Movies & Television

The history of blacks in the South as seen through the eyes of a 110-year-old former slave. Based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines.

The story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used in the 1950s to create the first immortal human cell line resulting in medical breakthroughs.

Director Spike Lee fashions a bold, flavorful picture of family life in a crowded but cozy Brooklyn neighborhood nicknamed "Crooklyn" by the Carmichaels, who experience one very special summer in their hometown under difficult but often wonderful circumstances.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. embarks on a deeply personal journey through the last fifty years of African American history. Joined by leading scholars, celebrities, and a dynamic cast of people who shaped these years, Gates travels from the victories of the civil rights movement up to today, asking profound questions about the state of black America, and our nation as a whole.

When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's concern.

Check out some of 2019's favorite movies as selected by the librarians of the Canton Public Library.

Popular opinion tells us that "the book is always better than the movie"...but what do you think? Check out the mystery books and their movie counterparts below.

Kiss the girls : a novel by 1947- James Patterson
Also available in: video

In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. In the sequel to Along Came a Spider, Washington D.C.'s Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing-and they are working coast to coast.

The Lincoln lawyer : a novel by 1956- Michael Connelly
Also available in: video

Mickey Haller was afraid he wouldn't recognize innocence if he saw it, but he should have watched for evil instead.Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between Los Angeles courthouses to defend clients of every kind—bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence — it's about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman hires Haller, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It's a defense attorney's dream, and Haller starts to believe it is the easiest case of his career. Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller finds that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with pure evil. Now he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal to walk away alive.The Lincoln Lawyer is a display of novelistic mastery — as gripping and whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called today's Dostoyevsky of crime literature.

The Detroit Free Press recently published their list of "Michigan's 50 essential movies - films that were primarily set here and somehow capture the spirit of the region."  Readers are invited to vote for their top 10 favorites, so check out the many titles that are available in the Library's collection.

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress recently announced its list of inductees for 2018. Established in 1989, the films are selected for their enduring importance to United States culture. For a history of the Film Registry you can watch the fascinating documentary These amazing shadows: the movies that made America. Titles available in the Library's collection can be found below. The entire list — complete with film history — can be found here.

On November 11 every year, is the federal holiday honoring and celebrating all veterans who have served in the United States military. Did you know Veteran's Day was known by another name? At the end of World War I, a truce was declared at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 between the Allies and Germany. On June 1, 1954 Congress passed a bill renaming Armistice with Veterans and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as a 5-star general in World War II, signed the bill into law. Some government service buildings and schools will be closed. But our library will be open so come on in and check out some of our materials honoring our veterans!

Every Man a Hero is the unforgettable story not only of what happened in the incredible and desperate hours on Omaha Beach, but of the bravery and courage that preceded them, throughout the Second World War--from the sands of Africa, through the treacherous mountain passes of Sicily, and beyond to the greatest military victory the world has ever known. 

Marine Sgt. John Peck survived an IED during the War on Terror that left him with a traumatic brain injury, amnesia, and cost him his marriage. He survived another three years later, one that left him with three and a half limbs missing. He's one of only two living people to survive the flesh-eating fungus he contracted in recovery at Walter Reed, one that left him as a quadruple amputee. And that's only the beginning of his story.

Newsday recently compiled a list of the scariest movies of all time. Topping their list was Stanley Kubrick's The Shiningbased on the novel by Stephen KingCheck out some of their other choices  - or pick out some of your own favorites from the Library's collection.

Neo-expressionism, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, dominated the art scene in the late 80s. Learn more about art in the 80s and particularly about Jean-Michel Basquiat with these resources. 

Basquiat by 1960-1988 Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat : a graphic novel by illustrator 1965- Paolo Parisi

Montag, a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Suddenly he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal safety and intellectual freedom.

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, this is the story of a young working-class woman, Evey, who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man known only as 'V.' Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, 'V' ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression.

An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

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