The Learning Tree

Piri Thomas, a painter, poet, author, ex-con, and ex-junkie, describes the life of a Puerto Rican in the Spanish Harlem ghetto in New York City.

Presents Gordon Parks' photo-essay "A Harlem Family", framed by a filmed segment featuring Parks and the Fontanelle family and narrated by Parks.

Parks makes himself the subject, tracing his development as a person and an artist through a non-narrative abstract self-portrait that combines his photographs with his poetry, musical compositions and scenes from his films. It also features footage of Parks, plus interpretations of his personal reminiscences performed by actors Avery Brooks, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Joe Seneca.

Melvin Van Peebles was one of the first black directors to challenge the white establishment in his films, which include "Watermelon Man" and "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." In this documentary, the life of Van Peebles is discussed, including his work not only in film, but also as a novelist, actor, musician, stock trader and even Air Force pilot. Interview subjects include Gil Scott-Heron, Spike Lee and Melvin's son and fellow filmmaker, Mario Van Peebles.

A free Black man from New York is tricked, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the South, where he endures twelve years of brutal servitude before finding a way to contact his family and secure his freedom.

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.

Documentary about a boy living with his family in extreme poverty in Rio de Janeiro.

John Shaft is back as the lady-loved black detective cop on the search for the murderer of a client.

New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

The true story of two New York City cops. Greenberg & Hantz fought the system, became detectives and were known on the streets as "Batman & Robin."

This documentary film imaginatively captured the ballet Martin, a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. produced and scored by Gordon Parks. The PBS dance film includes an introduction narrated by Parks and accompanied by a montage of his photographs from the period. The ballet was choreographed by Rael Lamb, with John Jones playing the role of Dr. King, and Sheila Rohan as Rosa Parks. It proceeds in five acts, corresponding to significant moments in Dr. King’s life—the bus boycott, march on Selma, his confinement in a Birmingham jail, his assassination, and his funeral.

A documentary made on the set of "The Learning Tree." Narrated by Gordon Parks Jr., and featuring interviews with Gordon Parks Sr. and members of the cast and crew.