pinocchio into a real boy), Geppetto realizes that he must deliver a precious Jewel box to the Mayor. Pinocchio persuades Geppetto to allow to take the box and makes his way to the Mayor's house. Pinocchio also takes with him his hand-make glow worm, which magically becomes real when Pincoccho gets distracted by a Carnival that has come to town. Pinocchio names his glow worm Willikers and decides to take a peek at the Carnival, despite Geppetto telling him not to go anywhere near it. Nearby, Scalawag and his colleague Igor advertise a three-shell game which cheats people out of their money, leading to Scalawag's and Igor's escape by using a cannon to get away from the angry mob. Scalawag meets Pinocchio and trades the Jewel box a ruby, which turns out to be a fake when Pinocchio gets home, which angers Geppetto. Pinocchio runs away to the Carnival where he watches a performance, and falls in love with the star puppet, Twinkle. After the people leave, the Puppet Master, Puppetino, tells Pinnochio about what it takes to be a performer, then transforms him into a puppet in an evil fashion. With help from Willikers and the Fairy Godmother, Pinocchio eventually escapes from the Carnvial to find the Jewel box, promising Twinkle along the way that he will find a way to make her real as well. Pinocchio meets with Scalawag and Igor and demands the Jewel box. Scalawag tells Pinocchio that he does not have it and says that they were outnumbered by a gang of thieves lead by Puppetino who took it. Pinocchio decides to track down the Carnival and Scalawag vows to help him go after it to get the box back, secretly intending to hand him over to Puppetino in exchange for gold. The Carnival, however, is a a lot more mysterious and evil than it seems. Including the evil master of the Carnival - the Emperor of the Night.—The Waltzing Walkman

Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)

Michael Jai White

Michael McKean

J.T. Walsh

True Identity is a comedy about a black actor named Miles Pope who wants to play a part in Othello. After a plane ride home from a failed acting job Miles meets a producer named Leland Carver who slips out his mob identity when the plane is about to crash but after all of that the plane does not crash. Now Miles is the only man who knows the past to this mob man. Miles gets the help of his best friend make-up artist Duane to turn him into a white man. As Miles is packing his stuff to get out of town, a hitman walks in and a struggle is in affect. Miles wins the fight and kills the hitman in an electrical fashion. Now Anthony (Leland Carver's top man) comes in to confirm that Miles is dead. Miles is now mistaken as the hitman, and now Miles must assume a parade of identities to get away from the Mob's guns, hot on his trail.—D.B. Dickerson

True Identity

True Identity (1991)

Ken Watanabe

Patrick Stewart

Ulrich Tukur

Feature-length version of the documentary TV series Planet Earth (2006), following the migration paths of four animal families.

Earth

Earth (2007)

Claudia Cardinale

Ian McShane

Anthony Quinn

Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this mini-series brings to life all of the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels.

Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth (1977)

Morgan Fairchild

Leslie Nielsen

Ellen Greene

Tasting the fruit of his labor with his wife Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), the maladroit and now retired Police Squad Lieutenant, Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), secretly dreams of getting back in action. Before long, his old partners, Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), will have to enlist the help of their loose-cannon friend, when Rocco (Fred Ward), the deranged terrorist, intends on blowing the annual Academy Awards ceremony to smithereens. Once more, Drebin goes undercover, interrogating dangerous blonde bombshells, and putting his precious, but fragile marriage in jeopardy. Are this year's Oscars doomed to disaster?—Nick Riganas

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)

Buck Leonard

David Malarcher

Judy Johnson

Chronicles the history of Negro Leagues baseball by using rare historical footage and interviews with black baseball greats.

There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues

There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (1981)

Ossie Davis

Fidel Castro

Martin Luther King

James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (1972)

Walter Olkewicz

Ernest Borgnine

Muhammad Ali stars as himself in this dramatized version of his life story up to the late 1970s. It includes his Olympic triumphs as Cassius Clay, his conversion to Islam, his refusal of the Army draft, and the legal battle after being stripped of his World Title.

The Greatest

The Greatest (1977)

Estelle Parsons

Lou Wagner

Barnard Hughes

Through memory flashbacks accessed by hypnotic regression, depicts the alleged UFO abduction of Betty and Barney Hill on September 19, 1961 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Upon returning from a trip into Canada, Betty (a social services worker in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) and Barney (a postal employee in Boston) are plagued by crippling anxiety and nightmarish visions. Turning to Dr. Benjamin Simon for help in piecing together the happenings of that night, the Hills enter into therapy and independently relate a most unearthly tale.—Rick Gregory

The UFO Incident

The UFO Incident (1975)

Samuel L. Jackson

Eddie Murphy

Jake Steinfeld

Immersed in luxury and riches, courteous Prince Akeem, the refined heir apparent to Africa's prosperous kingdom of Zamunda, summons up the courage to reject an arranged marriage proposal on his 21st birthday. As a result, bent on finding true love, the young blueblood heads to the strange urban jungle of New York City's Queens. To mask his regal descent, Akeem and his trusted valet Semmi must post as humble exchange students, doing their best to mingle with their neighbors. But more than anything in the world, the noble bachelor yearns to be loved for who he is and not for his title. Is Prince Akeem destined to find his soulmate in America's bustling Big Apple?—Nick Riganas

Coming to America

Coming to America (1988)

Jennifer Tilly

Patrick Warburton

Faye Dunaway

Bayou La Teche, Louisiana sizzles as the Cajun town celebrates the wedding of Splendid and Dolan. The trouble comes off the yun the wedding night when Splendid is determined to maintain her innocence. On the other side of town Splendids' cousin has her own problems. Her man has been sleeping with Thais, the town hooker. She heads to the Tiger Cafe with gun in hand to get back her man.—Les MacDonald at

Scorchers

Scorchers (1991)

Marty Feldman

Ted Cassidy

Michael York

The priceless Blue Water sapphire is coveted by the heirs of Sir Hector Geste: his new wife Flavia; his daughter Isabel; and his adopted twin sons, heroic Beau and pathetic Digby. When Sir Hector takes to his deathbed (where he remains for the duration of the film), Beau absconds with the stone to keep it from his stepmother. Flavia pursues him to North Africa, dispensing sexual favors to promote her schemes.—

The Last Remake of Beau Geste

The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)

Richard E. Grant

John Kani

Fatima Dike

1972, the height of the apartheid struggle. South Africa, the government had silenced the non-white majority, racial tensions reached a breaking point. A group of artists risked everything to build a safe space dedicated to all freedoms-artistic, social and political.

The Space - Theatre of Survival

The Space - Theatre of Survival (2019)

Harrison Ford

Mark Hamill

Carrie Fisher

Originally part of The Star Wars Holiday Special, this short follows Chewbacca searching for a cure to the virus that put his friends to sleep. He encounters an unexpected ally: bounty hunter Boba Fett.

The Story of the Faithful Wookiee

The Story of the Faithful Wookiee (1978)

Richard Pryor

Tony Burton

Ahna Capri

Tired of being treated like a slave by team owner Sallison Potter (Ted Ross), charismatic star pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) steals a bunch of Negro League players away from their teams, including catcher/slugger Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) and Charlie Snow (Richard Pryor), a player forever scheming to break into the segregated Major League Baseball of the 1930s by masquerading as first a Cuban ("Carlos Nevada"), then a Native American ("Chief Takahoma"). They take to the road, barnstorming through small Midwestern towns, playing the local teams to make ends meet. One of the opposing players, 'Esquire' Joe Calloway (Stan Shaw), is so good that they recruit him. Bingo's team becomes so outlandishly entertaining and successful, it begins to cut into the attendance of the established Negro League teams. Finally, Bingo's nemesis Potter is forced to propose a winner-take-all game: if Bingo's team can beat a bunch of all-stars, it can join the league, but if it loses, the players will return to their old teams. Potter has two of his goons kidnap Leon prior to the game as insurance, but he escapes and is key to his side's victory. As it turns out, there is a major league scout in the audience. After the game, he offers Esquire Joe the chance to break the color barrier; with Bingo's blessing, he accepts. Leon glumly foresees the decline of the Negro League as more players follow Esquire Joe's lead, but Bingo, ever the optimist, cheers him up by describing the wild promotional stunts he intends to stage to bring in the paying customers.—SL

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)

Naomi Watts

Richard Thomas

Ellen Burstyn

Set in the 1940's, James Earl Jones as an old clockmaker faces racism and is tried for murder when the racist is killed. However, Kevin Kilner comes forward and claims to have commmitted the crime in self defense. All the while, Kilner's family life is in disarray with various crises including his daughter catching meningitis.—John Sacksteder

Timepiece

Timepiece (1996)

Lance Reddick

Matthew Modine

Tom Skerritt

In 1945, a young boy arrives in a small Georgia town on a bus from which his mother was abducted and murdered. Alone he sits quietly and everyone becomes convinced that he is deaf and mute. Deciding that silence offers some power and protection, the boy decides to remain mute and just listens to all that is being said around him by people who think that he cannot hear.—John Sacksteder

What the Deaf Man Heard

What the Deaf Man Heard (1997)

Jim Henson

Madeline Kahn

Emilio Delgado

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street takes us inside the minds and hearts of the Sesame Street creators, artists, writers, and educators who, together established one of the most influential programs in television history. In late 1960s, Joan Ganz Cooney, a socially conscious female television executive was working in the fledgling world of public television. She was asked by friend Lloyd Morrisett Jr., who worked for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and who specialized in the psychological studies of pre-school children, to take on revolutionary experiment. Could Joan create a children's show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them?" Inspired by the civil rights movement, Joan and Lloyd took this experiment one step further and began to envision using the new medium of television to educate all children, and specifically reach America's "inner city" children to help close the educational gap that systemic racism and poverty had created. It was the right project, at the right time, and she needed the right group of people to make it happen. To harness the burgeoning power of television and create an educational, impactful, and entertaining show that could reach children nationwide. Cooney recruited visionary Muppets creator Jim Henson and acclaimed children's television writer and director Jon Stone to craft the iconic and uplifting world of what became Sesame Street. Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street focuses on the first two experimental and groundbreaking decades of Sesame Street, highlighting this visionary "gang." With interviews with the original surviving creators, and their families, we hear and see how "the gang" came together. They share stories of the challenges and stumbling blocks involved to create the show and its iconic characters, and also speak to confronting boundaries that came their way with unflinching purpose. All with a wicked sense of humor, and pure joy. The gang knew that they were part of something that was special, critically important, and bigger than themselves. Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street reintroduces the world to Joan's gang. With exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, and original cast and creator interviews, audiences will meet the people that audaciously interpreted radical changes in society and engaged children in ways that entertained and educated them like never before. Now is the perfect time to tell the story of the show's origins and inspire people to use purpose, and the power of creativity, to make a positive impact in our world.

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021)

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