Directed by Michael Roemer • 1964 • United States
Starring Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris
Michael Roemer’s groundbreaking first feature, sensitively shot by his close collaborator Robert M. Young, is a still-resonant expression of humanity in the face of virulent prejudice. Made at the height of the civil rights movement, NOTHING BUT A MAN reveals the toll of systemic racism through its honest portrait of a southern Black railroad worker (Ivan Dixon) confronting the daily challenges of discrimination and economic precarity, as he attempts to settle down with his new wife (jazz great Abbey Lincoln) and track down his father (Julius Harris). Admired by Malcolm X and now recognized as a landmark of American cinema, this tender film grounds its social critique in characters of unforgettable complexity and truth.
Up Next in Directed by Michael Roemer
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The Plot Against Harry
Directed by Michael Roemer • 1969 • United States
Starring Martin Priest, Ben Lang, Maxine WoodsA treasure of American independent filmmaking that was neglected for decades until its triumphant rediscovery, writer-director-producer Michael Roemer’s feature follow-up to his landmark NOTHING BUT ...
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Dying
Directed by Michael Roemer • 1976 • United States
This documentary, made for public television, is an extraordinary, deeply affecting confrontation with that from which we so often try to look away: our own mortality. Through unflinching, vérité portraits of three terminally ill people—a middle-...
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Pilgrim, Farewell
Directed by Michael Roemer • 1980 • United States
Starring Elizabeth Huddle, Christopher Lloyd, Elizabeth FranzHaving chronicled the last days of terminally ill people for his documentary DYING, director Michael Roemer channeled his experiences making that film into this emotionally raw and wre...
