Black Magic (2008)
Shoot the Moon Productions

Description

Black Magic is dramatic film about the injustice which defined the Civil Rights Movement in America, as told through the lives of basketball players and coaches who attended Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Narrated by Academy Award Nominated actor Samuel L. Jackson and jazz great Wynton Marsalis, with introductions from New Orleans Hornets star point guard Chris Paul and basketball icon Dr. J Julius Erving.

Tags

Civil rights movement, basketball

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Amazon user reviews

This is an absolutely amazing, remarkable film, on the same high quality level as a Ken Burns-type documentary. The stories are unforgettable... incredibly moving and touching.
Read full review (DVD)

8.0 New York Times | Richard Sandomir

This remarkable four-hour documentary by Dan Klores, is as heartbreaking as any about civil rights. He sets it against the indignities of segregation but depicts the black colleges as educational safe houses where children of cotton pickers and sharecroppers felt nurtured and motivated.
Read full review (TV)

8.0 New York Magazine | Elizabeth Cline

Using 200 hours of interviews and old footage, the film captures plenty of discrimination but also shows the pride and enormous influence that leagues at historically black colleges and universities have had on today’s game.
Read full review (TV)

7.0 Salon.com | King Kaufman

"Black Magic" wanders a bit, but it's time well spent with a story that, like so much of African-American history, is both triumphant and tragic. And even if the story weren't half so compelling, it'd be worthwhile just for the old clips of Earl the Pearl.
Read full review (TV)