Our next movie celebrating Black History Month is Sounder, a wonderful, moving film about a black family living in the South at the start of the Great Depression. Told mostly from the point of view of the young boy (played by Kevin Hooks) whose relationship with his father shapes his early life, the film was an example of black history in America, but also made some Oscar history at the time, getting nominated for 4 awards, including Best Picture, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. Cicely Tyson and especially Paul Winfield turn in tremendous performances as the parents, and Lon Elder III was the first black screenwriter to get an Oscar nomination. Based on a Newbury Medal-winning children's book, the ending scene between Winfield and Hooks still makes me tear up.
Original trailer from 1972:
