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Staff Picks - Mitzi (Movies)

Mitzi is a librarian in the Adult Services department at the Main Library. She believes that variety is the spice of life. She enjoys an eclectic variety of books and movies to stay engaged.

The color purple

An uneducated woman living in the rural American south who was raped by her father, deprived of the children she bore him and forced to marry a brutal man she calls "Mister" is transformed by the friendship of two remarkable women, acquiring self-worth and the strength to forgive

Lady sings the blues

Diana Ross stars in this musical drama charting the life of Billie Holiday, a life tormented by racism and drug abuse

Carmen Jones

Joe, a military policeman about to make officer, is infatuated with the flirtatious and sexy Carmen Jones. Their ill-fated romance comes to a grisly end by the conclusion of the drama but not before their liaison has wreaked havoc with their lives and all who cross their paths

Waiting to exhale

The story of four African-American women who journey through a modern labyrinth of husbands and lovers, jobs and makeovers

Beasts of the southern wild

Hushpuppy is a six year old living in an isolated bayou community. When her father, Wink, becomes ill she sets off for the outside world in an attempt to help him. The journey to save her father is delayed by a 'busted' universe that reverses weather patterns and brings about long extinct animals. Can Hushpuppy save the day? Bonus features include, the making of Beasts of the Southern Wild and the theatrical trailer

Mahogany

A poor girl is a success when she becomes a world-famous fashion model and designer. But at the same time, she yearns for her boyfriend back home

Do the right thing : 2-disc edition

"The hottest day of the year explodes onscreen in this vibrant look at a day in the life of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A portrait of urban racial tensions sparked controversy while earning popular and critical praise,"--Container

Love jones

A contemporary Chicago nightclub, the Sanctuary, is the gathering spot for middle-class black urbanites looking for romance

4 little girls

When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's concern

A raisin in the sun

Dreams can make a life worth living, but they can also be dashed by bad decisions. This is the crossroads where the Younger family find themselves when their father passes away and leaves them with $10,000 in life insurance money. Decisions will need to be made on how to best spend the money, from buying a new family home, buying a liquor store or even paying for medical school tuition. While no choice is easy, life on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s is even harder

Crooklyn

A chronicle of the life of an African-American middle-class family and the one girl in the family of five children. A film by Spike Lee

Their eyes were watching God

A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the mores of her small town

Brown sugar

Sydney and Dre are childhood friends who share a love for music, especially hip-hop music, and have an unsung love for each other. When Dre decides to marry a woman that is all wrong from him, Sydney must make her move or risk losing her soulmate forever

I am not your negro

Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material. A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter

Sparkle

Set in Harlem in 1958, this musical tells the story of three sisters struggling to find stardom as a singing group. But they learn that wishing on a star is one thing, and that being the star can be a one-way ticket to self-destruction

Just Mercy

A powerful and thought-provoking true story follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley. One of his first and most incendiary cases is that of Walter McMillian

Black Panther

King T'Challa returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from divisions within his own country. When two enemies conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must join forces with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Wakandan Special Forces, to prevent Wakanda from being drawn into a world war

Marshall

About a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career defining cases

42

History was made in 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the professional baseball race barrier to become the first African American MLB player of the modern era. 42 tells the life story of Robinson and his history-making signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey

Recipient of the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for libraries.