Harry Belafonte

Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

Featuring unprecedented access to Jim Henson's personal archives, filmmaker Ron Howard brings us a fascinating and insightful look at a complex man whose boundless imagination inspired the world.

On a January night in 1985, music's biggest stars gathered to record "We Are the World." This documentary goes behind the scenes of the historic event.

The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice.

During Paris Fashion Week, models, designers and industry hot shots gather to work, mingle, argue and try to seduce one another.

We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song is a documentary which examines how the song was written, how producer Quincy Jones and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie persuaded some of the most popular performers in America to donate their services to the project, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the marathon recording session that produced the single.

This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.

In this musical set in an all-Black army camp, civilian parachute maker and "hot bundle" Carmen Jones is desired by many of the men. Naturally, she wants Joe, who's engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War.

In 1968 the lives of a retired doorman, hotel manager, lounge singer, busboy, beautician and others intersect in the wake of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Activist, lover, visionary, renegade - For 75 years, Abe Osheroff fought on the front lines of social activism - from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War to the killing fields of Nicaragua; from the witch hunts of McCarthy to the sharecroppers of Mississippi to streets all across the United States, Osheroff put his life on the line to keep justice alive. Through the unflinching lens of this documentary feature, this master storyteller takes us on an insightful journey inside the defining conflicts of 20th Century activism with irreverent humor and unwavering commitment to a lifetime of engagement. Osheroff's confessions strike a resounding chord in today's world with a singular voice that never stopped chanting "yes we can!"

Miriam Makeba was one of the first African musicians who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots. Miriam Makeba was forced into exile in 1959. She sang for John F. Kennedy, performed with Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone, was married to Hugh Masekela and also Stokely Carmichael. Her life was tumultuous. She always stood for truth and justice. She fought for the oppressed most importantly for black Africans, as a campaigner against apartheid. She died November 2008 after a concert in Italy. Mika Kaurismäki's documentary, traces fifty years of her music and her performing life. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through interviews with her contemporaries we discover the remarkable journey of Miriam Makeba.

The 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. This year’s Performer Inductees are Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon. Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis will receive the Musical Excellence Award, Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten the Early Influence Award, and Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine, and Sylvia Robinson the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

While the Muppets prepare a tribute to the late Jim Henson, they learn about the life and career of the renowned puppeteer/film maker.

In this episode of PBS' Great Performances, the history and legacy of puppeteer Jim Henson is explored, from his six-second commercial beginnings to a five-season run on ABC of The Muppet Show to several theatrically released films, including five Muppet movies, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.

For the first time in their careers, all the Muppets (except the ones that couldn't make it, like the Doozers, Gorgs and most of the Fraggles) have gathered together in one place to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary and honor the one who brought them together: Kermit the Frog (and by doing so, Jim Henson).

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.

A look at the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism, from the making of new superstars to the craft of rising auteurs.

In this open-letter style documentary, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis' rich lives guide their grandson on his personal quest to master lasting love, conscious art, and undying activism.

A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.

This film examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news, and provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangerous impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person. Media experts, including Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society. This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.

A presentation of key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, MLK is followed through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King's stirring speeches, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by a wide range of celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman Charlton Heston, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Walter Matthau, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams III, Joanne Woodward, and James Earl Jones.

A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.

Ralph Burton is a miner who is trapped for several days as a result of a cave-in. When he finally manages to dig himself out, he realizes that all of mankind seems to have been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He travels to New York City only to find it deserted. Making a life for himself there, he is flabbergasted to eventually find Sarah Crandall, who also managed to survive. Together, they form a close friendship until the arrival of Benson Thacker who has managed to pilot his small boat into the city's harbor. At this point, tensions rise between the three, particularly between Thacker, who is white, and Burton, who is black.

Morris Mishkin is a elderly religious Jew in New York. His wife Fanny is very ill. He's a tailor, but he can't work because his back has given out. He doesn't even have enough money for Fanny's medicine. Finally, a black fellow appears from nowhere in the Mishkin kitchen. He says he's an angel from God, sent to help Mishkin. The black angel is even Jewish, named Alex Levine? But will Morris believe in the angel? And can the angel perform the miracle that he promises?

Inspired by Adam Hochschild’s best-selling book about Leopold II of Belgium’s plunder in the Congo and the Congolese who defied him and fought back. The struggle sparked an unlikely alliance between a black American missionary, an English investigative journalist and an Irish spy, resulting in one of the first human rights movements in history.

A documentary focusing on the the events in Haiti following the coup of September 30, 1991. The program includes interviews with exiled President Jean Bertrand Aristide, his cabinet, dissident clergy, underground resistance leaders, U.S. State Department officials, and a cross-section of Haitian people.