Stan pracuje w rzeźni. Jako mieszkaniec getta jest poniekąd skazany na ciężką harówkę, która wykańcza go psychicznie i emocjonalnie. Cierpi na bezsenność, a jego małżeństwo przechodzi kryzys. Żona Stana czuje się odtrącona, jest nawet zazdrosna o czułość męża wobec córki. Pozostaje jej jedynie społeczna więź z innymi mieszkankami getta. Charles Burnett dobrze wiedział, jaką historię opowiada. W jego filmie niema więc żadnego koloryzowania rzeczywistości.
The story of Dorothy and her husband T.C. He is a discharged Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead he is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Her life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing poverty and unemployment. As a result of the film's events, both the main characters become radicalized and Dorothy eventually turns to violence.
A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.
An enigmatic drifter from the South comes to visit an old acquaintance who now lives in South-Central LA.
In 1902, an African-American family living on a sea island off the coast of South Carolina prepares to move to the North.
Eddie Warmack, an African American jazz musician, is released from prison for the killing of a white gangster. Not willing to play for the mobsters who control the music industry, including clubs and recording studios, Warmack searches for his mentor and grandfather, the legendary jazz musician Poppa Harris.
Po walce z dwoma motocyklistami Martel Gordone zostaje aresztowany i osadzony w więzieniu. Aby otrzymać warunkowe zwolnienie, postanawia wywalczyć sobie pozycję w tym celu musi pokonać członków więziennego gangu.
In this meditative film the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, with its drama arising out of the timeless yet persistent issues of their lives.
A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.
Daydream Therapy is set to Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” and concludes with Archie Shepp’s “Things Have Got to Change.” Filmed in Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey by activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas as his first project at UCLA, this short film poetically envisions the fantasy life of a hotel worker whose daydreams provide an escape from workplace indignities. —Allyson Nadia Field
Ashes and Embers is an original screenplay by Haile Gerima, about a Vietnam veteran, who, several years after the war, is struggling to come to terms with his role in the war, and his role as a Black person in America. He survives by working odd jobs in Washington, D.C. and living with his girlfriend and her son. When criticism of his alienated behavior come from her and a father figure too often, he runs to the streets or to his grandmother's rural house in Virginia. Her criticism and his memories of the past both send him fleeing again to Los Angeles, where he is surrounded by superficial people who have forgotten how to be compassionate human beings. It is here that the advice of his friends and grandmother combine to transform him from an embittered ex-soldier to a strong and confident man.
Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in poorer districts of South Central Los Angeles.