Sidney Poitier, one of the most revolutionary actors of Hollywood's golden era, is spotlighted in a captivating Apple TV+ documentary that explores the life of this iconic actor, director, and human rights advocate who, in 1964, made history as the first black actor to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Wonderful Apple TV+ documentary about Sidney Poitier
Sidney, the documentary produced by Oprah Winfrey, pays tribute to the life of Sidney Poitier and his invaluable role in the inclusion of black people in the film industry. He was the first. He was the first to refuse to accept roles that were undignified, submissive, poor, or villainous… At that time, those were the only roles offered to people of color, but Poitier rejected them all.
Born in 1927 in colonial Bahamas, in an environment where everyone was equal, everyone was peers, everyone was black. There racism did not exist and, therefore, Poitier grew up without any preconceived ideas about his race or his possibilities. In the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, he tells his father: "You see yourself as a colored man. I see myself as a man."
His entire life seems to indicate that, even when he first arrived in the United States and experienced rejection, he always maintained this idea about himself and honored it. As a result, both the world and the film industry had no choice but to evolve around him.
We know him from To Sir, with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Lilies of the Field, The Defiant Ones, Duel at Diablo… During his career spanning more than six decades as an actor and director, Sidney Poitier worked alongside great names such as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, James Garner, Rock Hudson, and Robert Redford.
All of this is told in this Apple TV+ documentary, made from the love that Oprah Winfrey feels for this humble and revolutionary man, in close collaboration with the Poitier family. In it, an older Sidney Poitier will explain his story firsthand and will include interviews with Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Barbra Streisand, among others.
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