SHEFFIELD-The Ritz Theatre will honor the legacy of beloved film legend Sidney Poitier with a series of film screenings and discussions. The films–Stir Crazy, In the Heat of the Night, and Raisin in the Sun–will be shown Feb. 17, 18, and 19, at 7 p.m. Each event will also include an introduction or discussion by a local scholar or critic. Tickets are $10 each and are available at tennesseevalleyarts.org or at the door.
This event is timed not only to memorialize Poitier, who died Jan. 6, 2022, but also to commemorate his February birthday as well as Black History Month. Lee Murkey, a local film critic who will introduce one of the movies at The Ritz, says that Poitier’s importance to film and to African American history cannot be overstated.
“Sidney Poitier’s talent was immeasurably great, but it was the marriage of this talent and his love, care, and support of the civil rights movement (and the people in it) that makes him an indispensable figure in both the realm of cinema and African American culture,” said Murkey.
The first film in the series, Stir Crazy, will be shown on Thursday, Feb. 17. This film, which stars comedy legends Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, represents Poitier’s career as a director of comedy films. Arts and culture critic Vicki Basley Goldston will introduce the film.
In the Heat of the Night will be the second film on Friday, Feb.18. The film, which stars Poitier and Rod Steiger, tells the story of a Black detective from Philadelphia who helps with a murder investigation in small-town Mississippi. Film critic Lee Murkey will provide an introduction and lead a Q&A, exploring the history of Black policing in cinema.
The final film in the series will be Raisin in the Sun on Saturday, Feb. 19. In the film, Poitier reprises the role he originated in the Broadway production of the play by Lorraine Hansberry. There will be an introduction and Q&A by Dr. Karla Zelaya, Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Alabama. She will discuss both Hansberry’s play and how the performance fits into Poitier’s career.
These three films will provide a glimpse of the talent and presence that led Poitier to become such a trailblazing figure. “Poitier carried with him a distinct and unmissable dignity, a luminescent glow that was far too bright to be dimmed by the limitations imposed by the era in which he worked,” says Murkey. “His legacy is, in and of itself, an encapsulation of what it means to Be Black”
