A trumpet player, self-destructive after the death of his wife and child in a fire, befriends a crippled youngster and together they battle obstacles through each other's encouragement.

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.

Seemingly autobiographical story of a woman overwhelmed with trying to please everyone except herself, and not finding any answers until she's admitted to a rehab center by her parents. Eventually here is where she finds her answers.

The unintentional shooting by police of a star basketball player has profound personal, political and community repercussions in this acclaimed adaptation of the novel Hog Butcher by Ronald Fair. This was one of the more thoughtful urban dramas produced at the height of the "blaxploitation" craze. Also released under the title Hit the Open Man, it features the screen debut of Laurence Fishburne, who was barely a teenager at the time.