February: Celebrate Black History Month

Collection of films and video footage from Films on Demand

A Spike Lee documentary recalling events that led to a racially motivated 1963 bombing at Birmingham's 16th Street Church in which four children perished. Included: comments from victims' relatives; political and civil-rights leaders.

This two-part special begins with first years of the European slave trade but fundamentally focuses on the individuals who fought & struggled against colonialism, slavery, and their legacies. Insisting on the importance of individuals and their ability to resist historical conditions – to shoulder burdens and to break down walls – it covers five centuries of intertwining British and American histories.

Danny Glover produced and stars in this tale of a black teen who witnesses the first stirrings of the civil-rights movement in his Mississippi home town, then defies his father by joining in desegregation efforts. Vondie Curtis Hall, Loretta Devine.

Denzel Washington directed and stars in this uplifting true story, which chronicles the rise of a debate team at a small all-black college in Texas during the 1930s. Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Jermaine Williams, Forest Whitaker.

A débutante in 1960s Mississippi sends her community into an uproar by conducting a series of probing interviews with the black female servants of the area's most-prominent families.

From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader’s character, showing him to be a man with an unshakeable commitment to peaceful protest in the face of an increasingly unstable country. Illuminating and poignant, the documentary – which is tied to the 50th anniversary of King’s death – reveals a conflicted leader whose successes were punctuated in his final years by an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, whether the Black Power movement, who saw his nonviolence as weakness, or President Lyndon B. Johnson, who viewed his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible. With compassion and clarity, King in the Wilderness unearths a stirring new perspective into Dr. King’s character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence, and his internal philosophical struggles prior to his death, inviting a sense of penetrating intimacy and insight into one of the most profound thinkers of our time.

Profiling backup singers who have performed for superstars such as Stevie Wonder, Sting and Bruce Springsteen.