Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
Oct 21, 1963 | IMDB 6.9
52 min Watch NowDocumentary
During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
The Towers
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The Jazz Ambassadors
Olive
Skin Deep
Tan France: Beauty and the Bleach
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
A Good Day to Die
Last Day of Freedom
Dry Wood
Mad Youth
Salute
For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots
Before Stonewall
Swimming to Ferguson
Ronnie
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot
Harlan County U.S.A.
Spies of Mississippi
SIMILAR MOVIES
The Towers
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1957
Documentary about the Watts Towers. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.Wilmington on Fire
IMDB 7.3 | Nov , 2015
A historical and present day look at the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 and how the descendants of the victims of the event are asking for legal action in regards to compensation.Community Patrol
IMDB 10 | Feb , 2018
It’s been widely reported that Detroit is making a comeback, but long-term residents of Detroit’s mostly black neighborhoods aren’t seeing much benefit. Crime, lack of opportunity and infrastructure problems still persist. Community Patrol explores neighborhood self-policing through the eyes of Minister Malik Shabazz, a long-time Detroit activist and community organizer. Determined that more black men don’t end up in jail or killed, the minister confronts drug offenders directly rather than reporting them to the police.The Jazz Ambassadors
IMDB 7 | May , 2018
The Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their mixed-race band members, faced a painful dilemma: how could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?Olive
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2023
“Olive” is a short documentary that follows Olive Hagemeier, an energetic woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste”, across Atlanta, GA. Presented in a quiet observational style, this film is both a character study of a committed and enigmatic volunteer, as well as an ethnographic work that places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.Skin Deep
IMDB 0 | Oct , 1995
A multi-racial group of college students in a weekend racial sensitivity workshop discuss affirmative action, self-segregation, internalized racism and cultural identity. The film continues as they return to their campuses (University of Massachusetts, Texas A&M, Chico State, and U.C. Berkeley) and visit home.Tan France: Beauty and the Bleach
IMDB 10 | Apr , 2022
When he was only 9-years-old Tan France tried to lighten his own skin with bleaching cream. He faces up to his own experiences in an attempt to explore perceptions of beauty, skin tone and colourism.The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2021
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.A Good Day to Die
IMDB 6.5 | Nov , 2010
Interviews and archival footage profile the life of Dennis Banks, American Indian Movement leader who looks back at his early life and the rise of the Movement.Last Day of Freedom
IMDB 7.1 | Apr , 2015
When Bill Babbitt realizes his brother Manny has committed a crime he agonizes over his decision to call the police.Dry Wood
IMDB 6.1 | Oct , 1973
Featuring the stories and music of seminal Cajun musicians "Bois Sec" Ardoin and Canray Fontenot, Dry Wood is a short, vibrant documentary portrait of life, food, music and festivity in the Louisiana Delta from the singular Les Blank. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1999.Mad Youth
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2021
The story behind the resistance of the students against the arbitrary political reforming of the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest.Salute
IMDB 6.6 | Jul , 2008
The black power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico Olympics was an iconic moment in the US civil rights struggle. Far less known is the part in that episode in history played by Peter Norman, the white Australian on the podium who had run second — and the price paid afterward by all three athletes.For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots
IMDB 7 | Jan , 2010
This High Definition, PBS miniseries uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-American service men and women since the earliest days of the republic.Before Stonewall
IMDB 6.7 | Sep , 1984
New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.Swimming to Ferguson
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2018
Beneath the fury of Ferguson unrest, an affable professor dedicates his life to actionable, peaceful change while attempting the grueling triple crown of ultra-marathon swimming.Ronnie
IMDB 2 | Jan , 1972
A short exposé of a handsome young street hustler Curt McDowell met in San Francisco.Anne Braden: Southern Patriot
IMDB 10 | Jul , 2012
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot is a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of this American civil rights leader. Braden was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail as a white southerner whose rejection of her segregationist upbringing was eloquent and prophetic. Ostracized as a red in the 1950s, she fought for an inclusive movement community and mentored three generations of social justice advocates. Braden’s story explores not only the dangers of racism and political repression but also the power of a woman’s life spent in commitment to social justice.Harlan County U.S.A.
IMDB 7.5 | Jan , 1977
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.Spies of Mississippi
IMDB 7.3 | Feb , 2014
Spies of Mississippi tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain white supremacy. The anti-civil rights organization was hidden in plain sight in an unassuming office in the Mississippi State Capitol. Funded with taxpayer dollars and granted extraordinary latitude to carry out its mission, the Commission evolved from a propaganda machine into a full blown spy operation. How do we know this is true? The Commission itself tells us in more than 146,000 pages of files preserved by the State. This wealth of first person primary historical material guides us through one of the most fascinating and yet little known stories of America's quest for Civil Rights.