Lorraine Toussaint Movies List

A young woman dreams of making it big in the world of hip hop, but her parents demand that she finish her university degree. She dutifully agrees to complete her education, but her spoken word proves to have a powerful impact in the classroom.

Eddie Hawkins, called Hudson Hawk has just been released from ten years of prison and is planning to spend the rest of his life honestly. But then the crazy Mayflower couple blackmail him to steal some of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. If he refuses, they threaten to kill his friend Tommy.

Sprinter tells the story of Akeem Sharp who is set to be Jamaica's next big track-and-field sensation. Akeem hopes to rise in the track and field world will take him to the U.S. to reunite him with his mother who has supported the family while living as an illegal resident for over a decade. But Akeem's rising star is weighed down by turmoil at home: a volatile father, and an unruly older brother who insinuates himself into Akeem's career as a means of escaping - or perhaps enhancing - his scam artist hustle. Not only does Akeem have to prove to himself and everyone that he can succeed, but also overcome the struggles that may ultimately bring him down.

The story centers on a man and woman with relationship issues who decide to go on a meditation retreat that requires absolute silence for three days along with the man's best friend and recently widowed mother.

When her daughter's lover begins exhibiting signs of becoming a dangerous abuser, a mother attempts to intervene.

There has been a mid-air collision involving a passenger jet and a cargo flight, killing everyone aboard the two planes. The NTSB investigator in charge, whose girlfriend died in the crash, is puzzled. On one side, the air traffic controller claims he lost radar contact with the cargo plane shortly before impact, when his screen "blacked out." On the other side, everyone else, including the controller's bosses and the media, put the blame on human error. The truth is soon to be uncovered, as the aging air traffic control facilities are on the verge of failing right in the middle of the busy Thanksgiving season.

After filling her life with addictions, Christina (Susan Dey) is left with a dead-end job, a deadbeat boyfriend and a bad rapport with her mother (Piper Laurie). The last thing she needs is a baby, a sentiment the authorities agree with when the infant is born with a drug dependency. Now, Christina's future is in the hands of a dedicated social worker (Lorraine Toussaint), whose own instincts as a mother have her fighting for the child's rights.

An ill-fated, tender romance between an adult, male, white tutor (Mark Evan Jacobs) and his 17-year-old, African-American, female student (Karen Kirkland).

Down-on-his-luck lawyer Warren Blackburn defends wealthy Texan Johnnie Faye Boudreau, who is accused of murdering her husband.

Made especially for the HBO cable network, this well-wrought feature is comprised of three short stories by three noted black American authors, each of which is directed by a respected black director.

Fact based story about the racial tensions that occurred in Boston in the 1970's because of court ordered busing to end desegregation. The story focuses on an African-American mother determined to get her children a quality education and a white lawyer trying to deal with inner city problems.

A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the morals of her small town. Based on the novel by Zora Neale Hurston.

When her husband is sentenced to eight years in prison, Ruby drops out of medical school in order to focus on her husband's well-being while he's incarcerated - leading her on a journey of self-discovery in the process.

A young woman, struggling to become a novelist, has her life go into a tailspin. Her first novel is rejected, her non-committal boy friend decides to take a powder, her best friend moves to Mexico for an acting job, and her mother announces that her long presumed dead father is actually a hippie photographer who has come to town to meet her. Sinking into a depression at being a total failure at 28, she starts fantasizing about suicide. In her depths of despair she meets various eccentric characters including a chain-smoking Santa Claus and an obnoxious literary agent. But her belief in herself is only restored when she meets a patient in a hospital where she does volunteer work.

When an innocent young girl finds herself befriended by two sexy, uninhibited girls at a small-town bar, she discovers that they have more planned than just a party-and she's central to the action.

Professional thief Ernie takes Mike on as an apprentice, but while Mike clearly has "larceny in his heart", it will take him a long time to get as good as Ernie.

A powerful, intimate portrait of three women living in the same house during different eras who all face unplanned pregnancies. The vignettes follow a recently widowed nurse struggling to take control of her life in the early 50s, a mother of four balancing raising a family and maintaining a career in the 70s, and a student making a difficult decision with the help of one woman that will change the course of both their lives in the 90s.

A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.

A group of troubled strangers looking to escape their woes end up sharing a transformational experience on an island steeped in African-American heritage and culture.

An equal rights crusader, journalist and activist: Gloria Steinem embodies these and more. From her role in the revolutionary women's rights movement to her travels throughout the U.S. and around the world, Steinem has made an everlasting mark on modern history. A nontraditional chronicle of a trailblazing life.

Sent to live with his estranged father for the summer, a rebellious teen finds kinship in a tight-knit Philadelphia community of Black cowboys.

John is a man of many talents, including one forbidden skill: he can read. When he teaches a young slave girl named Sarny to read and write, she learns an unforgettable lesson about the power of words and the true meaning of freedom.

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

A woman is forced to go on the run when her superhuman abilities are discovered. Years after having abandoned her family, the only place she has left to hide is home.

In New York City for their annual tradition of Christmas Eve debauchery, three lifelong best friends set out to find the Holy Grail of Christmas parties since their yearly reunion might be coming to an end.

Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, Halloween night, 1968. After playing a joke on a school bully, Stella and her friends decide to sneak into a supposedly haunted house that once belonged to the powerful Bellows family, unleashing dark forces that they will be unable to control.

A knight framed for a tragic crime teams with a scrappy, shape-shifting teen to prove his innocence.

"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.

Hardened criminal Maggie Hayward's consistent violence, even in police custody, ends in the execution chamber. However, top-secret US government agent 'Bob' arranges a staged death, so Maggie can be elaborately trained as a phantom killer and subdued into obedience.

Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt takes a year off before college to find herself, all the while chronicling her adventures in an anonymous blog into which she pours her innermost secrets. Eventually, Katie's fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.

In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their love affair becomes the lightning rod for long-buried conflicts that erupt in bigotry and violence with the outbreak of World War ll.

Four girlfriends take a trip to New Orleans for an annual festival and, along the way, rediscover their wild sides and strengthen the bonds of sisterhood.

Isaih Turner didn’t want to be a hero-all he wanted was revenge. Orphaned when both his parents were cruelly murdered by the wealthy and powerful Cyrus Bloomington, the young Isaiah grew up with one air in mind: to find the man who killed his folks and take him down.