Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored (1995)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Tim Reid

Writers (WGA):

Clifton L. Taulbert (book)
Paul W. Cooper (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 January 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A narrator tells the story of his childhood years in a tightly knit Afro-American community in the deep south under racial segregation.

Plot Keywords:

Community | Segregation | Schoolteacher | Childbirth | Political Activism

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Al Freeman Jr.	...	Poppa
Phylicia Rashad	...	Ma Ponk
Leon	...	Uncle Melvin
Paula Kelly	...	Ma Pearl
Salli Richardson-Whitfield	...	Miss Alice (as Salli Richardson)
Anna Maria Horsford	...	Miss Annie
Bernie Casey	...	Mr. Walter
Isaac Hayes	...	Preacher Hurn
Willis Norwood Jr.	...	Cliff (12 Yrs.)
Karen Malina White	...	Mary
Damon Hines	...	Cliff at 16
Iona Morris	...	Nila Fontaine
Phill Lewis	...	Sammy (19 Yrs.) / Narrator
Taj Mahal	...	Mr. Will
Polly Bergen	...	Miss Maybry

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements including mild violence, language, and sensuality.

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

BET Pictures

Quotes:

Preacher Hurn: If you call Jesus, his line is never busy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Phat Girlz (2006)

Soundtrack:

Maybe Tomorrow

Neither the KKK or Hallmark Card Company

"Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored" (1996): Set in the deep American South, over the years 1946-1962, and told as biography, this is the story of one boy's memories of being raised in the Cotton & Bible Belt. He's poor, his family is in pieces, he's Black, he's surrounded by the KKK…and yet, this is a soft, even soft-focus look back at the people who DID provide community family, did not dwell on their poverty nor make their race the focal point of a normal day. We are so accustomed to angry, relentlessly violent films about the racial divides, this film could easily be taken as a Hallmark Card presentation…but SOMETHING about it tells me otherwise. Yes, problems are depicted, and yes, the times they were a-changin', but not as fast or dramatically as we've come to accept from the quick flip of a few pages in history class. I LIKE the pace of this film. It's slow, warm, often funny, occasionally sugary, sometimes sad or maddening, but for the most part it's a nostalgic look back at the GOOD parts of black author's childhood.