Directed by Billy Woodberry • 1984 • United States
Starring Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore, Angela Burnett
Scripted and shot by Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry’s slice-of-life revelation is a key masterpiece of the LA Rebellion, the black independent-cinema renaissance that emerged from UCLA’s film school in the 1970s and ’80s. BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS distills the social concerns and neorealist aesthetics of the movement into a sensitive exploration of the inner workings of community and family that pays homage to the power of the blues. Searching for steady work, Charlie Banks (Nate Hardman) views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But day work and selling a few catfish can’t sustain a family of five. While his wife Andais (a remarkable Kaycee Moore) works to support them with dignity, Charlie finds comfort for his wounded sense of manhood in an affair that threatens his marriage and family.
Up Next in Season 1
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And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 2015 • United States
Legendary Beat visionary Bob Kaufman considered poetry a key to human survival, an idea made all the more legitimate by the longevity it is granted: the things he saw, heard, tasted, felt, and, most of all, thought were preserved in his work. Em...
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Mário
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 2024 • France, Portugal
Director Billy Woodberry examines the life and legacy of Mário Pinto de Andrade, a Pan-African thinker, activist, and founder of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) whose work was critical to the African liberation movem...
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The Pocketbook
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 1980 • United States
Starring Ray Cherry, David Jenkins, Ella “Simi” NelsonAdapted from Langston Hughes’s classic short story “Thank You, Ma’am,” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA student film follows a young man reflecting on his life after a robbery gone wrong.
