Nightjohn (1996)
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An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomonâs chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widower father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and he sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly however, Amantha's world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father's mistress. The plantation is to be sold to pay off her father's debts and as the daughter of slave, Amatha is also to be sold as property. She is bought by a Louisiana plantation owner, Hamish Bond and over time she grows to love him until she learns he was a slave-trader. She tries again to become part of white society but realizes that her future lies elsewhere.
In 1933, after leaving Dogville, Grace Margaret Mulligan sees a slave being punished at a cotton farm called Manderlay. Officially slavery is illegal and Grace stands up against the owners of the farm. She stays with some gangsters in Manderlay and tries to influence the situation. But when harvest time comes Grace sees the social and economic reality of Manderlay.
Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel, The Viceroy of Ouidah, the film depicts the life of a fictional slave trader named Francisco Manoel da Silva (known as 'Cobra Verde') played by Klaus Kinski.
Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.
Sophie, a quiet and shy maid working for the upper-class family Lelievre, hides her illiteracy under the cloak of a perfect household and obedience. She finds a friend in the energetic and uncompromising postmaster Jeanne, who encourages her to stand up against her bourgeois employers. Things start to escalate as the Lelievres find out that Sophie can't read and has brought Jeanne into their house against their wish.
In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery, and that land is owned by the large Dabney family, consisting of Vernon, Trixie and their seven children, and to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law.
In December 1775, Cletus Moyer is a free black Northerner in colonial America, helping slaves escape captivity. In the days just prior to Christmas, a group of bounty hunters captures Moyer.
Because of his capture, dozens of slaves who have already left their plantations are in danger of being captured as well. Moyer implores two slaves from a nearby plantation to take his place: Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka in his mid-twenties who was captured in what is now Gambia, and Fiddler, an elderly man who was born into slavery. Kunta is eager to help (and to escape himself), but Fiddler is unwilling, fearful of the consequences if they are caught.
A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
Paradesi is set in the late 1930s in a tea plantation run by British somewhere in Munnar. The people in a poor Tamil village are conned by a ruthless middleman or 'Kankani' to work in the plantation promising them decent wages. Little do these innocent people realize that they are going to be enslaved in a tea plantation as 'coolies' for the rest of their life. It is a double edged sword: Those who try to escape end up with their calf muscles cut off and those who reluctantly stay behind fall prey to deadly diseases and torture. In short there is no escape from the hell and they are destined to be slaves for life.
A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
Brand, an unemployed illiterate in his fourties, lives with his wife Keet in some desolate corner of the Dutch countryside. Keet, being tired of having to read the subtitles on television out loud so Brand can understand what's going on, one day decides he should learn to read for himself. She hires Lena, an attractive woman in her thirties, to do the teaching. Lena and Brand develop a passionate relationship, and Keet decides to let it happen because she wants her husband to be happy. She even goes so far as to claim she never actually was married to Brand: it all was just a game, she's just his sister. Lena then moves in, and soon takes over. But after a while she gets pregnant and bears a son, Kleine Teun ("Little Teun"). Then Keet, who can't have children herself, finally caves in and decides Lena has to be eliminated ...
Ilya Semenovich Melnikov is a history teacher in an ordinary Soviet high school. He is a very good teacher and his students and colleagues treat him with a great deal of respect. However, Melnikov faces a lot of difficulties in his work. In particular, everybody at school is spreading rumors about Natalya Sergeyevna, an Enlish language teacher and a former student of Melnikov, being in love with him. Exhausted by his mental suffering, Melnikov asks the principal to allow him to quit his job. At the end of the week that is to become the last week of Melnikov's teaching career the students of his class write an in-class essay on how they understand happiness. Svetlana Mikhailovna, their Russian teacher, is shocked by what one of the students wrote in her essay, nevertheless, she allows her to read it in front of the class. The other students express support of their classmate. Melnikov gets involved in the conflict, after which he reconsiders his decision to quit...
Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.
Kidnapped in Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate a revolution in New York, isolation in Nova Scotia and treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, in an attempt to secure her freedom in the 19th century.
Set in Harlem in 1987, claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret..she can't read.
A teacher tries to overcome his frustration teaching a high-school that seems to be full of flunkies.
Virgie Cary's father, a rebel officer, sneaks back to his rundown plantation to see his dying wife and is arrested. A Yankee officer takes pity and sets up an escape. Everyone is captured and the officers are to be executed. Virgie and Uncle Billy beg President Lincoln to intercede.
An illiterate and lonely man bonds with an older and well-read woman.
The Leiningen South American cocoa plantation is threatened by a 2-mile-wide, 20-mile-long column of army ants.
She is almost deaf and she lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.
The story starts in the 1930's at one of the largest rubber-tree plantations in Indochine (Vietnam). This plantation is owned by the French colonist Eliane, a proud woman who lives with her father and her native adoptive daughter Camille. She doesn't have a husband or a man in her life (apart from her father), but gets to know the young officer Jean-Baptiste when both want to buy the same painting at an auction. They have a short affair, but then she refuses to see him again. In the meantime it's Camille who has fallen in love with Jean-Baptiste and Eliane knows it. She makes sure he's sent to one of the most desolate outposts on some remote island, making sure that the two will never see each other again. Camille has no choice, but to marry the man she was promised to, but in the meantime she starts a search to find the man she really loves.
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.
Six Californians start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen. As they delve into Austen's literature, the club members find themselves dealing with life experiences that parallel the themes of the books they are reading.
Maria is a White farmer who runs a failing coffee plantation in an unnamed African country in the present day. Civil war has broken out and rebel soldiers, many of them child soldiers, are advancing on the area. Rebels on the radio advocate attacks on emblems of colonialism. Maria's workers leave, but she refuses to abandon the plantation, and searches for men to finish harvesting of the coffee.
From the makers of "Ray" and acclaimed director Michael Apted, comes the inspiring story of how one man's passion and perseverance changed the world. Based on the true story of William Wilberforce, "Amazing Grace" follows his courageous quest to end the British slave trade. Along the way, Wilberforce meets intense opposition, but his minister, John Newton, urges him to see the cause through.
A young girl turns into an A-List celebrity over night when her private journal is accidently published and becomes a best-seller.
As shy, awkward and, frankly, nerdy as she is, 25 year old public official Na Young-ju has little hope of landing a boyfriend. But then a game of chance designates her as the member of her office staff who will take English coursesâmuch to her horror. In the same class, she encounters show salesman Park Moon-su, who fancies himself a dashing ladiesâ man. Heâs studying English in part to communicate with his long-lost American sister, but mostly for the purpose of wielding exotic pick-up lines, and is soon deploying them at the less-than-impressed Cathy, the pretty Australian teaching the class. But while Park flirts with Cathy, itâs Young-ju who finds herself mooning after the handsome if self-absorbed fellow.
A prudish woman, working on tenure as a literacy professor at a large urban university, finds herself strangely attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman whom works at a local carnival which comes to town.
Dennis Carson has lived in Indochina all his life, only leaving his rubber plantation for an occasional fling in Saigon. His new surveyor, Gary Willis, and his wife Barbara arrive just as Vantine, a prostitute who has been lying low at the plantation is leaving. Vantine is in love with Dennis, whom she calls "Fred," but he only thinks of her as a pleasant diversion. Dennis is annoyed that Gary has brought his wife. Barbara is shocked and contemptuous of Dennis until he nurses Gary back to health after an attack of malaria.
BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield and his wife, Belle's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Left to wonder if she will ever find love, Belle falls for an idealistic young vicar's son bent on change who, with her help, shapes Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England
Iron and Silk is a 1990 movie based on the eponymous book by American writer Mark Salzman. It details his journey to China after college to study Chinese wu shu, better known in the west as kung fu, and to teach English. Though not trained as an actor, Salzman starred as himself, as did Pan Qingfu, who claimed no one else could portray him on film. Salzman's experiences occurred in Changsha, Hunan, though the film was shot in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. (Wikipedia)
A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years later Mui (now a young woman) was sent to another family, a young pianist and his wife. The musician falls in love with the peasant, he taught her literacy and they eventually married. A movie about a girl's life.
A multi-faceted film based on Raymond Jean's novel "La Lectrice". Constance (Miou-Miou) reads the novel aloud in bed to her lover. Inspired by the story of Marie, a woman who advertises her services as a reader of literature, Constance decides to do the same. Here the film takes on a kaleidoscopic effect as the lives of Constance and Marie become merged, making it hard to distinguish what is real and what is fantasy. This structure is further complicated when the lives of Constance's clients become tangled with the stories she reads. The film is interspersed with readings from well known literary sources as diverse as, amongst others, Baudelaire, Duras, Tolstoy, Lewis Carroll and de Sade's "120 days..."
When Mademoiselle Deluzy-Desportes starts teaching at a girls school, she is confronted with tales and gossip about her, which have become common knowledge among her students. Provoked by her students, she decides to tell them her life story.
The young bride of a rich planter finds herself the only white woman at Elephant Walk tea plantation, British Ceylon.
The life story of Jesus is told from his humble birth through his teachings, crucifixion and ultimate resurrection.
A backwoods, illiterate young woman from Arkansas battles to regain custody of her son from her estranged husband who feels she is an unfit mother. In the process, she falls in love with a struggling musician who helps her cause.
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Spartacus is a 1960 American historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War. The film stars Kirk Douglas as the rebellious slave Spartacus who leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman empire. The film was awarded four Oscars and stands today as one of the greatest classics of the Sword and Sandal genre.
Jesse Hallum sells the family farm to see that his daughter receives the medical care she needs at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The big city challenges him, though, especially when his illiteracy is exposed.
Mark Thackeray (Poitier) is a West Indian, who in the 1967 film had taken teaching in a London East End school. He spent twenty years teaching and ten in administrative roles. He has taught the children of his former pupils, but is now retiring.
In the Lifetime® movie, THE FANTASIA BARRINO STORY: LIFE IS NOT A FAIRYTALE, a single teenage mother overcomes all odds - sexual abuse, poverty and illiteracy - by relying on her spectacular singing voice. She ultimately gains national prominence as the winner of a hit talent show. Fantasia Barrino plays herself in this modern true Cinderella story. Also starring Loretta Devine, Kadeem Hardison and Viola Davis.
Gladiator is an epic film of love, death and betrayal set in the Roman Empire. General Maximus' success in battle earns the favour of an elderly Emperor at the expense of the Emperor's son. In a fit of jealous rage the son slays his father before turning his anger towards Maximus. Now reduced to a slave, his family dead, Maximus must fight as a gladiator to gain his freedom, and his revenge.
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
An American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
Dr. Anansa Linderby is kidnapped in a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment, her husband will do anything to recover her and to punish the bad guys, but that will be not an easy task.
Inspired by a true story, âBeyond the Blackboardâ is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelterâs makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.
Sex, politics and American culture are mixed into a combustible combination in Now & Later. Angela is an illegal Latina immigrant living in Los Angeles who stumbles across Bill, a disgraced banker on the run. She takes him in. Through passionate sex, soul-searching conversations ranging from politics to philosophy, and other worldly pleasures, Angela introduces Bill to another worldview. As their affair heats up, the course of Bill's life begins to take an abrupt and unexpected turn.
In its minimal and non-traditional plot, the main character travels about the country meeting with various acquaintances when not taking part in various mundane, day-to-day activities. There is no real rising action or climax, and Linklater's character does not change substantially throughout the course of the film.
Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to oversee the presidential campaign of Governor Jack Stanton. Burton is pulled into the politician's colorful world and looks on as Stanton -- who has a wandering eye that could be his downfall -- contends with his ambitious wife, Susan, and an outspoken adviser, Richard Jemmons.
Action-filled drama about a ship captain, ashamed of his background in the slave trade, forced against his will to again transport human cargo.
This tells the story of a strong friendship between a young boy with Morquio's syndrome and an older boy who is always bullied because of his size. Adapted from the novel, Freak the Mighty, the film explores a building of trust and friendship. Kevin, an intelligent guy helps out Maxwell to improve his reading skills. In return, Kevin wants Maxwell to take him out places since he is not allowed out unauthorized. Being the social outcasts of the town, Kevin and Maxwell come to realize that they are similar to each other and accept that they are "freaks" and nothing will stop them.
Set in the coffee fields of Colombia, Green Fires stars Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly. Granger plays emerald prospector Rian X. Mitchell, who intends to explore an old deserted mine despite the protests of his partner Vic Leonard Paul Douglas and the threat of death at the hands of local bandit El Moro Murvyn Vye. Ms. Kelly costars as Catherine Knowland, whose coffee plantation lies at the foot of the mine where Mitchell labors away. Such natural disasters as rain and flood, coupled with such man-made weapons of destruction as guns and dynamite, continually thwart Mitchell's search for riches.
'Tula, The Revolt' is an international English spoken feature length movie about the leader of the big slave uprising on the island of Curacao, a Dutch colony in 1795.
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