AFRICAN AMERICAN FILMS
by Steve Friedman

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, here are a dozen family films that encompass the black experience. Some are dramatic and some are light-hearted entertainment, but all of them are G and PG-rated films for the entire family to enjoy.

SOUNDER 1972 - G - 105 minutes. This award-winning film tells the story of a black sharecropper family in the 1930s. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield are perfect as the Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933. When the father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, 11-year old David Lee, to visit his father at the camp. Along the way, he learns something about dignity and courage.

MAN AND BOY 1972 - G - 98 minutes. Bill Cosby is wonderful as an ex-slave in the 1870s who overcomes bigotry when he and his young son try to get back their stolen horse.

UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT 1974 - PG - 104 minutes. A comedy starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier (who also directed) as two friends who get mixed up with criminals when they try to get back Sidney's stolen wallet, which happens to contain a winning lottery ticket worth $50,000! C0-starring Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson and Harry Belafonte.

THE GREATEST 1977 - PG - 101 minutes. Muhammad Ali plays himself in this biography that follows the young Cassius Clay from his childhood in Kentucky to his eventual triumph as the world's boxing champion.

SCOTT JOPLIN 1977 - PG - 96 minutes. Billy Dee Williams plays the legendary early 20th-century pianist/composer who became known as the "king of Ragtime," forced to deal with racism, troubled romances and a disease that robbed him of the ability to play his music. Adult themes but an excellent PG-rated drama.

THE DEVIL AND MAX DEVLIN 1981 - G - 95 minutes. Elliott Gould stars as a money-hungry landlord who winds up in hell after he's run over by a bus. Bill Cosby is wonderful as the Devil, who offers Max his life back if he can find three untainted souls in exchange for his. Good comedy about redemption.

THE METEOR MAN 1993 - PG - 99 minutes. A nice comic fantasy with Robert Townsend (who also directs) as a school teacher who gains superpowers after he's hit by a meteor. With his new abilities to fly, see through walls, heal wounds and translate dog language, he takes on the gangs that are hurting his neighborhood.

SPACE JAM 1996 - PG - 88 minutes. Mixing live-action and animation, basketball superstar Michael Jordan is "hijacked" into the cartoon world of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang when they're forced to play a game of hoops against a team of alien giants who've stolen the talents of the NBA's top players. Silly but fun for the whole family.

THE PREACHER'S WIFE 1996 - PG - 123 minutes. Based on the 1947 classic film, "The Bishop's Wife," this warm-hearted fantasy stars Denzel Washington as an angel sent to Earth to help Whitney Houston and her minister husband to save their failing New York neighborhood church. But when Denzel starts experiencing romantic feelings for Whitney, his mission becomes more difficult to perform.

A DIVA'S CHRISTMAS CAROL 2000 - PG - 88 minutes. A musical updating of the Dickens classic with Vanessa Williams as Ebony Scrooge, a vain pop star who learns the true meaning of Christmas with the help of some very unusual ghosts.

FAT ALBERT 2004 - PG - 93 minutes
A live-action version of the 70's cartoon series with Fat Albert and the Cosby kids. Undemanding fun for the whole family.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER: Fairy Tales For Every Child G - 126 minutes. Our favorite fairy tales get a whole new animated spin, with stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Rock and Denzel Washington supplying the voices. Includes "Mother Goose: A Rappin' & Rhymin' Special," "Pinocchio," "The Pied Piper" and "The Golden Goose."