PCPL Black History Month film series to feature 'Amistad'

The Putnam County Public Library Black History Month film series continues Thursday, Feb. 7 with an 11 a.m. showing of "Amistad."

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the 1997 drama is rated R and runs 152 minutes. The cast features Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins and Matthew McConaughey.

Based on a true story, "Amistad" is the saga of a failed 1839 mutiny on board a Spanish slave ship and the trial that followed. It is the story of how 53 African captives broke free and took over the slave ship, Amistad.

Captured off the eastern seaboard after failing in a desperate attempt to sail home, they find themselves at the mercy of the American judicial system.

Spectators are invited to bring a Brown Bag lunch or dinner to any film and/or enjoy free popcorn and drinks provided by the library.

On Tuesday, Feb. 12 from 6-8:15 p.m., the featured film will be "Mo Better Blues," directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington. Rated R, it runs 127 minutes.

"Mo Better Blues," is about the love of Jazz, true love and relationships. While watching, anyone who gets so inspired is invited to make a Valentine. Supplies will be provided.

On Saturday, Feb. 23 Black History Month films will be offered from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

"The Color Purple," author Alice Walker's intimate story of suffering, endurance and triumph, is set in the early 20th-century rural South.

Celie Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg) is a browbeaten, much abused, nearly illiterate black farm girl who, over the course of 40 years grows into a woman of self-assurance and wit, a woman with her own dreams and identity.

Rated PG-13, "The Color Purple" will run from 10 a.m. until noon.

Beginning at 12:10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23 will be the recent hit film, "The Help," which is rated PG-13 and runs until 2 p.m.

"The Help" stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, the film follows Skeeter, a Southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer. She turns her friends' lives -- and a small Mississippi town -- upside down by deciding to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent Southern families.

"The Long Walk Home," rated PG, will run from 2-3:50 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23 with Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg and Dwight Schultz.

A perceptive and powerful drama, it revolves around about the life and changing times in 1950s segregated Montgomery, Ala.

When her black maid (Goldberg) takes a stand in Martin Luther King Jr.'s bus boycott, an affluent white woman (Spacek) does what she can to help despite the disapproval of her husband.

The final film of the series will be "Malcolm X," showing from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb 26.

Starring Denzel Washington with Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman Jr. and Spike Lee, "Malcolm X" offers a look at the life of the visionary black leader, vividly brought to the screen by filmmaker Spike Lee.

The PCPL series began Jan. 22 with the drama "In the Heat of the Night."