Sounder
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
Cicely Tyson
Rebecca Morgan
Paul Winfield
Nathan Lee Morgan
Kevin Hooks
David Lee Morgan
Taj Mahal
Ike
Janet MacLachlan
Camille Johnson
Carmen Mathews
Mrs. Boatwright
James Best
Sheriff Charlie Young
Eric Hooks
Earl Morgan
Yvonne Jarrell
Josie Mae Morgan
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
After an energetic but fruitless coon hunt, “Nathan” (Paul Winfield) returns home to a family with his young son “David” (Kevin Hooks) and some empty bellies. They are a close and loving bunch and “Nathan” knows that nothing is likely to improve until the cropping season starts - but that is still some months away. Then he goes and gets himself imprisoned for stealing food and that leaves his wife “Rebecca” (Cicely Tyson) and the children to eke what they can and deal with the planting whilst he does twelve months hard labour. It doesn’t help their morale that they don’t even know where he has been detained, and so “David” with the help of their kindly neighbour “Miss Boatwright” (Carmen Matthews) sets about trying to track him down and make a contact that can reassure both that they are in each other’s thoughts and prayers. This film sees two strong performances. One from Tyson as a woman who will move heaven and earth to keep her family together and from starvation and the other from the enthusiastic and charismatic young Hooks who delivers quite poignantly as the young man who just wants to be with his dad. It shines the usual light on racism and iniquity, but it also extols some positivity as the young kids are determined to go to school, and they have parents who are equally determined that this opportunity should not be wasted. It’s touching but not sentimental and there is a degree of optimism for these children and, thanks to the somewhat risky intervention of “Miss Boatwright”, there might even be some roots of decency sprouting from the white folks too. The production is really quite effective at illustrating just how tough their lives was, and at the double-standards that prevailed amongst a community where hard work earned little but money for someone else.
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.
In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.
An intellectually disabled giant and his level headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in depression era America.
A nuclear bomb is detonated in Los Angeles, and the nation devolves into unprecedented chaos. Ex-Green Beret Jeff Eriksson and his family escape to The Homestead, an eccentric prepper’s fortress nestled in the mountains. As violent threats and apocalyptic conditions creep toward their borders, the residents of The Homestead are left to wonder: how long can a group of people resist both the dangers of human nature and the bloodshed at their doorstep?
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.