The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Beyond her historic role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this comprehensive dive into Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks sheds light on her extensive organizing, radical politics, and lifelong dedication to activism.
Yoruba Richen
Johanna Hamilton
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Yoruba Richen
Sisters-in-law Derrica and Natalie Wilson dedicated their lives to locate Black people who are missing by bringing awareness to their cases, which have often been marginalize by law enforcement and traditional media. DOC NYC will preview one episode of the upcoming four-part HBO series about their work that was created by Soledad O’Brien and Geeta Gandbhir. We watch as the Wilsons use their experience to put the mother of the missing Michelle Green on The View, prompting a tip that leads to a hopeful turn in the case.
The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar-the black church and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.
For one week in February 1968, Johnny Carson gave up his chair to Harry Belafonte, the first time an African-American had hosted a late night TV show for a whole week.
Meet two women fighting against race-based gerrymandering in North Carolina: Val Applewhite, a plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case, and Moon Duchin, a mathematician who empowers organizers to use data to advocate for fairly drawn electoral maps.
Promised Land examines post-apartheid South Africa's efforts to bring about racial reconciliation through land redistribution. The film follows two black communities that are trying to get back land they say their ancestors were removed from during apartheid. The land is currently owned by white landowners and the film follows the mutli-year efforts of both groups to get and keep possession of the land. Through these two stories, the epic battle of over race and land is played out with very real consequences for all sides. The audience will see why many inside the country call the land issue the 'ticking time bomb' that has the potential to destroy the fragile racial compact that the new South Africa was built on.
In the 1930s, a black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. It was called The Negro Motorist Green Book, and it helped African-Americans navigate safe passage across America well into the 1960s. Explore some of the segregated nation's safe havens and notorious "sundown towns" and witness stories of struggle and indignity as well as opportunity and triumph.
Tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.
Also Directed by Johanna Hamilton
In Johnston County, North Carolina, residents seek answers regarding the role their state may have played in the CIA’s torture program
Forty years before WikiLeaks and the NSA scandal, there was Media, Pennsylvania. In 1971, eight activists plotted an intricate break-in to the local FBI offices to leak stolen documents and expose the illegal surveillance of ordinary Americans in an era of anti-war activism. In this riveting heist story, the perpetrators reveal themselves for the first time, reflecting on their actions and raising broader questions surrounding security leaks in activism today.
Alka Pradhan, James Connell and Sterling Thomas are lawyers for Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the five men facing the death penalty for plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. THE TRIAL provides a window to reflect on the impact of a rarely seen part of the war on terror: a lack of accountability for the legacy of torture and the build-up to the largest criminal trial in American history.