Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at The Blue Shade. Danny declines, but Fields won't take no for an answer.
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
A trio of female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.
A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.
"She Made Them Do It" follows the twisted life of Sarah Pender, a charismatic, intelligent young woman who would become one of the country’s most sought after fugitives.
A misguided museum guard who loses his job and then tries to get it back at gunpoint is thrown into the fierce world of ratings-driven TV gone mad.
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.
A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.
Don Cheadle
Petey Greene
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Dewey Hughes
Bruce McFee
Prison Sign-In Guard
Mike Epps
Milo Hughes
Peter MacNeill
Warden Cecil Smithers
Adam Gaudreau
Escorting Guard
Taraji P. Henson
Vernell Watson
Cedric the Entertainer
'Nighthawk' Bob Terry
Martin Sheen
E.G. Sonderling
J. Miles Dale
Program Director
Sean MacMahon
Ronnie Simmons
Richard Chevolleau
Poochie Braxton
