Black History Month on PBS North
This month, PBS North celebrates the stories – ones of adversity, triumphs, magic, and joy – of Black Americans throughout history and shares what it means to be Black in America – past, present, and future.
The Picture Taker | Independent Lens
The vibrant life of Ernest Withers – civil rights photographer, and FBI informant – was anything but black and white. From his Memphis studio, Withers’ nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history, but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy – or both?
Monday, January 30th on PBS North, online & on the PBS app
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World
Chuck D of Public Enemy explores hip hop’s political awakening over the last 50 years. With a host of rap stars and cultural commentators, he tracks hip hop’s socially-conscious roots. From The Message to Fight The Power 2020, he examines how hip hop has become “the Black CNN.”
Tuesday, January 31st on PBS North, online, and on the PBS app
Tuesday, February 7th on PBS North, online, and on the PBS app
Tuesday, February 14th on PBS North, online, and on the PBS app
Rising From the Ashes | Finding Your Roots
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the roots of actors Brian Cox and Viola Davis, uncovering records from workhouses in Scotland and slave plantations in South Carolina that reveal individuals who battled to build a better life for their families.
Tuesday, January 31st on PBS North & on the PBS app
Rising From the Ashes | Finding Your Roots
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the roots of actors Brian Cox and Viola Davis, uncovering records from workhouses in Scotland and slave plantations in South Carolina that reveal individuals who battled to build a better life for their families.
Tuesday, January 31st on PBS North & on the PBS app
Where the Pavement Ends | America ReFramed
Transporting viewers to Missouri towns – then all-Black Kinloch and the all-white community of Ferguson – and examining the shared histories and deep racial divides affecting both, the film draws parallels between a 1960s dispute over a physical barricade erected between the towns and the 2014 shooting death by police of Michael Brown through recordings, photographs, and recollections.
Friday, February 3rd on PBS North, online & on the PBS app
Heaven: Can You Hear Me? | Local, USA
In Philadelphia, gun violence is the leading cause of death for young Black men. Explore the impact on families through the eyes of mothers, like one woman whose youngest of four sons was murdered. The film demonstrates the challenges gun violence prevention advocates confront while allowing viewers to understand the often-untold trauma and resilience of survivors.
Monday, February 6th online and on the PBS app
Through Thick and Thin | Stories from the Stage
When faced with adversity, it’s easy to believe that the universe is conspiring against us. However, the lessons we learn last a lifetime. Linda learns the difference between curses and kindness; ToRena works to recover economically after the 2008 crash; and Marlon uses comedy to lessen the pain of war. Hosted by Theresa Okokon.
Monday, February 6th online and on the PBS app
Outta the Muck | Independent Lens
Wade into the rich soil of Pahokee, FL, a town on the banks of Lake Okeechobee. Beyond its football legacy, including sending over a dozen players to the NFL (like Anquan Boldin, Fred Taylor, and Rickey Jackson), the fiercely self-determined community tells their stories of Black achievement and resilience in the face of tragic storms and personal trauma.
Wednesday, February 8th online, and on the PBS app
Vision Portraits | America ReFramed
Acclaimed director Rodney Evans takes viewers on a personal journey as he ponders how the deterioration of his vision will impact his life and work as a filmmaker. Interviewing blind and low-vision artists – a photographer, a dancer and a writer – Evans embarks on a quest to learn how other artists have continued to create art and how their journeys might serve as inspiration for his own.
Thursday, February 9th online, and on the PBS app
Love in the Time of Fentanyl | Independent Lens
As deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society – a renegade supervised drug consumption site that employs active and former drug users – opens its doors. Its staff and volunteers do whatever it takes to save lives and give hope to a marginalized community in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of people who use fentanyl and other drugs.
Wednesday, February 15th on PBS North, online, and on the PBS app
Big Chief, Black Hawk | America ReFramed
Big Chief Tee is a high school senior and the youngest Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief in New Orleans. During COVID-19, he and the Black Hawk Hunters navigate the impacts of gentrification and systemic racism on their annual masking tradition. Through haute couture, movement, and words, the film celebrates the beauty and resilience of “the culture” even in the face of crisis and change.
Thursday, February 16th online, and on the PBS app
Bonnie Boswell Reports: A Conversation with Pastor James Lawson and Attorney Bryan Stevenson
An intimate look at Pastor James Lawson, who has been called “the leading non-violent theorist in the world,” and Attorney Bryan Stevenson, oft referred to as “America’s Gandhi.” The two men, generations apart, are both iconic figures at the vanguard of America’s peace and justice movement.
Monday, February 20th on the PBS app
The Death of My Two Fathers | America ReFramed
After 20 years, Sol Guy finally watches his late father’s tapes and embarks on a personal journey of healing and reconciliation. At once a conversation between past and present and a letter to Sol’s children, the film reveals the complexities of identity, the persistence of racial trauma, the challenges of fatherhood – and the liberation that exists in facing our own mortality.
Thursday, February 23rd online and on the PBS app
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America | America ReFramed
A portrait of a civil rights activist and the injustices in America that made her work essential. Through public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, the film explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.
Streaming now online and on the PBS app
The Conversation Remix
Exploring the present catharsis following the death of George Floyd, we dive into how the current uprising is impacting communities, and how we can contribute to discussions about racial justice reform. This remix of the 2015 ‘A Conversation about Race’ series is a vibrant collage of people’s lives and experiences, which powerfully frame and illustrate the reckoning that is happening around us.
Available on the PBS app
Two Dollars and a Dream
The biography of Madame C.J. Walker, America’s first self-made millionairess. Mrs. Walker’s fortune was built on skin and hair care products, parlaying a homemade beauty formula into a prosperous business from coast to coast. By interweaving social, economic, and political history, the film also offers a view of black America from 1867 to the 1930s.
Available on YouTube