MOVIE TIME

I've watched the best Sidney Poitier movies that I'd never seen before courtesy of Antenna TV. "Brother John" was one of the features and it was fantastic! I wondered why I'd never heard of it before--or maybe I had and it just slipped my mind. My "Blacks in The Arts" class freshman year at Howard was pretty thorough. I'm sure the movie and the character John Kane was somewhere in the syllabus among all of Poitier's other gems.
I LOVE old movies. Some reveal just how politically incorrect, but brutally honest our society used to be. Others reveal that there was dignity and grace in the roles portrayed by African American actors and actresses. Some of the roles went uncredited, and many were bit parts, but they were still significant. Seeing unknown faces in movies that were made when I was a child always makes me curious. Even if they're just extras I wonder, "Who ARE these people? Where are they now? What were their stories and what can they teach us today?
The Internet Movie database is a great resource, but after watching "Toys in The Attic" last night, the storyline concerning the character Henry Simpson led me to a site I'd never heard of. Blackpast.org included a biography of actor Frank Silvera. I read about him with interest the same way I did about Hadda Brooks after watching the 1950 drama "In A Lonely Place", and Edric Connor after watching "Fire Down Below".
Just because one has never heard of a person or thing, doesn't mean that he, she or it wasn't and is not presently relevant.
I've imagined a reality show called "Extras" where a camera zooms in on a face in a staged crowd, or some uncredited actor or actress, and then sets out to tell their story.