Alfre WoodardFilmography

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys

Actors: Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Tyler Perry, Rockmond Dunbar

Synopsis: Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates star in writer/director Tyler Perry's family drama about an upper-crust family and their working-class counterparts, who discover that scandal knows no social boundaries. Charlotte Cartwright (Bates) and Alice Pratt (Woodard) may be from different sides of the tracks Read More

Bury Me Standing

Actors: Mos Def, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Writer/director Caran Hartsfield's black comedy Bury Me Standing (2008) observes four family members in the wake of a 26-year-old relative's death from homicide. Mos Def and Alfre Woodard co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide Read More

Reach for Me

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: LeVar Burton writes, directs, and stars in this drama set in a hospice, and following two patients who realize how to live and love as they begin the dying process. Alfre Woodard and Seymour Cassel star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

Medal of Honor

Actors: Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Discover how some remarkable soldiers found the strength to face almost certain death to save the lives of others in this documentary tracing the history of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to the Iraq war. It was during the Civil War that the Medal of Honor was first created. Though one Read More

My Own Worst Enemy [TV Series]

Actors: Christian Slater, Yara Martinez, Alfre Woodard, Mike O'Malley, Saffron Burrows

Synopsis: The division between a suburban father and his superspy alter ego breaks down after an implant in his brain begins to malfunction, leaving his two identities fighting for dominance. ~ Brie Hearn, All Movie Guide Read More

National Geographic: Nefertiti and the Lost Dynasty

Actors: Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: For millennia, the strange and inexplicable disappearance of Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, reigned as one of history's most formidable unsolved mysteries. Despite the royal's reputation as one of the most uncompromising and widely-loathed rulers in Egyptian history, questions abounded as to her final Read More

AmericanEast

Actors: Sayed Badreya, Tony Shalhoub, Erick Avari, Anthony Azizi, Kais Nashef, Amanda Detmer, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: The heightened racial tensions of post-9/11 America are at the center of this 2007 drama, the feature debut from director Hesham Issawi. Co-writer Sayed Badreya stars as Mustafa, an Egyptian-born entrepreneur facing the daily challenges of an Arab Muslim living in Los Angeles and hoping to open a Read More

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Actors: Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jodelle Ferland, James Tupper

King Leopold's Ghost

Actors: Annick DeVille, Jean-Pierre Bemba, James Newman, Mbaya Mpoyi, Jacques Depelchin

Synopsis: Filmmakers Pippa Scott and Oreet Rees explore the reprehensible legacy of Belgium's King Leopold II in this documentary adaptation of Adam Hochschild's best-selling book. His envy growing as powerful neighbors France, England, and the Netherlands began claiming valuable African coastal land in Read More

Take the Lead

Actors: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Lauren Collins

Synopsis: A teacher and his students open up new worlds for one another in this urban drama inspired by a true story. Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) is a prize-winning ballroom dancer and instructor from Manhattan who volunteers his services to a high school in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the Read More

Something New

Actors: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Blair Underwood

Synopsis: A woman discovers that when it comes to love, sometimes opposites really do attract in this romantic comedy-drama. Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) is a successful African-American lawyer in her mid-thirties whose personal life is not going as well as her career. While she's attractive and intelligent, Kenya Read More

The Water Is Wide

Actors: Jeff Hephner, Frank Langella, Alfre Woodard, Julianne Nicholson, James Murtaugh

Synopsis: This made-for-TV movie is a remake of the theatrical feature Conrack, using the original title of the source novel by Pat Conroy. Set in 1969, The Water Is Wide stars Jeff Hephner as Conroy, an idealistic young teacher whose first assignment is at a run-down school located on Yamacraw Island in Read More

Beauty Shop

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Andie MacDowell, Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Paige Hurd, Queen Latifah

Synopsis: While the men of Barbershop and Barbershop 2 have plenty to mouth off about, they may have met their match in the female staff and clientele of a nearby beauty shop. Directed by Bille Woodruff, Beauty Shop revolves around these women led by Gina (Queen Latifah), who opened Beauty Shop to give all Read More

Desperate Housewives: Season 02

Actors: Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan

Desperate Housewives: Goodbye for Now

Synopsis: There's intrigue aplenty as Desperate Housewives approaches the end of its first season. Still unaware that George (Roger Bart) is more than a passive observer vis-à-vis her husband's illness, Bree (Marcia Cross) falls for George's lie that Rex (Steven Culp) has been bragging about their Read More

Desperate Housewives: One Wonderful Day

Synopsis: Using her unwanted pregnancy as a bargaining chip, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) sets up several conditions before agreeing to help Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) reduce his prison time -- but it looks like all bets are off when Carlos finally learns about Gabby's affair with John (Jesse Metcalfe). Read More

The Forgotten

Actors: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Linus Roache

Synopsis: A grieving woman must make a journey into her past in this psychological thriller. Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is a mother who is struggling to put her life back together after the unexpected death of her eight-year-old son. Telly begins seeing a therapist (Gary Sinise) who offers a startling Read More

Radio

Actors: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ed Harris, Alfre Woodard, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brent Sexton, Debra Winger

Synopsis: Hollywood filmmaker Michael Tollin directs the sports drama Radio, based on a true story and adapted for the screen by Mike Rich (The Rookie). Set in a small South Carolina town during the '60s, the film stars Ed Harris as Harold Jones, a high school football coach who barely has time to spend Read More

The Singing Detective

Actors: Robert Downey, Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson

Synopsis: From director Keith Gordon (Mother Night, A Midnight Clear) comes this American feature adaptation of the 1986 BBC miniseries, The Singing Detective. Robert Downey Jr. returns to the big-screen for the first time since 2000's Wonder Boys as Dan Dark, a novelist who is hospitalized with a severe Read More

The Core

Actors: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, D.J. Qualls

Synopsis: An unlikely band of scientists and soldiers join forces to save the world from certain destruction in this action-drama. As the world is struck with a variety of inexplicable phenomena -- attacks by enormous swarms of birds in London, the explosion of the Colosseum in Rome, a potentially deadly Read More

A Wrinkle in Time

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Katie Stuart

Synopsis: A pair of misfit siblings travel across time and space to save their father from enslavement in this made-for-TV adaptation of the classic children's novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Meg Murry (Katie Stuart), a tomboy who fits in with neither the kids nor the teachers at her New England middle school Read More

The Wild Thornberrys Movie

Actors: Lacey Chabert, Tom Kane, Tim Curry, Lynn Redgrave

Synopsis: The Nickelodeon cartoon series The Wild Thornberrys gets its first feature-length animated film, directed by show creator Cathy Malkasian with a screenplay by Kate Boutilier (writer of Nickelodeon's Rugrats in Paris). The main character is 12-year-old Eliza Thornberry (voice of Lacey Chabert), a Read More

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives

Synopsis: Among the tasks undertaken by the WPA's Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s was to transcribe the memories of those former African-American slaves who were still living. The result was a massive collection of notes, documents, and recordings, all of which found their way into the Library of Read More

Searching for Debra Winger

Actors: Patricia Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, Emmanuelle Béart, Katrin Cartlidge, Laura Dern

Synopsis: Directed by actress Rosanna Arquette, this candid documentary is not only about the iconoclastic and somewhat reclusive film star Debra Winger (who does not even appear onscreen until an hour into the film), but also about the trials and tribulations of actresses in Hollywood who have reached Read More

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property

K-PAX

Actors: Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: The 1995 novel by Dr. Gene Brewer becomes this drama from director Iain Softley. After a mugging incident at New York's Grand Central Station, Prot (Kevin Spacey), a man who claims to be an alien from the planet K-PAX, is turned over to a public mental hospital and the care of Dr. Mark Powell Read More

Half Past Autumn: The Life and Art of Gordon Parks

Synopsis: In this video, viewers consider the work and life of Gordon Parks. Perhaps best known as a photojournalist, Parks was also a novelist, poet, musician, and filmmaker. This video offers commentary on every facet of this man's remarkable career, concentrating on the motivation and techniques he used Read More

American Exile

Actors: Alfre Woodard

What's Cooking?

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon, Mercedes Ruehl, Victor Rivers, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Joan Chen, Kristy Wu, Will Yun Lee

Synopsis: Kenyan-born, London-educated Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha follows up on her debut hit Bhaji on the Beach (1994) with this gentle look at multiculturalism in Los Angeles. The film details the lives of four ethnically diverse families -- black, Latino, Jewish, and Asian -- during one frantic Read More

Dinosaur

Actors: D.B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Sam Wright

Synopsis: Walt Disney Pictures redefined computer animation with this technically accomplished fantasy of prehistoric life, combining live-action backgrounds with computer-generated animals. After a pterodactyl snatches a dinosaur's egg and accidentally drops it while flying away, the egg is rescued by a Read More

Love & Basketball

Actors: Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Debbi Morgan

Synopsis: A young African-American couple navigates the tricky paths of romance and athletics in this drama. Quincy McCall (Omar Epps) and Monica Wright (Sanaa Lathan) grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also Read More

Happily Ever After Fairy Tales: Goldilocks

Synopsis: Intended primarily for African-American audiences, this animated retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears uses modern hip-hop and jazz references to spice up an otherwise timeless children's story. The HBO series was known for its celebrity voices; vocal talents in this episode include the Read More

The Wishing Tree

Actors: Helen Shaver, Alfre Woodard, Mary Alice, Blair Underwood

Synopsis: In this family drama, Clara Collier (Alfre Woodard) is a lawyer who pays a visit to her hometown in the Georgia farm country when her mother (Mary Alice), a well-regarded local storyteller, dies. Mother's death has brought the family together for the funeral, and when Clara meets with her family Read More

Holiday Heart

Actors: Ving Rhames, Alfre Woodard, Mykelti Williamson

Synopsis: In this drama with comic touches directed by Robert Townsend, a middle-aged drag queen (Ving Rhames) still dealing with the loss of his longtime lover meets a 12-year-old girl (Jessika Reynolds) who has no home. Touched by her plight, the drag queen takes in the girl and her mother (Alfre Read More

Mumford

Actors: Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell

Synopsis: Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed this comedy about a young psychologist named Mumford (Loren Dean), who arrives in a small town and sets up a practice. Mumford's style is short on analytic mumbo-jumbo and long on practical advice, and he soon finds that he has a long list of satisfied clients in Read More

Funny Valentines

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine, CCH Pounder

Synopsis: After returning to her hometown to contemplate her troubled marriage, a woman finds renewed hope as she and the cousin with whom she was once best friends slowly reconcile their own fractured relationship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

People's Century: Half the People - Women Unite and Fight for Equality

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that examines sociopolitical movements of the 20th century. This episode focuses on the women's rights movement. The film considers gender issues at home and in the workplace. The birth control pill, reproductive rights, and the re-entry of women into the work force Read More

Underground Railroad

Actors: Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Perhaps the most dramatic protest movement against slavery, The Underground Railroad was a massive organized movement to free slaves. This exciting documentary details the struggles of escaped slaves during the Abolitionist movement. Narrated by Alfre Woodard, Underground Railroad celebrates the Read More

People's Century: Fast Forward - Life Inside Our Ever-Shrinking World

Synopsis: Part of the People's Century series, Fast Forward documents how technology and economics have combined to make the business world a smaller place. The film boasts footage of Shanghai's stock market, explains how e-commerce is allowing business successes that would have been unthinkable a decade Read More

People's Century: Guerrilla Wars - Cuba, Vietnam and Afghanistan

Synopsis: Narrator Alfre Woodard takes viewers on a journey through mass uprisings against social injustices from around the globe in the second half of the 20th century. From WGBH Boston and the BBC comes this detailed video series on the struggle for human rights, and in this instance, events where Read More

People's Century: Skin Deep - The Fight Against Legislated Racism

Synopsis: This video is part of a PBS series that chronicles some of the important political movements of the 20th century. The subject of this volume is the fight for social equality for Blacks in America and South Africa. The march on Selma, lunch counter sit-ins, and voter registration demonstrations led Read More

People's Century: Young Blood - Baby Boomers Rock Society for Change

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that examines some of the influential sociopolitical movements that shaped the 20th century. This program turns its attention to the Baby Boomers, who came of age in the 1960s. Their youthful rebellion against societal constraints and the war in Vietnam Read More

Down in the Delta

Crew: Co-producer

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman, Jr., Mary Alice, Esther Rolle, Loretta Devine

Synopsis: Poet Maya Angelou made her feature directorial debut with this African-American family drama, shown theatrically but originally produced for the Showtime cable network. Unemployed single mother Loretta (Alfre Woodward) lives with her mother, Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice), in a Chicago apartment. Drugs Read More

People's Century: Fallout - Nuclear Energy and Destruction

Synopsis: Part of the People's Century series, Fallout -- Nuclear Energy and Destruction documents how nuclear energy has impacted the world. Utilizing archival footage as well as new materials, this film illuminates such historic incidents as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis Read More

People's Century: Killing Fields - Death on an Industrial Scale

Synopsis: The terrible statistics of World War I are discussed in People's Century: Killing Fields -- Death on an Industrial Scale, as the civilian body count is added to that of the soldiers'. At war's end, the final count was nine million, and the fields and trenches overflowed with the dead. The Battles Read More

Homicide: Life on the Street: Mercy

Actors: Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Reed Diamond, Peter Gerety, Clark Johnson

Synopsis: Alfre Woodard reprises her St. Elsewhere role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in this episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. The homicide detectives are called in when a woman insists that her cancer-ridden brother was euthanized by Dr. Turner. In the interrogation room, Turner admits that she has Read More

The Voyage of La Amistad: A Quest for Freedom

Synopsis: The true story of the revolt and subsequent trial of escaped African slaves is documented in The Voyage of La Amistad: A Quest for Freedom. When a group of men and women were kidnapped from the coast of Sierra Leone in 1839, they had no idea what to expect. Conditions aboard the slave ship were Read More

Sporting Fever

People Power

Seven Candles for Kwanzaa

People's Century: Freedom Now - Colonial Rule is Overthrown in Asia and Africa

Synopsis: From WGBH Boston and the BBC comes this detailed video series on the struggle for human rights in the last century. In this selection, archival footage and exclusive interviews with witnesses from India and throughout Africa detail how these two continents struggled for independence from Read More

People's Century: Great Leap - Communism in China

Synopsis: Part of the People's Century series, Great Leap -- Communism in China documents how Mao Zedong was able to bring Communism to China. Utilizing archival footage as well as new material, the film charts Mao's rise, as well as the "cultural revolution," and the protests in Tiananmen Square. This is a Read More

People's Century: Master Race - Nazism Overtakes Germany

Synopsis: Follow the rise of the Nazi movement and how Adolf Hitler came to power. Listen to interviews and eyewitness accounts from those that were persecuted under the Nazi regime, and hear them retell the misfortune and persecution of being black, Jewish, Gypsy, or homosexual in Germany from the 1930s Read More

Miss Evers' Boys

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, Craig Sheffer, Ossie Davis, Joe Morton

Synopsis: Produced for the HBO cable network, this docudrama explores the social and ethical issues at the heart of the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Blacks With Syphilis. From 1932 through 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service studied 600 poor African-American sharecroppers in Macon County, AL -- 399 Read More

The Member of the Wedding

Actors: Anna Paquin, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: This made-for-TV adaptation of Carson McCullers story features Anna Paquin as Frankie Addams, a 12-year-old tomboy growing up in the deep South in the mid-1940s. Frankie doesn't get along well with most children her age, and she prefers to spend her time with Berenice Brown (Alfre Woodard), the Read More

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - Mulholland's Dream

Synopsis: Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - Mulholland's Dream is part one of a four-volume award-winning documentary series that depicts the use and misuse of water in the American West. Based on Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert, the episode documents Water Department chief Read More

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - The Mercy of Nature

Synopsis: Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - The Mercy of Nature is part three of a four-volume award-winning documentary series that depicts the use and misuse of water in the American West. Based on Marc Reisner's book, Cadillac Desert, the episode takes an in-depth look at the Read More

Special Report: Journey to Mars

Synopsis: This made-for-TV movie is staged in the form of an ongoing news report, unfolding in "real time." The year is 2014, and the men and women of the Global News Network are covering the final two hours of the first manned space mission to Mars. Suddenly, before an audience of billions, things begin to Read More

A Step Toward Tomorrow

Synopsis: After her son Georgie (Kendall Cunningham) is paralyzed in a diving accident, feisty divorcee Anna Lerner (Judith Light) vows never to take a moment's rest until she finds a cure for her boy's affliction. Ultimately, Anna moves herself, Georgie and her "normal" son to a new town, there to Read More

Genesis - A Living Conversation: Volume 1

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that looks at the Biblical stories in the book of Genesis. A group of experts, with journalist Bill Moyers moderating, discuss the meaning and relevance of the stories in today's world. This episode includes Genesis: A Living Conversation -- In God's Image, which Read More

Genesis - A Living Conversation: Volume 2

Synopsis: This video is part of a series, hosted by journalist Bill Moyers, that studies the profound wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Moyers leads a panel discussion by a diverse group of experts, who discuss the meaning and relevance of the age-old stories for the modern world. This Read More

Genesis - A Living Conversation: Volume 3

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that makes a study of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. A panel of experts, moderated by journalist Bill Moyers, discuss the relevance for the modern world of the lessons the Biblical stories contain. This episode includes Genesis: A Living Conversation -- A Read More

Gulliver's Travels

Actors: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, James Fox, Ned Beatty, Geraldine Chaplin

Synopsis: Originally aired on the NBC network as a two-part miniseries, this all-star adventure is perhaps one of the most complete and faithful retellings of 18th-century author Jonathan Swift's epic social satire on film. Nine years after he set sail from England, a bedraggled, disoriented Dr. Lemuel Read More

Primal Fear

Actors: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: A high-profile slaying becomes the case of an ambitious attorney's career in this legal thriller based on the novel by William Diehl. Richard Gere stars as Martin Vail, a famed defense lawyer who volunteers his services to Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), a Kentucky teenager charged with the murder Read More

Follow Me Home

Synopsis: Four young artists embark upon a cross-country journey that will culminate with a mural to be painted upon the White House in this highly allegorical drama. The group leader Tudee is a shrewd, but not always honest Chicano. Temperamental, sociopathic ex-con Abel is also Chicano. Kaz is an African Read More

Star Trek: First Contact

Actors: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn

Synopsis: The first "Trek" film to feature the cast of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series without any of the members of the original series, this action-packed hit was well received at the box office. The Federation comes under attack by its ongoing enemy, the Borg, a cybernetics-enhanced race Read More

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - An American Nile

Synopsis: Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - An American Nile is part of an award-winning documentary series that depicts the use and misuse of water in the American West. Based on Marc Reisner's book, Cadillac Desert, the episode takes an in-depth look at the damming of the Colorado Read More

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - Last Oasis

Synopsis: Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature - Last Oasis is part four of a four-volume award-winning documentary series that depicts the use and misuse of water in the American West. Based on Sandra Postel's book, Last Oasis, the episode takes an in-depth look at how America's large Read More

Genesis - A Living Conversation: Volume 5

Synopsis: This video, hosted by journalist Bill Moyers, is part of a series that examines some of the stories presented in Genesis, in the Old Testament of the Bible. A panel of experts from diverse backgrounds discuss the meaning and relevancy of the age old stories for modern people. This episode includes Read More

Genesis - A Living Conversation: Volume 4

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that studies the profound wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible. An interdisciplinary panel of experts, moderated by journalist Bill Moyers, discuss the meaning and relevancy of the ancient stories in modern times. This episode includes Genesis: A Read More

How to Make an American Quilt

Actors: Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Maya Angelou, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons

Synopsis: A young woman at a crossroads in her life finds herself receiving plenty of advice from her older and wiser counterparts in this drama. Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) is a graduate student trying to finish up her doctoral thesis on women's folk art while deciding if she should marry her fiancé Sam (Dermot Mulroney Read More

The Piano Lesson

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Charles S. Dutton

Synopsis: Alfre Woodard and Charles S. Dutton star as sister and brother in this made-for-television Hallmark Hall of Fame production about an African-American family's struggle to retain their heritage. The drama tells the story of an impoverished black family whose history is told in the carvings Read More

Blue Chips

Actors: Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell, J.T. Walsh, Ed O'Neill, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Blue Chips examines greed, cheating, and "winning at all costs" in the world of college basketball. Nick Nolte plays the stressed-out coach on the verge of his first losing season, who hits the road in search of new players not already signed by a bigger school. He finds three prospects: a Read More

Crooklyn

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Kelly, Zelda Harris, Carlton Williams

Synopsis: Spike Lee and his siblings Cinque Lee and Joie Lee co-wrote this nostalgic but unglamorized look at a family growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, inspired by their own childhood. Woody Carmichael (Delroy Lindo) is a jazz musician whose career is in a slump; he once made a good living as a session Read More

Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad

Actors: Janet Bailey, Courtney Vance, Dawnn Lewis, Glynn E. Turman, Tim Reid

Synopsis: Coproduced by two cable-TV servies-The Family Channel and the Black Entertainment Network--Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad uses historical fact as background for a fictional adventure tale. Courtney Vance and Janet Bailey star as slaves on a brutal antebellum North Carolina plantation. Read More

Frasier: The Botched Language of Cranes

Synopsis: When a gloomy listener places a call to Frasier's radio show, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) flippantly advises the woman to cheer herself up by moving out of Seattle -- or, to use his mocking designation, "The Emerald City." Forced to apologize to his outraged listeners, Frasier succeeds only in making Read More

Amazing Grace

Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History

Synopsis: Actress Alfre Woodard narrates this look at the life of Frederick Douglass, an influential 19th century civil rights activist. As this PBS program unfolds, viewers learn that Douglass was a slave at birth who was taught to read as a young boy by a slave owner's wife. As he grew older and continued Read More

Bopha!

Actors: Danny Glover, Malcolm McDowell, Alfre Woodard, Marius Weyers, Maynard Eziashi

Synopsis: This 1993 film adaptation of Percy Mtwa's South African play Bopha was rendered anachronistic by late-breaking events, though it still contains plenty of food for thought. Danny Glover stars as a black police officer in the waning days of apartheid. Though dedicated to his job, Glover has mixed Read More

Rich in Love

Actors: Albert Finney, Jill Clayburgh, Kathryn Erbe, Kyle MacLachlan, Piper Laurie

Synopsis: The final installment of what might be called Bruce Beresford's southern trilogy (the other films being Crimes of the Heart and Driving Miss Daisy) examines a disintegrating Southern family. The Odom family live in an elegant mansion, where Warren (Albert Finney) is retired and spends the days Read More

Heart and Souls

Actors: Robert Downey, Jr., Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore

Synopsis: Director Ron Underwood follows up his crowd-pleasing hit City Slickers (1991) with this likable, feel-good comedy drama about a selfish businessman who discovers that he's permanently being followed by a group of ghosts. In 1959, a bus accident links the spirits of four fatally injured passengers Read More

Passion Fish

Actors: Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, David Strathairn, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Nora Dunn

Synopsis: With his trademark emphasis on character development and dialogue, writer/director John Sayles tells the story of May-Alice Culhane (Mary McDonnell), a New York soap opera actress left paralyzed by a car accident. As the film opens, she lies in a hospital bed, confused and scared, watching her own Read More

The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag

Actors: Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Thal, Alfre Woodard, Julianne Moore, Cathy Moriarty, Andy Romano

Synopsis: Penelope Ann Miller's delightful performance as the shy, part-time librarian Betty Lou Perkins is the saving grace of this comedy from Touchstone Pictures. Betty Lou is the neglected wife of small-town police detective Alex Perkins (Eric Thal). She soon feels even more neglected when Alex can't Read More

Grand Canyon

Actors: Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Director Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon is a gathering of random events, uniting the film's wildly divergent protagonists. Driving home from an LA Lakers game, Mack (Kevin Kline), an immigration attorney, is stranded in an unsavory part of town when his car breaks down. He is rescued from a gang Read More

Blue Bayou

Actors: Mario Van Peebles

Synopsis: Alfre Woodard plays a Los Angeles DA who moves back to her home town of New Orleans. She does this so that her teenaged son (Keith Williams) can be nearer to his estranged dad (Mario van Peebles). No sooner has Woodard arrived in "The Big Easy" than she is swept up in a local sex scandal. While Read More

Miss Firecracker

Actors: Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, Scott Glenn

Synopsis: A hot tamale tries to throw off a different sort of heat in this comedy of small-town manners. Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) is best-known in her hometown of Yazoo City, MS, for her unrepentant promiscuity. An orphan taken in by her genteel relatives, she idolizes her older cousin, Elain Rutledge Read More

A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story

Synopsis: A Mother's Courage is the story of Mary Thomas, the mother of Detroit Pistons star player Isaiah Thomas. As portrayed by Alfre Woodard, Mary is a tireless, feisty single mom, struggling successfully to free her large family from the influence of the poverty and crime surrounding her West Side Read More

Scrooged

Actors: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, John Glover, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane

Synopsis: A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard Read More

The Child Saver

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Mario Van Peebles, Deon Richmond, Mike Warren, Martin Balsam

Synopsis: In this thriller, a successful executive risks it all to help a street orphan get disentangled from the world of drugs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mandela

Actors: Danny Glover, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Described as a "biographical drama," the made-for-TV Mandela is the story of South African human-rights advocate Nelson Mandela, who at the time this film was made was in the 25th year of a prison sentence. Covering the years 1948 to 1987, the film traces Mandela's (Danny Glover) matriculation Read More

Extremities

Actors: Farrah Fawcett, James Russo, Diana Scarwid, Alfre Woodard, Sandy Martin

Synopsis: Attacked by a masked assailant, Marjorie (Farrah Fawcett) lives in mortal fear that the unidentified man will strike again -- especially since he knows her address. Sure enough, Joe the attacker (James Russo) breaks into Marjorie's home and subjects her to a night of terror and sexual humiliation. Read More

Unnatural Causes

Synopsis: Based on several actual case histories, Unnatural Causes stars John Ritter as a Vietnam veteran dying of Agent Orange poisoning. Alfre Woodard co-stars as real-life V.A. administration benefits counselor Maude DeVictor. Battling against official denials and bureaucratic red tape, Ms. DeVictor is Read More

L.A. Law [TV Series]

Synopsis: Though the series proper debuted on Friday, October 3, 1986, L.A. Law was heralded by a two-hour TV movie, which aired Monday, September 15. The Steven Bochco production gets off to a good start, with no fewer than three cases resolved within the first installment. We first meet law-firm partner Read More

The Killing Floor

Synopsis: Don't pass up The Killing Floor on the mistaken notion that the film is a western shoot-em-up or cop drama. The title refers to that special area in the Chicago stockyards where the cattle are slaughtered (yes, we know: yeccch. But it happens). The story relates the true-life attempts to set up an Read More

Her Revenge

Synopsis: A fashion designer vows revenge on the man responsible for ruining her brother's reputation over 14 years ago. (AKA Sweet Revenge) ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Actors: Paul Winfield, Rosalind Cash, Roderick Wimberly, Olivia Cole

Synopsis: In this poignant adaptation of James Baldwin's novel about a few generations in the life of an Afro-American family, a young boy's efforts to gain some approval from his Bible-thumping, disciplinarian father takes center stage, and the family's background is told in a series of flashbacks. The Read More

Black Hollywood: Blaxploitation and Advancing An Independent Black Cinema

Actors: Diahnne Abbott, Rosalind Cash, Alfre Woodard, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee

Synopsis: Through probing exploration and expert commentary, this documentary takes an in-depth look at the evolution of African American cinema, examining how African Americans have been portrayed in film, and how the community has both utilized and expressed itself through movies. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Read More

Faerie Tale Theatre: Puss-In-Boots

Synopsis: Ben Vereen stars as the clever title character in this delightful episode of Shelley Duvall's made for cable series Faerie Tale Theatre. A quick-witted talking cat dons boots, a cloak, and a hat in order to carry out his plan to turn his master -- a poor peasant played by Gregory Hines -- into a Read More

Words by Heart

Actors: Robert Hooks, Charlotte Rae, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Words by Heart is set in a northern farming town in 1910. The town's only black family, recently arrived from the south, is treated with barely concealed contempt by the white farmers--and with outright hostility when the family's daughter (Fran Robinson) wins a Bible-verse contest. The only white Read More

Code of Honor

Actors: Kevin Dobson, Kelly McGillis, Alec Baldwin, Savannah Smith, Wings Hauser

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Code of Honor covers a time span of over a dozen years. Merritt Butrick plays Captain Paul Dennison, whose career-and life-is unfairly snuffed out by fellow officer Joseph Cheever (Kevin Dobson). Fourteen years later, Cheever, now a highly decorated and universally respected major Read More

Cross Creek

Actors: Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote, Dana Hill, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Director Martin Ritt's bucolic rural environments of Norma Rae, Conrack, and Sounder, are re-visited once again in Cross Creek, based on author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoirs of her times on a remote Florida bayou. Mary Steenburgen plays Rawlings, author of The Yearling, who, in 1928, makes the Read More

The Ambush Murders

Actors: James Brolin, Dorian Harewood

Synopsis: The fact-based TV movie The Ambush Murders was adapted from a book by Ben Bradlee Jr. Dorian Harewood plays an African-American political activist who is loyal to his ideals and faithful to his friends and family. After two white policemen are killed, Harewood is charge with the crime. 49 months Read More

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

Synopsis: Oz Scott directed this made-for-television performance of Ntozake Shange's musical For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. Originally airing in 1982, the play recounts the history and struggles of African-American women in the United States. The star-studded cast includes performances by Read More

The Sophisticated Gents

Actors: Paul Winfield, Bernie Casey, Roosevelt Grier

Synopsis: The three-part TV miniseries The Sophisticated Gents covers 25 years in the lives of a group of close friends. Nine African-American members of a sports club gather for a quarter-century reunion. As they reminisce over the high and low points of their lives, some of the members await the arrival Read More

H.E.A.L.T.H.

Actors: Glenda Jackson, Carol Burnett, James Garner, Lauren Bacall, Dick Cavett

Synopsis: Robert Altman, the director responsible for M*A*S*H, came up with another acronymic title for his 1979 comedy H.E.A.L.T.H The letter stand for Happiness, Energy And Longevity Through Health--the name given a health-food convention at a Florida luxury hotel. In the tradition of his earlier Nashville Read More

Freedom Road

Synopsis: Muhammad Ali made his TV-movie dramatic debut in this adaptation of Howard Fast's novel Freedom Road. Though some of the names are changed, the story concerns the true-life efforts of senators Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens to bring political order and racial equality to the post-Civil War Read More

Remember My Name

Actors: Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Perkins, Moses Gunn, Berry Berenson, Jeff Goldblum

Synopsis: This disquieting domestic thriller from writer and director Alan Rudolph was produced by his long-time mentor Robert Altman. Anthony Perkins stars as Neil Curry, a construction worker living happily in suburbia with his wife Barbara (Berry Berenson) until their home becomes vandalized during the Read More

The Trial of the Moke

Actors: Franklyn Seales

Synopsis: From the Broadway Theatre Archive, this performance video of the play Trial of the Moke tells the real-life story of Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point military academy. In 1881, Flipper (Franklyn Seales) was involved in a conspiracy and framed for embezzlement by Read More

People's Century: People Power - The End of Soviet-Style Communism

Synopsis: Part of the People's Century series, People Power charts the demise of the Soviet Union. Combining archival footage and new interviews, the film details the formation of Lech Walesa's solidarity movement in Poland, as well as the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This is a fine, informative film for Read More

People's Century: Brave New World - The Cold War Begins

Synopsis: Part of the People's Century series, Brave New World -- The Cold War Begins documents how the United States and the Soviet Union changed from allies at the end of World War II to feuding, distrusting superpowers during the 20th century. Archival footage and new materials are utilized to illuminate Read More