Seventeen
Black History Month 2024
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1h 58m
Directed by Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines • Documentary • 1982 • 120 minutes
Part of the acclaimed Middletown series.
In their final year at Muncie's Southside High School, a group of seniors hurtles toward maturity with a combination of joy, despair, and an aggravated sense of urgency. They are also learning a great deal about life, both in and out of school, and not what school officials think they are teaching.
"One of the best and most scarifying reports on American life to be seen... Haunts the memory."—New York Times
"Truly scandalous."—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
"[SEVENTEEN has] a rare and gripping sense of gritty honesty."—Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle
"SEVENTEEN is more frightening than 'The Day After'"—The Atlanta Constitution
Winner Grand Jury Prize Documentary, 1985 Sundance Film Festival
Up Next in Black History Month 2024
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Tongues Untied
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The seminal documentary on Black gay life, Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T. Riggs’ 1989 Tongues Untied uses poetry, personal testimony, rap and performance (featuring poet Essex Hemphill and others), to describe the homophobia and r...