King of the Hill
Black History Month 2024
•
56m
Directed by William Canning, Donald Brittain • Documentary • 1974 • 56 minutes
Spring 1972. The Chicago Cubs are poised to win the National League's Pennant race, lead by their star pitcher, a Black Canadian named Ferguson Jenkins, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. Out of all the major league players in the history of the game, only a handful had come from Canada, and none had risen as high as the "golden" right-hander from Chatham, Ontario. The first Cubs pitcher to win the Cy Young award, Jenkins had tied a team record by winning 20 or more games, six seasons in a row. He stands poised on the threshold of greatness as he enters a season that will challenge the limits of his astonishing talents. Follow Jenkins and the Cubs through the trials and frustrations of the 1972-73 seasons, from the hope and innocence of spring training, to the dog days of an August slump. The camera gets up close to the skirmishes at home plate, and records the intimate chatter on the mound, in the dugout, and in the locker room. King of the Hill offers a view of baseball as seen from the inside. This must-have video for all serious baseball fans captures the human side of the game. It provides a glimpse into the rewards and pressures of sports stardom, in an affectionate testament to the sacred traditions and the easy cameraderie of the quintessential summer sport.
Up Next in Black History Month 2024
-
Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker
Directed by Joanne Grant • Documentary • 1981 • 63 minutes
FUNDI: THE STORY OF ELLA BAKER reveals the instrumental role that Ella Baker, a friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, played in shaping the American civil rights movement. The dynamic activist was affectionately known as the Fundi, a...
-
Althea
Directed by Rex Miller • Documentary • 2014 • 83 minutes
Althea Gibson broke records on and off the tennis court. A truant from the rough streets of Harlem, Gibson emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s. A sharecropper's daughter, Gibson's family migr...
-
Jaha's Promise
Directed by Patrick Farrelly, Kate O’Callaghan • Documentary • With Jaha Dukureh • 2017 • 80 minutes
Jaha’s Promise tells the story of a young woman who returns home to campaign against the brutal practices that almost destroyed her life. Jaha Dukureh was subject to female genital mutilation as ...