Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood

Director Mario Van Peebles chronicles the complicated production of his father Melvin's classic 1971 film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Playing his father in the film, Van Peebles offers an unapologetic account of Melvin's brash and sometimes deceptive conduct on the set of the film, including questionable antics like writing bad checks, tricking a local fire department and allowing his son, Mario, to shoot racy sex scenes at the age of 11.

With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis.

Thinly disguised account of the relationship between radical black activist Angela Davis and Black Panther and prison inmate George Jackson, who was one of those killed in a failed 1971 prison breakout.

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

Kicks Carter is a streetwise policeman whose beat is Las Vegas. A crime gang is running guns, selling drugs, loan-sharking, and running a prostitution ring out of an upscale hotel in the city and Kicks is trying to put them out of business. But the interference of a woman reporter is making his job more difficult.

A Black hit man poses as a Baptist preacher in a ghetto church. He decides to take over the local rackets.

Black girl from rich family loves white boy from poor family.

As an African American family and friends gather in an apartment for a house party, two mischief-making devil-bats take human form in order to break up the party.

Black dude fleeces the mob, goes on the run. Whadaya need, a road map?

More than anyone in the cynical film industry, legendary artist Robert Redford embodies the United States' brightest side: perseverance, independence, idealism, and integrity. A champion of active environmentalism and the right to openly criticize any institutional abuse, he has put his artistic work at the service of his political commitments, whether as an actor, director, producer, or founder of the Sundance Festival, a formidable forum for his struggles since 1985.

A look at the life and work of the iconic US actor Charlton Heston (1923-2008); the embodiment of many mythic heroes who was both a staunch defender of the Civil Rights movement during the sixties and a spokesman for the National Rifle Association in his later years. The extraordinary and controversial public and personal career of one of the greatest film personalities of all time.

Who, apart from moviegoers, knows Alice Guy (1873-1968) today? However, she was the first woman behind the camera and the first female director and producer of fiction films in history.

A documentary chronicle of one of our greatest directors.

The life and work of the brilliant German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff, a cross-border artist who, by leaving Germany and making the whole world his place of work, acquired the objective perspective necessary to portray his country's society better than anyone else while providing a unique and original point of view on the troubled history of the European continent.

The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.

Black Dynamite is an American animated television series based on the 2009 film of the same name, although the series follows a separate continuity, with some back-references to the film. The series was announced shortly after the release of the film, the 10-minute pilot episode was released on Adult Swim Video on August 8, 2011, and the full series premiered on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, on July 15, 2012. Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, Tommy Davidson and Kym Whitley reprise their film roles as Black Dynamite, Bullhorn, Cream Corn and Honeybee, respectively.

Ben Donovan is a self-involved manager of a second-rate San Diego sports arena who begins to re-evaluate his life on his 40th birthday. Working alongside him is his boss and arena owner, Crystal--attractive, powerful and highly erratic; Alice--the cute, tomboyish marketing director and Ben's friend with benefits; Alonzo--a former basketball player, handsome and unbelievably happy; Ben's assistant, Heather--pretty, sweet, but terrifying because she once lit a boyfriend on fire; Crystal's son, Roman--sweet-faced, clueless and Ben's newest employee; and a hapless operations crew whom Ben refers to collectively as the "Steves."

The Old Grey Whistle Test is an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys—doormen in grey suits. The songs they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test.

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Catherine Black is a world-famous neurologist at the state-of-the-art medical institution known as "The Cube". Catherine is brilliant, beautiful, and at the top of her game, though she's hiding a secret of her own: she's bipolar. Each week, the doctors on staff attempt to unravel the mysteries of the brain and are constantly challenged by cases never-before-seen on television. The medical stories are moving, bizarre and a visual feast. The personal stories are riveting. The patients have rare, highly visual, often hallucinogenic and startling conditions, which we’ll see through their eyes as Catherine diagnoses and treats them.

Five programmes that trace a remarkable decade in British film-making through interviews with its stars and directors.

Follow home seekers across the country as they look to downsize, way down. They'll check out three unique streamlined houses under 600 square feet before deciding on the perfect compact kingdom to call home. When it comes to choosing one and making an offer, will they join the tiny house movement or stick with wide-open spaces? Viewers will be on the edge of their seats waiting to see what these Tiny House Hunters ultimately decide.

After her brother is slain by police, Oakland police officer Rebecca “Rebel” Cole becomes disillusioned with the system and is forced to take matters into her own hands and become a private investigator and a champion for her community.

My Journey Through French Cinema (2017), Bertrand Tavernier’s César-nominated three-and-a-half-hour tour through French film history, was too short to introduce audiences to all that he wanted to share. In this new eight-part series (8x55min), the acclaimed director of such films as Coup de Torchon and ‘Round Midnight guides us through a roster of filmmakers both influential and forgotten, explores how his country’s cinema was shaped by the German occupation and changed again through the New Wave, spotlights little-known female filmmakers, and more. Subjects include: René Clément, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin, Claude Autant-Lara, as well as composers who made movie music an art in and of itself, far from the Hollywood spotlight.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard's chair of Afro-American Studies, travels the length and breadth of the United States to take the temperature of black America at the start of the new century. He explores this rich and diverse landscape, social as well as geographic, and meets the people who are defining black America, from the most famous and influential to those at the grassroots.

As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.

Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s never before revealed experiences of making the iconic 1972 film The Godfather that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo.

A look at how four iconic British-built planes became masters of the sky and pioneered a new era of flight, making heroes of the pilots who flew them. Military experts, historians and pilots reveal what made each aircraft so influential.

Paul T. Goldman's world is turned upside down when he finds out that his wife has been living a secret double life. His efforts to uncover the truth thrust him into a labyrinth of fraud, deception and criminality that transforms him, in his words, "from wimp to warrior." Director Jason Woliner tries to keep the series he thought he was making from going off the rails as Goldman stars in reenactments, changes the script and challenges Woliner's vision.

The 25-year reunion of members of a black athletic-social club brings together nine of its members for the first time to honor their old coach but is marred by a murder investigation involving one of the gents.