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Film

1962

• The Pulitzer Prize winning book, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee is made into a film. Set in the Deep South of the 1930s it tells the story of a white lawyer defending a black man accused of raping a white girl. The film won several Oscars and brought attention to the inherent racial problems and social injustice that existed in the South.

1964

• Sidney Poitier wins the best actor Oscar for his role in Lilies of the Field. In the film he plays a construction worker whom a group of nuns believe was sent to them by God to build their church. Previous to this Hattie McDaniel had won best supporting actress in 1939 for her role in Gone with the Wind and James Baskett had received an Honorary Award in 1948 for voicing Uncle Remus in Disney's Song of the South.

1966

• The Caribbean Artists Movement is founded in London. It oversees and protects the literary, academic and performance skills of Caribbean writers and artists. Andrew Salkey, Edward Kamau Brathwaite and John La Rose were the catalysts.

1967

• E.R. Braithwaite's novel To Sir, With Love about his experiences as a teacher in the East End of London gets made into a film with Sidney Poitier. A renowned writer, lecturer and a representative for the UN, Braithwaite was born in Guyana. It was his London teaching and social work (finding foster homes for non-white kids) that provided him with the material for his eloquent and moving stories about race and class in Britain.
• In the Heat of the Night was another film starring Sidney Poitier, this time as a detective asked to investigate a murder in a racist southern town. The film's subject matter and the fact it starred a non-white actor was so controversial that it couldn't be filmed in the Deep South. It won several Oscars.

1969

• Horace OvΓ© produces a documentary called Baldwin's Nigger about the visit of author James Baldwin to England. Based in London since the 1960s, OvΓ© had photographed the emergence of black politics in Britain, taking pictures of Stokely Carmichael and Michael X at the UK's first Black Power meeting.As well as being a renowned photographer he made what's considered Britain's first black feature film, Pressure. (see 1975)

1971

• MGM Studios released the first big budget Hollywood blaxploitation film Shaft, which went on to win an Oscar. The statuette was awarded to long-time Stax records artist and arranger Isaac Hayes for his Theme from Shaft. His appearance at the Oscar ceremony had as much of an impact as his music. He appeared on a floating piano in a shirt made entirely of chains. The film was later remade by John Singleton in 2000, starring Samuel L Jackson.

1973

• Kung Fu star Bruce Lee dies at the aged of 32.
• Marlon Brando rejects his Academy Award in protest at Hollywood's degradation of American Indians.
• Following the success of blaxplotation movie Shaft in 1972, it became a TV series with its original star Richard Roundtree.

1974

• Pam Grier grabs the spotlight with her sassy role as Foxy Brown in the blaxploitation classic. She later stars alongside Samuel L Jackson in the 1997 flick Jackie Brown in homage to this genre of movie.

1975

• Black film director Horace OvΓ© releases his groundbreaking film Pressure about a West Indian family leaving Trinidad and starting a new life in the UK. It highlights the struggles of their teenage son who tries to fit in but faces racism and its effects. It becomes recognised as the first British feature film to be made by a black director.

1976

• Singer, actor, black activist Paul Robeson dies at the age of 78. His 11 films included Body And Soul, Jericho and Proud Valley.

1977

• Star Wars opened at the cinema. The film eventually went on to be the highest grossing film of all time.

1978

• Grease premiered at the cinema.

1980

• Everyone goes dance crazy when the release of the film Fame starts the leg warmer craze.

1982

• Eddie Murphy made his film debut with 48 Hours alongside Nick Nolte.

1983

• Scarface was released at the box office, starring Al Pacino as a vicious Cuban drug lord. His power and aggression was to prove an inspiration to hip hop MCs for decades to come.

1985

• Quincy Jones debuts as a filmmaker when he co-produced Steven Speilberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The film got 11 Oscar nominations and introduced Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to more audiences.

1988

• The film Colors opened in cinemas bringing America's gang problems into the spotlight for the first time. The story was set against the backdrop of the LA gangs Bloods and Crips.

1989

• Spike Lee released the critically acclaimed Do The Right Thing, triggering heated debates about race relations in the US.

1991

• Whoopi Goldberg is rewarded for her entertaining performance in the blockbuster movie Ghost by winning the Oscar for best supporting actress.
• The ghetto drama Boyz N The Hood was released in cinemas. Director John Singleton is nominated for an Oscar and Ice Cube's portrayal of Dough Boy launched his acting career.

1992

• Spike Lee's film Malcolm X premiered in New York. Denzel Washington earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the black civil rights leader assassinated in 1965. The film sparked a fashion trend of clothes decorated with the letter X.

1994

• Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Quentin Tarantino's brilliant film Pulp Fiction was released. It also starred John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Harvey Keitel. The film re-juvenated Travolta's flagging career and made a star out of Jackson.

1996

• When We Were Kings, a documentary about the 1974 boxing match in Zaire between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman, went on general release. It won the director, Leon Gast, an Oscar for Best Documentary.