TV screens may have gone color in the '60s, but TV actors didn't -- the small screen remained a white, white world. It remained white-washed in terms of subject matter, as well: no controversy, no politics, and no racial prejudice (because, of course, there were no people of color). That all changed

Charming, Funny, Pioneering, Political

"Waaaake up!" yells DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy at the start of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" -- a call to awareness that seems to be the message of all Lee's movies. Lee isn't interested in forcing any one ideology down his audience's throat; instead, he wants to expose us to the issues that preoc

African american fiction, In-your-face, Political, Urban

Both spiritual father and sustaining mother to an infant art, D. W. Griffith expanded the artistic horizons of audiences, safely shepherding cinema into adulthood and nurturing its unique language. Malcontent as a mere film actor, Griffith joined Biograph Studios in 1908 as a writer and director, del

Classic hollywood, Epic, Grand, Mythic, Pioneering, Political, Silent film

Losey's lofty artistic program was foiled by McCarthy and his anticommunist witch-hunters, who forced a bad hand and drove Losey into hiding in England, where he continued to churn out his cinematic epics undisturbed. After making films under a pseudonym for several years and releasing them in Britai

Blacklistees, Contemplative, Deconstructive, Dense, Political, Psychological