FILM 233 - Sidney Poitier on Film

1 unit(s)

A national hero and international icon, Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and ambassador Sidney Poitier was a trailblazer. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor becoming the first black male and Bahamian artist to earn recognition from an industry known for racial stereotypes. In 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Poitier was the most successful film star in America, having starred in three of the top grossing films that year (To Sir with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner). He had triumphed on Broadway in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. But his career trajectory was riddled with controversy, debate, and some heartbreak over career choices to work within the Hollywood system. This course offers close readings of the films of Sidney Poitier in light of analysis by scholars James Baldwin, Harold Cruse, Paul Robeson, and Lorraine Hansberry. Film screenings will include No Way Out (1950), Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Defiant Ones (1958), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Paris Blues (1961), Lilies of the Field (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and Buck and the Preacher (1972), among others. Readings, screenings, and papers required. Mia Mask.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209.

Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.

Not offered in 2023/24.

Course Format: CLS