The German poet Rilke once said: ”Be ahead of all departure, as if it were already behind you, like the winter which is almost over.” A sentiment which all of us unhappily share with the loss of Sidney Poitier, Hollywood’s first bona fide Black leading man, on Jan 6, 2022.  

From March 6-27, FACETS presents a retrospective of four Sidney Poitier films spotlighting his extraordinary career and achievements. As an actor, director, activist, and humanitarian, Mr. Poitier was a pioneer on many fronts, and in 1963 was Hollywood’s first Black leading man to win an Academy Award for Lilies of the Field, where he portrayed a former military man who selflessly gives himself to improve the condition of a convent after his car breaks down. He emerged as an iconic movie star during the civil rights era, a volatile time when there were few opportunities for Black actors or directors in Hollywood and was the first black actor who could get a film produced on his own name.  

Mirroring profound changes within our society, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, as racial attitudes evolved and segregation laws were challenged, Sidney Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious film industry turned for stories of progress by portraying protagonists who faced complicated issues, such as race relations and socioeconomic deprivations, with a rare combination of vulnerability, anger, and self-respect. 

His cool demeanor and perspective were admirable by the roles he chose to perform. Mr. Poitier not only led by example, but also had the foresight to know how he would be perceived in the roles he chose and how he would be personified by the public for his performances. So, he was quite careful about his choices, knowing that he represented a cause greater than himself, as a man of color working in Hollywood.  

 As he said about himself: “[Black people] were so new in Hollywood. There was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters. I had in mind what was expected of me, not just what other Blacks expected but what my mother and father expected. And what I expected of myself.”  

A Tribute to Sidney Poitier brings together four films that exemplify this legacy. We kick off the series with the noir, No Way Out (1950), which boldly addresses the volatility of racism and violence that defined society at the time and continues its tragic presence today. The adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s much-admired play about family life in segregated Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun (1961), showcases Poitier’s reverence for the theater and impact on the arts beyond Hollywood. Paris Blues (1961) continues this theme by exploring the lives and relationships of ex-pat jazz musicians living in self-imposed exile in Paris, France. Ending with the highly charged drama that won five Academy Awards, In the Heat of the Night (1976), which includes one of Poitiers best roles as Virgil Tibbs, a detective who finds himself investigating a murder in a racist Mississippi town. 

Programmed and written by FACETS Film Program Director, Charles Coleman.