#2. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist

Actor, singer and activist (also football star, lawyer and State Department blacklistee) Robeson was a unique figure in '20s, '30s and '40s American popular culture: a smart, gifted black man who saw nothing unusual in asserting himself — and paid the price for it. He was also the first black movie star to break free of servile stereotypes. Mostly, this was in English films, though he was also a sensation in Oscar Micheaux's Body and Soul and the screen version of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. They're all here, supported by a feature-length doc on Robeson's grand and tragic career.