Genre: Social Issue Dramas
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Killer of Sheep (1977)
Cast: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy …
Directed by: Charles Burnett
Shot in 1977 on a $10,000 budget while its director, Charles Burnett, was in film school, this landmark urban drama sketches a vivid portrait of African-American life in the '70s.…
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Almos' a Man (1976)
Cast: Christopher Brooks, LeVar Burton, Robert DoQui …
Directed by: Stan Lathan
Dave (LeVar Burton) is a poor black teenager growing up in the Deep South in the 1930s. Spending his days working as a field hand, Dave grows frustrated with the way white folks treat him and…
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e'Lollipop (1976)
Cast: José Ferrer, Karen Valentine, Bess Finney …
Directed by: Ashley Lazarus
Set against the tumultuous backdrop of South Africa's horrifying Apartheid era, filmmaker Ashley Lazarus's heartwarming tale centers on the enduring friendship between Tsepo (Muntu…
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The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, Nicol Williamson …
Directed by: Ralph Nelson
Inspired by writer Peter Driscoll's novel about apartheid in South Africa, The Wilby Conspiracy follows the attempts of two men, British engineer Jim Koegh (Michael Caine) and activist…
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Hester Street (1975)
Cast: Carol Kane, Steven Keats, Mel Howard …
Directed by: Joan Micklin Silver
Joan Micklin Silver's film stars Carol Kane as Gitl, a traditional Jewish woman who travels to America in the late 1800s to reunite with her husband (Stephen Keats), but instead is met…
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Someone I Touched (1975)
Cast: Cloris Leachman, James Olson, Glynnis O'Connor …
Directed by: Lou Antonio
Sam Hyatt (James Olson) isn't faithful to his wife, Laura (Cloris Leachman), but when he contracts a venereal disease -- one he may have passed along to Laura -- concealing his…
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Street Girls (1974)
Cast: Carol Case, Christine Souder, B.J. Harris …
Directed by: Michael Miller
After dropping out of school, Angel (Christine Souder) takes to the streets, finds work as a topless dancer and soon ends up trapped in a harrowing cycle of prostitution and heroin abuse. Her…
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Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
Cast: Kwasi Badu, Godfrey Cambridge, Leonard Jackson …
Directed by: Oscar Williams
Gladys and John Henry Brooks (Clarice Taylor and Leonard Jackson) try to keep their family together in the midst of the changing social, political and sexual mores of the 1970s. Produced in…
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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1973)
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Richard Dysart …
Directed by: John Korty
Based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines, this highly acclaimed TV drama follows the life of Jane Pittman, a black woman born into slavery in the South during the 1850s who lives long enough to…
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Firehouse (1973)
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Michael Lerner, Paul Le Mat …
Directed by: Alex March
The first African-American assigned to an all-white firehouse, rookie firefighter Shelly Forsythe (Richard Roundtree) must battle both blazes and racism as the fire department hunts for a…
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Wedding in White (1972)
Cast: Carol Kane, Donald Pleasence, Doris Petrie …
Directed by: William Fruet
In a small town during World War II, 16-year-old high school dropout Jeannie (Carol Kane, in her screen debut) is raped. But her overbearing father, Jim Dougall Sr. (Donald Pleasence), is…
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Sounder (1972)
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks …
Directed by: Martin Ritt
Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield both earned Academy Award nominations for their performances in director Martin Ritt's poignant drama about the trials and tribulations of a family of…
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The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Cast: Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint …
Directed by: Jerry Schatzberg
Al Pacino plays Bobby, a young heroin addict who introduces his drug-free girlfriend (Kitty Winn) to New York's "Needle Park." But in this sordid world peopled with addicts who lie,…
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Man and Boy (1971)
Cast: Bill Cosby, Gloria Foster, Leif Erickson …
Directed by: E.W. Swackhamer
After the Civil War, African-American veteran Caleb Revers (Bill Cosby, in his first full-length feature role) heads for Arizona to homestead with his wife (Gloria Foster) and son (George…
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Neighbors (1971)
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Jane Wyatt, Andrew Duggan …
Directed by: Fielder Cook
Racial tensions come out of the woodwork when an upper-class white couple (Jane Wyatt and Andrew Duggan) puts their suburban home on the market and the listing draws a pair of equally…
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Joe (1970)
Cast: Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, Susan Sarandon …
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Starchy advertising executive Bill Compton forms an unlikely alliance with bigoted blue-collar worker Joe Curran to find Bill's daughter when she escapes from a mental facility after…
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WUSA (1970)
Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins …
Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Jaded disc jockey Rheinhardt (Paul Newman) finds a berth at right-wing New Orleans station WUSA, whose hateful message he sets aside his own beliefs to spread -- but his indifference is…
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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles …
Directed by: John Schlesinger
To earn cash as a freelance sex stud and work toward his dream of becoming a kept man, hayseed hustler Joe Buck heads to New York City, where an improbable friendship blossoms when he meets…
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The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969)
Cast: Agnes Moorehead, Jimmy Dean, Lee Majors …
Directed by: George McCowan
Wounded soldier Andy Crocker (Lee Majors) must deal with emotional pain as well as physical when he returns home from Vietnam to find his girlfriend Lisa (Joey Heatherton) has married someone…
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The Bofors Gun (1968)
Cast: Nicol Williamson, Ian Holm, David Warner …
Directed by: Jack Gold
A namby-pamby British corporal (David Warner) has deep-seated ambitions to improve his rank in the army by taking the officer's entrance exam. Unfortunately, a deranged Irish private…
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Born Wild (1968)
Cast: Tom Nardini, Patty McCormack, David Macklin …
Directed by: Maury Dexter
Racial tensions spiral out of control between Caucasians and Mexican-Americans at a border town high school, where new student Tony (Tom Nardini) struggles in vain to establish peace between…
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Up Tight! (1968)
Cast: Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Frank Silvera …
Directed by: Jules Dassin
In this remake of the 1935 film The Informer, unemployed and desperate Tank bungles his role in a Cleveland robbery, leading his best friend and accomplice, Johnny, to kill a guard during his…
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In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates …
Directed by: Norman Jewison
Black Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs helps a redneck Southern sheriff solve a murder in this riveting study in racism that still strikes a chord. Rod Steiger won a Best Actor Oscar for…
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier …
Directed by: Stanley Kramer
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn star as wealthy Californians who consider themselves progressive until their only daughter (Katharine Houghton) brings home her African American…
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Hurry Sundown (1967)
Cast: Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Peter Goff …
Directed by: Otto Preminger
In 1940s Georgia, a racist landowner sets out to steal valuable property from a pair of hard-working sharecroppers, one white and one black, prompting the Ku Klux Klan to meddle in both…