Schedule
Room
Time
Movie
3B17
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Remember the Titans
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
114 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Four Little Girls
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
102 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Hoop Dreams
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
171 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
The Great Debaters
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
150 min
3B18
3B19
3B20
3B21
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
3B34
3B35
3B37
3B40
3B41
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
202 min
Feb. 17, 2012
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
The Help
146 min
4pm , 7pm
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
The Color Purple
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
154 minutes
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Malcolm X
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
193 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Something the Lord Made
110 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
The Long Walk Home
95 min
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
175 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Ray
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
153 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
108 min
Small
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Featured Film: Amistad
Theatre
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
152 min
3B44
3B45
Friday
Glory
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
3B43
99 min
30 min
30 min
105 min
Fri: 4pm, 7pm
Sat: 10am, 2pm, 7pm
3B42
Children’s Movies:
The Piano Lesson
John Henry
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Sounder
African-American
Film Festival
Saturday
Feb. 18, 2012
10am, 2pm, 7pm
All Ages Are Welcome!
Movie Reviews
Amistad
Amistad is a story that questioned the legal status of Africans who rose up against
their captors on the high seas and were brought to trial in a New England
court. Slavery itself was not the issue. Instead, the court had to decide whether
the defendants were born of slaves (in which case they were guilty of murder) or
were illegally brought from Africa (and therefore had a right to defend themselves
against kidnapping). This story is hailed as a great, untold chapter in American
history. 1997 (Appropriate for Upper School, or Middle School student with parent)
Glory
This movie tells the story of a unit of black soldiers who fought for the Union
during the American Civil War. This is a frequently overlooked part of American
history, brought to life by Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew
Broderick. 1989 (Appropriate for Middle and Upper School students)
Hoop Dreams
A documentary follows two inner-city Chicago residents, Arthur Agee and William Gates, as they follow their dreams of becoming basketball stars. Beginning at
the start of their high school years, and ending almost 5 years later, we watch the
boys mature into men, still retaining their "Hoop Dreams". Both are recruited by
the same elite high school as their idol, former Detroit Pistons superstar Isaiah
Thomas. Only one survives the first year; the other must return to a high school
closer to home. Along the way, there is much tragedy, some joy, a great wealth of
information about inner city life, and the suspense of not knowing what will occur
next. 1994 (Appropriate for Middle and Upper School students)
Remember the Titans
Denzel Washington is hired to coach football in a recently integrated high school
in Virginia. Set in the early 1970's, this movie examines the lingering racial tensions in the United States. 2000 (Appropriate for Middle and Upper School students)
Ray
Ray is a musical biographical drama of American legend Ray Charles. Born in a
poor town in Georgia. Ray Charles went blind at the age of seven, shortly after
witnessing his younger brother's accidental death. Inspired by a fiercely independent mother who insisted he make his own way into the world, Charles found his
calling and his gift behind the keyboard. As he revolutionized the way people
appreciated music, he simultaneously fought segregation in the very clubs that
launched him and championed artists' rights within the music world. 2004
(Appropriate for Upper School students)
Children's Movies
The Piano Lesson
A story of a family that has survived a turbulent past. At the heart of their struggle stands a magnificent piano. A carved piano that carries their family's story
from their days as slaves. As the family struggles with the questions of selling it
because of their financial difficulty- they must come to terms with their past. (For
All Ages)
John Henry
The legend of John Henry tells the story of the mightiest, doggone greatest nation
builder this country's every seen, who single-handedly defeats the steam drill in a
steel-driving competition. (For All Ages)
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Morgan Freeman recounts the compelling adventures of one family's escape from
slavery via the Underground Railroad. Taj Mahal's heartfelt blues scores perfectly
captures the drama of this perilous flight to freedom. (For All Ages)
Sounder
Based on the novel by William H. Armstrong, this is the story of 11 year-old black
youngster David Daniel Lee Robertson III, known throughout the film as "Boy".
When his sharecropped father is arrested and sentenced to five years at hard labor
after stealing food to feed his family, Boy embarks upon a journey to find out
where his father has been imprisoned. Accompanied by his dog Sounder, Boy
also makes the arduous crossover from boyhood to manhood with the help (and
sometimes hindrance) of various people along the road. (For All Ages)
The Help
Based on one of the the most talked about books in years and a #1 New York
Times best-selling phenomenon, “The Help” stars Emma Stone (“Easy A”) as
Skeeter, Academy Award®-nominated Viola Davis (“Doubt”) as Aibileen and
Octavia Spencer as Minny—three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who build an unlikely friendship around a
secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at
risk. From their improbable alliance a remarkable sisterhood
emerges, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines
that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are
made to be crossed—even if it means bringing everyone in town
face-to-face with the changing times.
Deeply moving, filled with poignancy, humor and hope, “The Help” is a timeless
and universal story about the ability to create change. (146 mins)
Room: 3B35
Something the Lord Made
tells the emotional true story of two men who defied the rules of their time to
launch a medical revolution, set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow
south. Working in 1940s Baltimore on an unprecedented technique
for performing heart surgery on "blue babies," Dr. Alfred Blalock
(Alan Rickman) and lab technician Vivien Thomas (Mos Def-YesThat Mos Def, the rapper & DJ) form an impressive team. As Blalock
and Thomas invent a new field of medicine, saving thousands of lives
in the process, social pressures threaten to undermine their collaboration and tear their friendship apart. (110 mins)
Room: 3B41
THE long Walk home
The story of how Whoopie Goldberg's character has to walk many
miles from her home to her housekeeper's job across town, speaks
volumes on how the times were in 1950s south. Nearly 100 years after
the civil-war had liberated them ,blacks were still treated as second or
third rate citizens. (95 mins)
Room: 3B42
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
On April 5, 1968, soul legend James Brown performed a concert in
Boston that many say shielded that city from the kinds of devastating
riots that ripped other cities apart. It's actually a documentary
Somehow this film is both a sincere and funny remembrance of
how Beantown's clueless leaders and the Godfather of Soul bumbled
and beefed their way into turning a regularly scheduled concert into
an event that (barely) staved off devastating riots. (175 mins)
Room: 3B43
The Color Purple
The Color Purple is a 1985 drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is based on
the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film tells
the story of a young African American girl named Celie and shows the problems
faced by African American women during the early 1900s; including poverty, racism and sex discrimination. The character Celie is transformed as she finds her
self-worth through the help of two strong female companions. 1985 (Appropriate
for Middle and Upper School students)
Malcolm X
Spike Lee brings the life of African-American leader Malcolm X (an intense
Denzel Washington in an Oscar-nominated performance) to the big screen in this
sprawling, epic biographical drama. Born Malcolm Little, son of a Nebraska
preacher, on May 19, 1925, he became one of the most militant leaders and charismatic spokesmen of the black liberation movement before his assassination at the
Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. The film sweeps
through his early life as a small-time hustler and thief with his friend Shorty (Lee),
his conversion to Islam in jail, and his subsequent life as a controversial spiritual
leader and husband of Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett). Malcolm's tragic assassination is presented as a conspiracy of Nation of Islam leaders; the film shows how
his philosophy has been realized in the lives of others who have been moved by
his words. Filmed with great visual flair by Lee, the film is a work of entertainment as much as it is a historical artifact. Washington captures the spiritual conversion of the hero with a sincerity that is entirely as believable and ultimately
moving as it was in the book that inspired the film, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF MALCOLM X. 1992. (Appropriate for Upper School students) Erickson, All
Movie Guide
The Great Debaters
Denzel Washington directs and stars in this uplifting drama based on a true story
about a small East Texas all-black college in 1935 that rises to the top of the nation's debate teams in a duel against Harvard. A poet and debating coach at Wiley
College, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) sees debating as "a blood sport"
and recruits the meanest and brightest, including troubled Henry (Nate Parker),
driven Samantha (Jurnee Smollet), and the 14-year-old prodigy James Farmer, Jr.
(Denzel Whitaker). Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (no relation) plays Farmer's
father, the initially unsupportive president of the school. There's tough training,
romantic heat over the attentions of fiery Samantha (the first girl on the team),
and some no holds-barred racism (including a witnessed lynching) before the big
match-up against the Ivy League school, adding to the overall emotional force.
2007 (Appropriate for Middle School and Upper School students)