Movies Directed By Robert Townsend
Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy
Directed by noted actor-producer-director Robert Townsend ('Hollywood Shuffle'), the documentary, which originally screened at Sundance in 2009 in the Premiere section, features interviews with prominent scholars, politicians, cultural critics, and a host of notable comics, including Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Steve Harvey, and Katt Williams. Why We Laugh' tracks the evolution of black comedy from the character of Stepin Fetchit and minstrels in blackface to the politically tinged humor of Dick Gregory, and from the television success of Good Times and The Jeffersons to the big-screen accomplishments of stars such as Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg. The film also turns a perceptive eye on the controversial career decision of Dave Chappelle and the implications of corporate efforts to capitalize on the massive success of Russell Simmons's Def Comedy Jam and Spike Lee's The Original Kings of Comedy.
Phantom Punch
"Before Tyson, there was Liston".
Ving Rhames, Stacey Dash, Nicholas Turturro, Alan Van Sprang, Bridgette Wilson, David Proval, Mustafa Abdelkarim, Troy Amos-Ross, Joseph Motiki, Neven Pajkic, Gord Rand, Rick Roberts, Egidio Tari, Jennifer Donison, Andelle Posival
DIRECTOR:From a Missouri jail cell to the heights of the world heavyweight boxing championship, Phantom Punch traces the turbulent life of Sonny Liston, chronicling his ties to the mob, run ins with the law, and the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death.
