Spike Lee

In the early 1970s, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is hired as the first African American officer in the Colorado Springs, Colorado police department. Stallworth is initially assigned to work in the records room, where he faces racial slurs from his coworkers. Stallworth requests a transfer to go undercover and is assigned to infiltrate a local rally at which national civil rights leader (African American guy) Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) (birth name Stokely Carmichael) is to give a speech. Police is worried that Kwame will instigate the local African Americans in the area to fight for their civil rights. At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), the president of the African American student union at Colorado College. While taking Ture to his hotel, Patrice is stopped by patrolman Andy Landers (Frederick Weller), a corrupt, racist officer in Stallworth's precinct, who threatens Ture and sexually assaults Patrice. After the rally, Stallworth is reassigned to the intelligence division (after he reports the sexual assault of Patrice to his chief and he brushes him away saying he is a rookie). While reading the paper, he finds an advertisement to join the Ku Klux Klan. Stallworth calls and pretends to be a European American man, and speaks with Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold), the president of the Colorado Springs chapter. Stallworth recruits (has to go back to his chief again and beg for white man to play him in person, with the Klan) his Hewbrew coworker, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), to act as him in order to meet the Ku Klux Klan members in person. Zimmerman attends a meeting and meets Walter, along with the more reckless member Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen). Zimmerman also speaks with another member named Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Hauser), who cryptically refers to an upcoming attack. Zimmerman and Stallworth continue to cultivate their relationship with the local Klan chapter. Calling Klan headquarters in Louisiana to expedite his membership, Stallworth speaks with David Duke (Topher Grace), the Grand Wizard, with whom he begins regular conversations on the phone. At that point, David Duke is considered to be one of the men running for the President of the USA and hence a BIG deal. Kendrickson suspects Zimmerman of being Hebrew and plans to make him take a polygraph test at gunpoint, but Stallworth throws a rock through the Kendrickson family window to distract the Klansmen. Stallworth begins dating Patrice but does not tell her that he is a police officer. After passing on information to the Army CID about active-duty members, he learns from a meeting with an FBI agent that two of the chapter's members are military personnel stationed at NORAD headquarters. Stallworth and Zimmerman have a lucky escape when one day Felix turns up at the real Stallworth's apartment, after looking up at the address in the phone-book. But Zimmerman is able to talk his way out of it. Duke visits Colorado Springs for Stallworth's induction into the Klan; over the real Stallworth's protests, he is assigned to a protection detail for Duke. After Zimmerman, masquerading as Stallworth, is initiated, Felix's wife Connie (Ashlie Atkinson) leaves the ceremony to place a bomb at Patrice's house during the civil rights rally. Stallworth realizes her intentions and alerts local police officers. Acting on Felix's backup plan, Connie tries to plant the bomb in Patrice's mailbox; finding that it will not fit, she leaves it under Patrice's car instead. Stallworth tackles her as she tries to flee, but uniformed officers detain and beat him despite his protests that he is working undercover. Felix, Ivanhoe, and bomb maker Walker (Nicholas Turturro) (who had recognized Zimmerman from a prior arrest and conviction) arrive and park next to Patrice's car. They set off the bomb, not knowing where Connie had hidden it, and are killed in the explosion. Zimmerman arrives and frees Stallworth, and Connie is arrested. While celebrating the closed case that night, Stallworth wears a hidden microphone and tricks a drunken Landers into bragging about his assault on Patrice; with the confession on tape, Landers is arrested. Police Chief Bridges congratulates the team for their successful operation but orders them to end it and keep all details from the public. As he is packing up, Stallworth receives one last call from Duke. Stallworth reveals to Duke that he is a African American man before hanging up as Zimmerman and the others watch on, laughing at their victory. Later, Patrice and Stallworth discuss their future together. They are then interrupted by a knock on the door, but no one is there. Through the hallway window, they see a large flaming cross on a distant hillside surrounded by Klan members. The film closes with footage from the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including footage of the white supremacists, David Duke giving a speech to the attendees, counter-protesters, the car attack, and President Trump's statements after the events.

Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play `Lysistrata` by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago`s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Based on the 2003 South Korean cult thriller by the same name, The film follows the story of an advertising agent who is locked in a hotel room for 20 years without knowing his captor`s motives. When he is finally released, he finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive woman.

Merry and her daughter, Dina, decided to organize their lives by moving to a small house. But the situation that went well changed drastically when he began to look again at the occult.

A concert film featuring four major African American stand up comedians. February 26 and 27, 2000, the Original Kings of Comedy play Charlotte, NC. The themes are Blacks and Whites, men and women, old-school and hip-hop. Steve Harvey emcees, celebrates '70s music and lyrics of love, and pokes at folks in the front row. D.L. Hughley mines racial differences and talks about his marriage. Cedric the Entertainer riffs on a Black president and on being grown up. Bernie Mac, who says he expresses what's in the back of our minds, closes with reflections on being 42 (new aspects to his sex life and his attitude toward children). Spike Lee's camera takes us backstage and off-stage with the Kings and into the crowd where everyone's laughing. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Just before his best friend's wedding, the life of a Chicago writer becomes crazy when his best friend guesses that his new book's story is based on his bride's fervent past. Harper's autobiographical novel is almost out, his girlfriend Robin desires commitment, and he's best man at the wedding of Lance, a pro athlete. He goes to New York early (Robin will come for the wedding) to hang out with Lance and other friends, including Jordan, his former almost-lover, now in media and privy to an advance copy of the book. The men discuss women, never facing their own double standard; Jordan wants to try again with Harper, at least for one night; and Harper fears that Lance will read his book and learn that the bride-to-be slept with him once to avenge Lance's many affairs. Can Harper mature before Lance kills him, Jordan seduces him, and he loses Robin? —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams (Steve White), is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams. Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), homicide detectives, ride to the scene of Darryl Adams' murder. Larry and Rocco receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church that he killed Darryl. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Darryl Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects; Rocco comes to the conclusion that Victor is covering for his younger brother. Rocco pressures Strike but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then humiliates Strike in front of his crew. Strike gets together some money and decides to leave town, but a younger boy who admired Strike shoots Errol, Rodney's enforcer, with Strike's gun. Rocco lets Strike leave town.

Set in the early 1970s in a racially mixed New York City neighborhood, nine-year-old Troy (Zelda Harris) and her older brothers Clinton (Carlton Williams), Wendell (Sharif Rashed), Nate (Chris Knowings), and her younger brother, Joseph (Tse-Mach Washington) are introduced as their father Woody (Delroy Lindo) is blowing a horn to call them in from playing to eat dinner. Their mother, Carolyn (Alfre Woodard) is introduced as well. Dinner takes place during which we find out that the Carmichaels' next-door neighbor, "Tony Eyes" (David Patrick Kelly) seems to be somewhat of a nuisance to the family, which includes continuously singing while they are eating dinner. During the dinner, Carolyn tells the children to clean the kitchen before they go to bed as she is going out with Woody for the night and the children need to start pulling their own weight. Troy urinates in her brothers' room while she is asleep, but Nate wakes her up. Carolyn comes home and comedically wakes all of the children up out of their sleep because the kitchen was not cleaned. There's some argument naturally on the part of the children to which Clinton says, "I'd rather have a father than a mother any day". The neighborhood junkie drug dealers are introduced: Snuffy (Spike Lee) and Right Hand Man (N. Jeremi Duru), who are glue sniffers. Tommy La La (José Zúñiga), Clinton, Nate and a couple of their neighborhood friends are sitting on the Carmichael stoop while listening to the radio and playing a baseball board game. Tommy La La takes a bottle and throws it at the door of Tony Eyes while yelling homophobic slurs. This starts an argument because Clinton says the Carmichael children always get blamed for the mess on his property. The argument ends as Vic Powell (Isaiah Washington), a Vietnam war vet, comes home and greets everyone. Vic is renting the upstairs apartment from the Carmichaels. Troy and her friends are sitting on a stoop at the same time having on and off arguments before deciding to jump-rope. Some neighborhood boys lure a cat away from a doorstep while the girls are jump-roping. One kid swings the cat over his head by its tail and throws it on one of the girls. This starts another argument and shoving match between the girls and the boys. Troy singles out one the boys, Greg (Peewee Love) for being a "welfare case" and calls him a "stupid ass dummy." Nate is sitting at the table with Carolyn standing over him waiting for him to finish his black-eyed peas. Woody comes home with ice cream and sand cake for dessert. Nate is happy until Carolyn tells him that he isn't getting any dessert until he finishes his black eyed peas. This causes his brothers to make fun of him and rub it in his face telling him how good their cake is. Joseph's cake is eaten by the family dog Mutley, so Nate's piece of cake is split in half by Woody to share between Nate and Joseph. Carolyn, tired of standing at the table waiting for Nate to eat, tells him one last time to finish his black-eyed-peas. Nate finally takes a bite of them and promptly throws up, which causes everyone runs from the table. Wendell is taking the trash out and decides to take some of it in Tony Eyes' area. Carolyn comes out to see what is wrong, and Tony Eyes tells her that Wendell and her kids are always throwing trash into his area. Carolyn responds by telling him that he and his home are nasty. The arguments continue as the neighborhood kids jump in. Tony Eyes is still yelling and arguing when Vic comes downstairs and tells him to shut up. In anger, he punches Tony in the face and goes back into the house. Troy sneaks out and goes to the corner store to get candy. While in the store, she is intrigued by a woman (RuPaul) and one of the store owners dancing erotically in the store. As Troy leaves the store to walk back home, she sees Vic getting arrested for punching Tony Eyes. Troy gets back home and her brothers bully her into sharing her candy. Clinton and Wendell want to watch the Knicks game but because they are outnumbered, they are stuck watching The Partridge Family which they dislike. Troy and her friend, Minnie (Tiasha Reyes), go to the neighborhood store where Minnie steals an ice cream bar by putting it under her shirt and walking out. Troy tries to do the same thing with a bag of potato chips, but she gets caught. The boys are sitting in Troy's room watching the Knicks game while Troy is in the bathroom stuffing her shirt with toilet paper. Woody and Carolyn are downstairs arguing because Woody's music is not providing for the family and Carolyn, a schoolteacher is the sole provider. They are also arguing because Woody caused the family to have bounced checks. The argument escalates as Carolyn yells upstairs for the children to turn off the TV because it is a school night. She charges upstairs with Woody following and turns off the TV. A defiant Clinton argues with Carolyn and turns on the TV. Carolyn grabs him up for disobeying and disrespecting her and Woody grabs her and carries her out of the room. Everyone is in on the fight as Woody is dragging Carolyn down the stairs and Nate is jumping on Woody's back. The other children have a hold of Carolyn pulling her in the opposite direction and Carolyn hurts her ankle in the struggle. Woody yells and everyone gets quiet as he expresses his need to respect for his work in the house. Carolyn kicks him out of the house. Woody comes over the next morning and brings flowers for Troy to give to Carolyn. Troy suggests that Woody ask Carolyn out on a date. Troy brings the flowers to Carolyn, who is still in bed and hurt, and asks Carolyn for a quarter. The next scene shows Troy searching the house for money and she goes into Clinton's room and finds his buffalo nickels and takes them all for cash, as well as taking his Knicks tickets for starting the fight between their parents. With the stolen money, Troy buys herself and Minnie ice cream cones. Clinton comes home and upon discovering his tickets are gone confronts Troy about them. She gives them back but also tells him that she spent "those funny looking nickels of yours also." After coming in from playing outside, Troy is confronted by Carolyn about the nickels to which Troy lies to her twice. While Troy is in the bathroom, Greg comes to Carolyn who is sitting by the window and tells her all the mean things that Troy has been saying about him. Troy has to apologize to him for all the ugly things she said about him. Carolyn sends Troy to the store to get dinner with food stamps. Troy, embarrassed, doesn't want to go. In the store, Tory steals a package of meat and 6 cloves of garlic by hiding them in her shirt so she won't have to use food stamps. She witnesses a neighborhood girl, Peanut (Kewanna Bonaparte) getting caught for shoplifting. As Troy leaves, she is attacked by Peanut, but the grocer breaks up the fight and Troy heads for home, without the food stamps. That night, Troy has a nightmare that Snuffy and Right Hand Man make her get high. She wakes up in a sweat with Woody wiping her face, assuring her that everything is going to be ok. Woody and Carolyn get back together and they all decide to go on a trip to get out of the neighborhood but as they are leaving a worker from Con Ed comes by to shut off the electricity because the bill is unpaid. The trip is postponed and because of the situation, the family has to use candles for light. A few days later, the family leaves Brooklyn to take Nate and Troy down South to stay with relatives. Troy stays with her cousin Viola (Patriece Nelson), who was adopted by Uncle Clem (Norman Matlock) and Aunt Song (Frances Foster). Troy doesn't want to stay, but she does it to appease her mother. Troy eventually starts having fun with Viola despite a dislike of Aunt Song and her beloved dog, Queenie. On Troy's 10th birthday, she gets a letter from Carolyn (who narrates it) telling her about the happenings in the neighborhood since the weeks she's been away. After reading the letter, Troy decides she wants to go home. Meanwhile, Aunt Song has been looking for Queenie all day, but to no avail. Later that day, Troy has a birthday party. Upset because she hasn't found Queenie, Aunt Song snaps at two of Troy's birthday\sleepover guests as she pulls the couch out for them to sleep on. When she opens the couch, a dead Queenie (likely killed by Viola) pops out which deeply upsets Aunt Song. Troy later goes home and is picked up from the airport by her Aunt Maxine (Joie Lee) and Uncle Brown (Vondie Curtis-Hall). Aunt Maxine and Uncle Brown don't tell Troy at first how Carolyn is, but Troy figures out that Carolyn is ill. She visits Carolyn in the hospital, who is weak and ill from cancer. Later, Woody takes Troy home and Troy decides to clean & mop the kitchen without being told. Later that evening, Woody tells the kids that Carolyn's condition is not well and she has to stay in the hospital for more tests. The boys cry, but Troy remains silent. In the next scene, it is presumed that Carolyn succumbed to her illness. Nate and Joseph are walking up some stairs with Troy following behind, singing a Christian song she learned from Viola. Joseph says, "I hope we don't have to dress up for Mommy's funeral." As Troy watches television, Aunt Maxine comes in with clothes and shoes for Troy to wear at the funeral. Troy doesn't say anything until Aunt Maxine tries to coax her into putting on the clothes. Troy's response is that her mother would never let her wear polyester. When Woody tells Troy it is time to go to the funeral, Troy tells him she is not going. Woody has a talk with Troy, convincing her to go to church because it's what Carolyn would've wanted. At the house gathering after the funeral, Clinton and Troy have a moment when he tries to get Troy to talk, and holds her hand because she's unresponsive to everyone else around her. Joseph comes inside crying, saying that Snuffy and Right Hand Man are making fun of him saying, "His mama's dead, his mama's dead" and they robbed him. Following her mother's wishes to protect her younger brother, Troy goes outside with a baseball bat and hits Snuffy in the head. When Snuffy asks her why she did it, Troy tells him, "I'm tired of you and Right Hand terrorizing the neighborhood. Go sniff on your own block." In the middle of the night, Troy is sleeping, but she is restless as she dreams she's hearing her mother's voice shouting. She goes downstairs to tell her mother to please stop fighting only to find that it is her father who is making a lot of noise trying to kill a rat in the kitchen. Woody tells her that her mother is gone and that it's ok to cry. Troy runs to the bathroom and throws up as Woody comes into the bathroom to console her. Troy tells him that she wants to stay with him and not move away with her Aunt Maxine and Uncle Brown. Troy asks Woody if Carolyn was in a lot of pain, and he tells her that she was. Troy states, "Then it's good that she died so she wouldn't suffer anymore. There are scenes of the neighborhood continuing to play much like the beginning of the movie. Troy is sitting in Carolyn's chair with Joseph sitting on her while she combs his hair the way Carolyn did. Then, Carolyn is sitting the stoop seemingly narrating a letter she wrote to Troy telling her she can't believe that she's 10 now, that she misses her very much, and how she's proud of the way she's growing up. The memory is interrupted when the neighborhood kids come to the window and asks Troy if Joseph can come out and play. Troy tells him not to go far because dinner is almost ready. The last scene is of the neighborhood being watched by Troy as she's looking out the window much like Carolyn used to do.

As the opening credits roll, we hear Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) delivering a speech about the oppression of the black race by the white race, openly and loudly accusing whites of murder, rape and slavery. Intercut with the credits is footage of the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers and an American flag burning into an "X". In the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, during the early 1940s in the early years of World War II, a teenage Malcolm Little meets with his friend, Shorty (Spike Lee) at a local barber shop to have his hair straightened to make him acceptable to whites. The process is a painful one, with a concoction of eggs and lye applied to Malcolm's head and combed out. Malcolm admires himself in the mirror and he and Shorty take to the streets dressed in colorful "zoot" suits. In a flashback sequence, Malcolm narrates that he grew up poor in rural Nebraska. When his mother was pregnant with him, a small group of Ku Klux Klan riders broke the windows of his parents' house, looking for his father, a local minister and activist. Malcolm later narrates that his family's home was burned down and his father was murdered when he was four or five, thrown in front of a train after suffering a skull injury. The case was falsely recorded as a suicide and his family received no compensation, becoming destitute. Malcolm's mother Louise (Lonette McKee), who was of Caribbean descent and partially white, married his father because he was black and a follower of Marcus Garvey, who preached that Black Americans should return to Africa to have their own region of the world, free of white influence. Eventually, his mother was remanded to a mental institution and Malcolm and his brothers and sisters became wards of the state. Malcolm, while in grade school, showed excellent academic skills and told a teacher he wanted to be a lawyer. However, his racist teacher tells him that it "isn't a practical career for a negro". Flashing back to contemporary 1944, Malcolm and Shorty and their girlfriends go to a jitterbug club. After a rigorous dancing number, Malcolm meets Sophia (Kate Vernon), a white, blond woman who becomes infatuated with him. Malcolm's black girlfriend, Laura (Theresa Randle), is a devout Catholic and has avoided Malcolm's sexual advances. Eventually, Malcolm takes up with Sophia. At one point, he treats her with obvious racial misogyny, getting her to feed him breakfast. Working for a local railroad company, Malcolm travels to Harlem, New York City. He goes to a bar where his drink is doubled unexpectedly by a man named West Indian Archie (Delroy Lindo), who runs numbers locally. When Malcolm is harassed by another patron who insults his clothes and speaks ill of his mother, Malcolm hits the man on the head with a liquor bottle. Archie recognizes that Malcolm won't back down in a fight and calls him over to his table. Malcolm sees immediately that Archie is a person of considerable influence and goes to work for him, running numbers. One night, while Malcolm, Sophia and Archie drink and snort cocaine, Malcolm places a bet for several numbers with Archie. One of Malcolm's numbers hits and he stands to collect a large sum of money. Archie denies that Malcolm had the number and reminds his protege of his reputation for never forgetting a number. Malcolm chooses to break his ties with Archie. A few nights later, at a dinner club, Archie threatens Malcolm. Malcolm escapes through the bathroom window. He returns to Boston, reconnects with Shorty and the two resolve to become petty thieves. One of their first partners, Rudy (Roger Guenveur Smith), tells them about a elderly man he takes care of who has money and many valuable items in his house. When Rudy declares he'll lead the group, Malcolm plays Russian Roulette, threatening to blow off Rudy's nose. A terrified Rudy tells Malcolm to lead the group. The robbery is a success and over a period of time, Shorty and Malcolm loot a considerable amount. One night in early 1946, while Shorty and Malcolm straighten Malcolm's hair, they discover the water has been turned off. Malcolm is forced to rinse his head in the toilet bowl and he and Shorty are arrested when the police burst in. Sophia and Peg (Debi Mazar) are also arrested. The racist judge (a cameo by civil rights attorney William Kuntsler), after hearing a guilty verdict, sentences the two white women to 18 months for their association with the robbery group, but harshly sentences both Shorty and Malcolm to eight to ten years for 14 different robbery charges and declares the sentences will be served concurrently (a devastated Shorty literally faints in the courtroom, thinking he'd serve over 100 years until Malcolm explains to him what "concurrent" sentencing is). Malcolm is sent to a Massachusetts penitentiary. On his first day he refuses to recite his incarceration number and is thrown into solitary confinement. The prison priest (Christopher Plummer) tries to reach Malcolm but is obscenely rebuffed. Malcolm is eventually released from solitary and recites his number. While in the showers, straightening his hair, he is met by Baines (Albert Hall), a member of the Nation of Islam, the black Muslim organization of the United States. Baines tells Malcolm that the best way out of prison, both the penitentiary and the figurative prisons of his mind, is through the teachings of Elijah Muhammad (Al Freeman Jr.), the founder and leader of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm refuses at first but grows more interested in Baines' preaching, especially when he sees the confidence and courage Baines has -- he refuses to show any fear when the prison's guards threaten him. Malcolm becomes a willing student; Baines tells him that all white people are not to be trusted. Baines has Malcolm copy out an entire English language dictionary, pointing out the double-standards that guide words like "black" and "white", telling his student that he must learn the meanings behind every word and that language is the key to using the white race's power against them. Malcolm is reluctant at first to pray directly to Allah until he has a vision in his jail cell of Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad tells him that the only path to truth is through Allah. Malcolm finally gains the courage to pray as a Muslim. Malcolm also becomes a sore point for the prison priest; Malcolm challenges the traditional images of Jesus and the apostles, claiming they were anything but white. Malcolm is paroled from prison in 1952 after serving six years. A few days after his release, he travels to the Nation's headquarters in Chicago where he meets Elijah Muhammad himself. Malcolm is noticeably humbled by the experience and breaks down in awe-filled tears at meeting his savior. As part of joining the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad instructs Malcolm to drop his last name of 'Little', which his ancestors inherited from a white slave owner, and replace it with the letter 'X' which is a symbol of his lost African surname. Malcolm X returns to Harlem and begins his life as a preacher for the Nation of Islam. The Nation sets up a mosque in a single room and their congregation quickly grows over the next few years. At one point, Malcolm, while preaching a sermon, sees Shorty in the crowd. He embraces him, kindly pointing out that Shorty is a representative of his former criminal life and the two go out for coffee. Shorty tries to get Malcolm to join him for a cocaine fix but Malcolm tells him that he's clean. Malcolm gets news about West Indian Archie and his old gang from Shorty and finds out where Archie is living. Archie has since suffered a stroke and lives as an invalid in a squalid Bronx apartment. Malcolm visits him and comforts him when he sees how poor life has become for his old boss. In 1957, Malcolm challenges the Harlem division of the New York City Police Department when one of his temple's members, Brother Johnson, is beaten in the streets and taken to jail and denied medical attention. Malcolm gathers the Fruit of Islam, the Nation's security force, and, joined by a growing mob of local protesters, marches on the police precinct, demanding to see Johnson. When he is turned down he calmly and firmly tells the officers in charge that neither he nor the Fruit of Islam will move until they are satisfied that Johnson is being cared for properly. The silent protest works and Johnson is taken to the hospital. Malcolm orders the Fruit of Islam to disperse and leaves the angry crowd on the street for the police to deal with. As the Nation leaves, the captain (a cameo by Peter Boyle) remarks "that's too much power for one man to have." A short time later, while drinking coffee in a nearby cafe, a young man named Benjamin (Jean LaMarre), who'd witnessed the police beating of Brother Johnson and was impressed with Malcolm's stolid handling of the police, approaches Malcolm and asks him how he can become a Muslim. Malcolm questions Benjamin carefully, saying he shouldn't join an organization if he doesn't understand it. Benjamin becomes disappointed and begins to leave when Malcolm tells him he shouldn't give up that easily either. Malcolm invites him to come to his temple the next day. Benjamin leaves, promising he'll make Malcolm proud of him. In 1958, Malcolm meets his future wife, nurse Betty Sanders (Angela Bassett). The two are instantly attracted to each other and Malcolm eventually proposes to her. They are married in a private ceremony and plan to have children. They are soon the parents of four daughters. Over the next few years as Malcolm's influence grows, he soon finds himself in a high advisory position to Elijah Muhammad himself, which draws much jealously from Baines. As a result, Malcolm receives less attention in the Nation's official publication, "Muhammad Speaks". Baines speaks to Muhammad directly, telling him that Malcolm may be shamelessly courting the white media for himself, rather than for the good of the Nation. Following a formal public speaking session, Malcolm is confronted by a disgruntled man who suggests that Muhammad may not be the benevolent leader the Nation believes him to be. In 1962, Malcolm and Betty argue bitterly over reports in the New York Post that claim Muhammad may have fathered illegitimate children with at least two unmarried women who served on his office staff. Betty's argument also points to the manner with which Malcolm has been largely ignored by the leadership of the Nation. Following their small fight, Malcolm talks to the women who confirm the reports and have been ostracized within the Nation. Malcolm privately confronts Muhammad who claims that, because he himself never married, that he must father his progeny any way he can. Baines also tries to justify Muhammad's philandering by recounting the stories of both Noah (a drunk) and Solomon (who had many wives). Malcolm is not convinced and loses much of his stature and faith in the Nation of Islam. In late November 1963, Malcolm's candid and brutally truthful reputation is further damaged when, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, publicly states that the president's death was an example of the historical violence of the white race and the United States itself, referring to the incident as an example of "the chickens coming home to roost." The remark is quickly misconstrued in American newspapers, prompting anger from both the black and white establishments. Muhammad, who appears to be in poor health, decides to sideline Malcolm by informing him that his duties as the Nation of Islam's spokesperson are suspended for 90 days. Malcolm is enraged by what he sees as a clear case of betrayal by both Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, but he none the less accepts and submits to the punishment. In early 1964, during his suspension, Malcolm announces publicly that he'll be establishing a new organization called Muslim Mosque Inc, one that will allow white people to aide them but not permit them to join. Malcolm also announces he will complete a "hajj", a holy journey of self-discovery to the Middle East and Mecca in Saudi Arabia, required of all Muslims if they are able. He tours the ancient pyramids at Giza, knowing that he's being tailed by two men he assumes are CIA agents. Arriving in Mecca, he participates in the Muslim ritual of the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinks from the Well of Zamzam and kisses the Black Stone. He also realizes that Islam is not limited to people of Arab, Middle Eastern or African descent, but the many people in his pilgrimage include quite a few Caucasian whites, mixed race people and Asians as well. Malcolm willingly eats and prays with them. The hajj changes Malcolm's outlook and he experiences a spiritual re-awakening, realizing that exclusion of races other than African-Americans from Islam cannot accomplish anything. Returning to the United States, he gives a press conference where he declares that his days of preaching for African-American separation from white America are over. He forms a new Islamic organization, the Organization for African-American Unity (OAAU), one that will spread the word of tolerance of all who wish to worship Allah and the Qur'an, and which involves breaking his relations with the Nation of Islam. Malcolm also gives himself a new Arab Islamic name, "El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz." Very soon, Malcolm's family begins to receive death threats on the phone from Nation of Islam members. In September 1964, Malcolm is photographed guarding his house at night with a rifle. One night in February 1965, two firebombs are thrown at Malcolm's house in Queens and he gives a public statement to a television news crew outside that if he'd actually seen the bombers himself, he'd have opened fire on them in the street. Baines himself gives a public statement to the media, suggesting Malcolm may have fire-bombed his own house as a publicity stunt. Afterwords, Baines sends a message via a written note to five men that Malcolm survived the firebombing and they are to continue to carry on with their orders to kill Malcolm. Malcolm receives further death threats and becomes somewhat despondent. He arranges to speak at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965, his first such public speech since founding OAAU. Malcolm goes to a New York hotel and stays overnight there, possibly to draw attention away from his family. He receives more death threats from the Nation of Islam in his hotel room. He drives to the Audubon and meets a woman on the street who tells him not to listen to his detractors and that Jesus will protect him -- Malcolm acknowledges her kindness. One of his men, Brother Earl (James McDaniel), wants to position guards around the stage and podium and wants everyone attending to be searched to insure Malcolm's safety. Malcolm refuses, saying he wants the attendees of the speech to feel relaxed. Malcolm also becomes angry when his staff inform him that the OAAU program hasn't been completed and that the reverend scheduled to speak before Malcolm cannot attend. The rest of the staff are excused and Malcolm speaks alone to Brother Earl, muttering about the present day being "a time for martyrs." He also refuses to postpone the engagement when Earl suggests it. Earl leaves and Malcolm prepares his notes. In the auditorium, Betty and Malcolm's four daughters are seated in the front row while Brother Benjamin 2X (the same young man from the cafe scene) speaks ahead of Malcolm and introduces him. Malcolm steps to the podium and greets the crowd when a man in the back row suddenly starts shouting at someone... intended as a distraction. While the security guards run over and deals with the yelling man (exactly as planned), a man in the second row pulls out a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, runs up to the stage and opens fire. Malcolm (seeing the armed man approach and aware that he is a dead man) smiles slightly and is hit in his left shoulder and chest by two shotgun blasts and falls to the stage. Two additional assassins seated in the front row also run forward to the stage and shoot Malcolm several more times with semi-automatic pistols. As the killers run out of the auditorium, one of handgun shooters, Thomas Hayer (Giancarlo Esposito), is shot in his right leg by one of Malcolm's bodyguards. Hampered by his bullet wound, he is caught and beaten by the angry crowd outside the front entrance of the building. The police arrive a minute later to place the captured assassin under arrest before quietly entering the building to find Betty holding her dead husband and crying. Malcolm's body is taken to a nearby hospital just down the street where he is declared dead-on-arrival from multiple gunshot wounds. The story ends with Martin Luther King's weary statement on Malcolm's death and the violence that caused it. The same eulogy delivered by Ossie Davis at Malcolm's memorial services plays over a montage of film and photographs of the real Malcolm. Footage of Nelson Mandela (recently released from prison after 30 years) speaking to a South African grade school class is also shown. The final shot is of Malcolm himself proclaiming "By any means necessary!"

Jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam makes questionable decisions in his professional and romantic lives. Bleek Gilliam is a talented and self-centred jazz trumpeteer, whose single-minded concentration on his music leaves many, especially the women in his life, scrambling for his attention. Bleek forms his own band The Bleek Gilliam Quartet, and a rivalry emerges with bandmate Shadow that threatens to tear apart the quartet. Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam Quartet. The story of Bleek's and Shadow's friendly rivalry on stage which spills into their professional relationship and threatens to tear apart the quartet. —David <DGOWERS6@CHECLABA.SCU.EDU.AU>

On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. This film looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he's owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out - who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black - eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone. —garykmcd Life over twenty-four hours during a heatwave along one small section of Stuyvesant Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn is presented. It is a historically black section, with the exception of Sal's Pizzeria, which has been located there for twenty-five years, Sal, who now operates it with his two young adult sons Pino and Vito, making the very conscious decision on location due to the overabundance of pizzerias in his own Italo-centric neighborhood, in the process doing good business. Sal's customer base has largely been the black residents of the neighborhood, he currently employing black Mookie as a delivery boy. However, the makeup of the neighborhood has slowly been changing with Latinos moving in - Mookie's girlfriend, Tina, also the mother to his son, being Latina - gentrification leading to well-off Caucasians buying properties, and a recent immigrant Korean family opening a general store across the street from the pizzeria. There has been an underlying tension between the races as each tries to stake out his or her place: competing boomboxes blaring Caribbean music from one and black music from another; Pino, in particular among those in Sal's family, not liking the business largely due to the clientele and neighborhood; and contempt by some for the seeming success of the general store operated by a visible racial exception in the neighborhood, despite that property having sat empty for years. But on this day, the seeming spark that may ignite that tension is black Buggin Out taking exception to Sal only posting the photos of ethnic Italian celebrities on the pizzeria's Wall of Fame, instead of including "brothers and sisters" to reflect the makeup of Sal's customer base. —Huggo As the dog days of summer drag on in the Bed-Stuy neighbourhood of Brooklyn, an unexpected incident is about to bring tensions to a boiling point. After all, among the businesses on the lively block, it is hard not to notice Love Daddy's storefront radio station, Sonny's convenience store, and Sal's Famous Pizzeria. And then, in just one day, the residents' once-peaceful interactions become explosive confrontations as pressing demands to give voice to the frustrations of people of colour echo through the streets. Now, there is no turning back. But when you have put everything on the line to make yourself heard, what does it take to do the right thing? —Nick Riganas Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. —maschzentertainment

A not so popular young man wants to pledge to a popular fraternity at his historically black college. In the South of the United States are taking place confrontations between two groups of students who have different ideas and are not able to accept the one of the opponent. —Volker Boehm A contemporary comedic look at black college life. Dap (Fishburne) and Big Brother Almighty (Esposito) conflict over the greek frat system while the Wanna-be's and Jigaboo's conflict over self-identity and self-esteem. —Sandra Hall