Terence Blanchard
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown.
In the aftermath of Cassius Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.
A film looking at the culture of New Orleans thru the lens of music. Hosted by Oscar nominee and 6-time Grammy Winner Terence Blanchard, the film tells the story of how music and culture intersected to create a distinct form of expression.
Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason. Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. L.A. is booming while the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression — but a kidnapping gone very wrong leads to Mason exposing a fractured city as he uncovers the truth of the crime.
The haunting story of music executive Drew Dixon as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward and publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. A gripping and profound examination of race, gender, intersectionality, and the toll sexual abuse takes on survivors and on society at large.
Four African-American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.
“Guilty Until Proven Guilty” explores Louisiana’s criminal justice system through the story of Tim Conerly, a young African-American man who was arrested and imprisoned for a crime he says he did not commit.
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.
This All-Star Global Concert at the White House features performances by Joey Alexander, Terence Blanchard, Kris Bowers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Terri Lyne Carrington, Chick Corea, Jamie Cullum, Kurt Elling, Aretha Franklin, Robert Glasper, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Zakir Hussain, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Lionel Loueke, Hugh Masekela, Christian McBride, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Marcus Miller, James Morrison, Danilo Pérez, Rebirth Brass Band, Dianne Reeves, Lee Ritenour, David Sanchez, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Sting, Trombone Shorty, Chucho Valdés, Bobby Watson, Ben Williams and more.
An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke, has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played. Already a strain on his younger brother and his wife, Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets Harmony, the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul, and the two find inspiration in one another, resulting in surprising consequences.
Gun Hill is a BET Premiere Cinema original film produced and directed by Reggie Rock Bythewood (Biker Boyz, Daddy's Girl, New York Undercover, Get on the Bus). The film stars Larenz Tate as Bird Stevens – a con who assumes the identity of his twin brother, Trane, a cop, after he's killed and goes on a search for his own redemption.
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
A baby abducted at birth and raised by the woman who took her, eventually discovers she is a missing child, reconnects with her birth parents, and struggles with choosing between her two identities.
Spike Lee returns to New Orleans five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to follow the reconstruction efforts.
A waitress, desperate to fulfill her dreams as a restaurant owner, is set on a journey to turn a frog prince back into a human being, but she has to face the same problem after she kisses him.
Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.
The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
An ex-convict (Tyrese) gets tangled up with a gang after his car is hijacked with his son inside.
Spike Lee's award-winning documentary follows the events that preceded and followed Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic passage through New Orleans in 2005.
When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.
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.
Miranda Wells is an attorney with a sideline in immigration fraud and murder. Miranda's assistant, Carla, is unaware of her criminal activities. Rick Benes, a journalist setting out to expose Miranda, poses as David Lopez, an illegal immigrant, and takes a job in the office. Carla stubbles on incriminating files and Rick Benes pursuit of the story is threatened when he becomes infatuated with Miranda. Carla is attacked and her husband murdered, Miranda is the chief suspect. As the investigation progresses and Carla disappears from hospital, it is clear that Miranda will stop at nothing including murdering again to stay out.
Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
In New York City in the days following the events of 9/11, Monty Brogan is a convicted drug dealer about to start a seven-year prison sentence, and his final hours of freedom are devoted to hanging out with his closest buddies and trying to prepare his girlfriend for his extended absence.
A day in the life of a barbershop on the south side of Chicago. Calvin, who inherited the struggling business from his deceased father, views the shop as nothing but a burden and waste of his time. After selling the shop to a local loan shark, Calvin slowly begins to see his father's vision and legacy and struggles with the notion that he just sold it out.
A New York press agent must scramble when his major client becomes embroiled in a huge scandal.
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp
The life of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, African-American tap-dancing star of stage and screen. In 1916, Robinson was a successful vaudeville performer and considered the finest tap dancer of his generation. At the peak of his career, he was the highest paid Black entertainer, but for all the joy he gave others, his life was anything but happy, there was a great deal of tragedy in himself. He died broke and penniless.
When sophisticated New York journalist Edith Iglauer is assigned to go to British Columbia to write a frivolous piece on the fishing industry, she butts heads with local fisherman and notorious loner, John Daly. While she thrives on the fast-paced life of Manhattan, he loathes pretension and could go days without speaking to anyone. But when the two are caught in a perilous situation, they are forced to put aside their pettiness and re-examine their lives. With external factors stripped away, they begin to fall in love. Ultimately, Edith must decide between staying in the glamorous world she has always cherished or leaving it all behind for a chance at love.
A young African-American couple navigates the tricky paths of romance and athletics in this drama. Quincy McCall and Monica Wright grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also share another all-consuming passion: basketball. They've followed the game all their lives and have no small amount of talent on the court. As Quincy and Monica struggle to make their relationship work, they follow separate career paths though high school and college basketball and, they hope, into stardom in big-league professional ball.
Jazz superstar Chick Corea and some of jazz's finest musicians team up to salute legendary jazzman Bud Powell in these two 1996 sets. Corea, Roy Haynes, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride, Wallace Roney and young master saxophonist Joshua Redman play live in Japan and Germany, highlighted by some of Powell's finest music. Set list: Glass Enclosure, Tempus Fugit, Dusk In Sandi, Bud Powell, Oblivion, I'll Keep Loving You, Un Poco Loco.
Jane, a high school teenager, tries to deal with the discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl who makes her discover her true sexuality, which is only the start of Jane's troubles when Jane's unaccepting mother, Janice, struggles with her surprising revelation of brought forth by her only daughter.
Ice Cube returns as Craig Jones, a streetwise man from South Central Los Angeles who has a knack for getting into trouble. This time out, Craig is still trying to outsmart neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.); after Craig gets the better of Debo in a fist fight, Debo is determined to flatten Craig in a rematch. Looking to stay out of Debo's way, Craig's dad decides that it would be a good idea for Craig to hide out with his Uncle Elroy and cousin Day-Day in Rancho Cucamonga... but trouble seems to find him there also.
TV producer Pierre Delacroix becomes frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea. Hoping to get fired, Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
The story is about a married couplewith children on the verge of divorce. Their imminent divorce, like many, is due to their mutual lack of respect and compassion for each other and the effect it has on their children. When the family makes a traumatic move to New Orleans they move into an old, Victorian home. There, in the attic, the children think they have found the "magic" to solve their parent's problems. The children accidentally manage to switch the souls of their parents. Now the wife must face the perils of the lockeroom and pressures as family breadwinner and the husband must face pregnancy and bond with his children. Newfound respect and appreciation is gained as the couple finally find out what it's like to walk in the other person's shoes.
Gia Carangi travels to New York City with dreams of becoming a fashion model. Within minutes of arriving, she meets Wilhelmina Cooper, a wise and high-powered agent who takes Gia under her wing. With Cooper's help and her own natural instincts, Gia quickly shoots to the top of the modeling world. When Cooper dies of lung cancer, however, Gia turns to drugs – and both she and her career begin to spiral out of control.
Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.
Two strangers, whose paths are always crossing, finally meet when fate steps in. It took them twenty years to fall in love at first sight.
On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Several Black men take a cross-country bus trip to attend the Million Man March in Washington, DC in 1995. On the bus are an eclectic set of characters including a laid-off aircraft worker, a man whose at-risk son is handcuffed to him, a black Republican, a former gangsta, a Hollywood actor, a cop who is of mixed racial background, and a white bus driver. All make the trek discussing issues surrounding the march, including manhood, religion, politics, and race.
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Valerie is a juror in the trail of a mob boss. When her young son's life is threatened, she has no option other than to see that justice isn't done.
The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets
In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner brother to lead a straight life with his girlfriend.
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
