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Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light

Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light

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Features:
  • Color
  • Black & White


Description:

Screen legend Sidney Poitier is profiled in this insightful documentary directed by Lee Grant, who costarred with Poitier in In the Heat of the Night. As an acclaimed actor, civil rights activist, and humanitarian, Poitier has occupied a special place in America, a nation he came to as a teenage immigrant from a small island in the Bahamas. In thoughtful interview segments, Poitier recalls his early life in the Caribbean, the obstacles of racism and extreme poverty he faced in America, and his burning desire to succeed as an actor. Poitier's contribution to film is documented with clips from his early work, and tribute is paid to his vital role as a pioneer who paved the way for black actors to take on roles that were not merely racial stereotypes. Included are clips of Poitier in The Blackboard Jungle, The Defiant Ones, A Raisin in the Sun, and in a segment focusing on his later work, his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in a television production. Poitier is shown accepting his historic Oscar for Lilies of the Field and at a press conference politely but firmly informing questioners that they shouldn't only ask him "about the Negroness of my life." Interviews with Quincy Jones, James Earl Jones, Denzel Washington, and director Stanley Kramer round out a very sensitive and highly entertaining look at Poitier the actor and the man.--Robert J. McNamara
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