Jack Santino

This documentary recounts the struggle of the Pullman sleeping car porters to form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black trade union in the United States. Through archival materials and interviews with retired porters, the film reveals the discrimination behind their famed “miles of smiles” service and the long fight for recognition and dignity.

Long before the advent of hip-hop as a multi-million dollar industry, African Americans were rapping and rhyming in the street, in their neighborhoods, and on the fish market docks in Washington DC. In this film, Lincoln Rorie and Jerry Williams use traditional rhymes--and make up a few new ones--to entertain their customers, sell fish, and make money. Lincoln, from D.C., was hired by Captain White’s fish market boat in 1973, and inspired Jerry, from a fishing family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to use rhyme to sell. It's a remarkable story about a creative tradition in an occupational setting, and about how the expressive spirit takes hold in everyday life.