Take My Life (1942)

Harlem Nights

'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organised crime and police corruption in the 1920s, any dastardly trick is fair.

Honey

Honey Daniels dreams of making a name for herself as a hip-hop choreographer. When she's not busy hitting downtown clubs with her friends, she teaches dance classes at a nearby community center in Harlem, N.Y., as a way to keep kids off the streets. Honey thinks she's hit the jackpot when she meets a hotshot director casts her in one of his music videos. But, when he starts demanding sexual favors from her, Honey makes a decision that will change her life.

The Last Dragon

A young man searches for the "master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight an evil martial arts expert and rescue a beautiful singer from an obsessed music promoter.

The Cotton Club

Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.

Precious

Set in Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret; She can't read.

A Rage in Harlem

A beautiful black gangster's moll flees to Harlem with a trunkload of gold after a shootout, unaware that the rest of the gang, and a few other unsavoury characters, are on her trail. A pudgy momma's boy becomes the object of her affections and the unlikely hero of the tale.

Cindy

A revisionist twist on Cinderella with an all-black cast and set in Harlem during WWII. Cindy is a country bumpkin who moves from South Carolina to live with her father and his new family. When her stepmother and two stepsisters refuse to take her to the Sugar Hill Ball, her draft-dodging, chauffeur neighbor whips up a little "magic" and at the ball she catches the eye of the richest man in Harlem.

Sugar Hill

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.

Lady Sings the Blues

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

Double Deal

Tommy McCoy and "Dude" Markey are both in love with Harlem singer/dancer Nita. Markey robs a jewelry store and turns the loot over to gang-boss Murray Howard. Later, Markey robs the safe, steals the jewelry, and, in order to get rid of his rival for Nita, frames the robbery on McCoy. The latter's big-brother thinks otherwise and, with Nita's help, sets out to prove it.

If Beale Street Could Talk

After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

Sparkle

Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.

Music of the Heart

Story of a schoolteacher's struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.

The Cool World

A fifteen-year-old boy wants to buy a gun from an adult racketeer named Priest, in order to become president of the gang to which he belongs, and to return them to active "bopping" (gang fighting) which has declined in Harlem.

Passing

In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.

Die Hard: With a Vengeance

New York detective John McClane is back and kicking bad-guy butt in the third installment of this action-packed series, which finds him teaming with civilian Zeus Carver to prevent the loss of innocent lives. McClane thought he'd seen it all, until a genius named Simon engages McClane, his new "partner" -- and his beloved city -- in a deadly game that demands their concentration.

Paris Is Burning

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

Harlem on the Prairie

A cowboy helps a pretty young woman find lost gold. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Uncle Drew

Uncle Drew recruits a squad of older basketball players to return to the court to compete in a tournament.

The Wiz

Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.

A Great Day in Harlem

Art Kane, now deceased, coordinated a group photograph of all the top jazz musicians in NYC in the year 1958, for a piece in Esquire magazine. Just about every jazz musician at the time showed up for the photo shoot which took place in front of a brownstone near the 125th street station. The documentary compiles interviews of many of the musicians in the photograph to talk about the day of the photograph, and it shows film footage taken that day by Milt Hinton and his wife.

Ride

A group of young people leave Harlem for a bus trip down to Miami. The voyage starts off with problems, but it ends up becoming a learning experience, as they end up finding things out about each other they had not previously known.

Miracle in Harlem

A crooked real estate tycoon tricks a trusting young woman out of her small candy store. When he is found dead, the girl is suspected of the crime.

Nueva York: A Musical History of Latin New York

When the film West Side Story was released in 1961, New York's reviled Puerto Rican community gained some visibility and, over time, both in Spanish Harlem and the Bronx, neighborhoods plagued by poverty, drugs and crime, Hispanic identity was reborn and strengthened, thanks to a syncretic and intentionally popular music that eventually conquered the entire city.

The Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World

"The Team that Changed the World," investigates the Globetrotters' impact socially and culturally, as well as their lasting effect on the NBA. Featuring interviews with basketball players, celebrities, politicians, and more, the documentary also shows how the Globetrotters continue to serve as "Ambassadors of Goodwill" and touch audiences around the world today.

James Brown Live At The Apollo '68

This was one of a series of concerts James Brown gave at the Apollo in Harlem in March 1968. This performance was broadcast on television as James Brown: Man To Man. In addition to 16 vintage color performances from the concert, this special also includes film of James Brown walking the streets of Harlem and Watts as he speaks to the state of Black America and describes the political and socioeconomic advances that need to be accomplished: “My flight is for Black American to become American.”—James Brown This concert is much a 1968 James Brown time capsule as it is a timeless representation of how music can change the world.

Black Rodeo

Documentary about a rodeo that takes place, for the most part, in Harlem.

Apollo at 70: A Hot Night in Harlem

Some of the world's best jazz, R & B, hip-hop, rap, gospel and Latin musicians perform classic and modern songs in this 2004 benefit show celebrating the 70th year of Harlem's famed Apollo Theater. Performers include Natalie Cole, Ashanti, Brian McKnight, Yolanda Adams with the Abyssinian Baptist Choir, James Ingram, Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Patti LaBelle, Angie Stone and Arturo Sandoval.

High School II

HIGH SCHOOL II is a film about Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a successful alternative high school in New York's Spanish Harlem, 85-95% of whose graduates go on to four year colleges. The film illustrates the school's emphasis on the “Habits of Mind” program (weighing evidence; awareness of multiple points of view; seeing connections and relationships; speculating on possibilities; and assessing values.) Sequences illustrating the school's approach to learning include: classroom activities in the humanities and sciences; family conferences; discussions of race, class, and gender; faculty meetings; disciplinary problems; sex education; conflict resolution by students; and student council meetings.

Blondi

Blondi and Mirko live together, listen to the same music, watch the same films, like to smoke pot and share the same friends. But, even though they seem to be the same age, Blondi is Mirko's mother.

Exiled to Hell

It is the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926), and at the Hanazuki-tei theatre in Asakusa, the famous performance of storyteller Koiso Kikuji and performer Kataoka Koshin is reaching its climax when the Tawaraya family interferes... This is an entertaining action film bursting with righteousness and humanity, centred on men who try to live righteously against a corrupt boss who preys on the performers.

Qas

A story about the harsh times during colonization and famine of the 1930’s. The main character, gravedigger Isatai, played by Yerkebulan Dairov, will find himself faced by a hard choice that will predetermine the fate of his village.

L'Affaire Dominici

During the night of August 4-5, 1952, three Englishmen, Jack Drummond, his wife Anne and their daughter Elizabeth were murdered near their car near the farm of the Dominici family, in the commune of Lurs in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Denounced by two of his sons, the patriarch Gaston Dominici was judged and condemned without any real evidence.

The Passion of Slow Fire

Stéphane Blanchon lives a quiet life in Switzerland with his wife, Christine, until a young American boarder named Belle, who was living with them, is found murdered. Despite Stéphane's innocence, the evidence points to him, and he learns that Belle harbored romantic feelings for him. Suspicions mount against him; even Christine thinks he is the culprit. Stéphane's sanity begins to crumble, and he lashes out in unprecedented ways.

Art House

Ray McMichael is a part time coffee shop employee and part time filmmaker who teams up with film festival darling Weston Craig to make the greatest independent film ever. Through their struggles, they encounter agents, starlets, lesbians, porn stars, extraterrestrials and an enigmatic auteur named Dagmar Geech.

Four Letter Words

A study of the post-adolescent male psyche, Four Letter Words gives an often humorous but raw unadulterated look at the views, attitudes, and language of young men in suburban America. The film focuses on a dwindling summer night's party, at which the characters gather for the first time since high school graduation. As the night's activities take their toll, the immaturity level rises, the profanity flies and of course the drunken brawl breaks out. It will be a night to remember although some would wish to forget.

Wrestling with Alligators

All that Maddy Hawkins has ever wanted was a family she could call her own. Even in 1959, the simplest things are difficult to find...Maddy, a street-wise teenage runaway, believes she has created this family with the women who live with her in an East Coast woman-only rooming house: Lulu, an eccentric silent-screen star; Claire, a beautiful, widowed French war bride; and Mary, a young artist.But as Maddy watches her newfound family fall apart, she begins to realize that some things in life are worth fighting for, and that the bonds of true friendship are the strongest bonds of all.

The Courtneys of Curzon Street

On New Years Eve, 1899, baronet's son Edward Courtney becomes engaged to Kate, his mother's maid, much to the scandal of London society. The film then follows their family through four generations, with separations, joys, tragedies, and service in the Boer War, WWI, and WWII.

London Kills Me

For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe... a young man's life is almost lost, which is exactly what this film is all about: a man barely twenty who wants desperately to pull out of London's drug world by taking a job as a waiter in a 'normal' restaurant. But to do this he must come up with a "sensible" pair of shoes, an item that his homeless meanderings hasn't provided him.

Rome: Free City

In a post-war Rome (1946) a cat burglar inadvertently saves the life of a would-be suicide man who returns from the war to find that he has been betrayed by his fiancée while fighting in the war. From that moment the thief takes the ex-soldier under his wing. They leave house together for a night full of misadventures. In a streets of Rome they meet the struggling typist who can’t pay her rent and opts to street life; a wandering amnesiac who lost his memory and keeps asking everyone “Do you recognize me?”. Thieves, gamblers, hookers, policemen, soldiers and endless chain of cigarette-smoking and alcohol/espresso-drinking.

Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story

TV movie based on the singer's life, under his mother's thumb, competing with the ghost of one of the most famous singers in C&W music history, and aspiring to rise above it all.

Imperial Dreams

A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.

Madame Bovary

The classic story of Emma Bovary, the beautiful wife of a small-town doctor in 19th century France, who engages in extra marital affairs in an attempt to advance her social status.

Lummox

Lummox is a 1930 American Pre-Code sound film directed by Herbert Brenon, released through United Artists, and based on a 1923 novel by Fannie Hurst. The story of Bertha, a young immigrant woman who cleans the homes of the rich and is largely ignored by them, except for a young poet who considers her a muse.

El festin de la loba

A woman with a troubled past introduces lust, depravity and sex to a religious commune.

Soorarai Pottru

Nedumaaran Rajangam "Maara" sets out to make the common man fly and in the process takes on the world's most capital intensive industry and several enemies who stand in his way.