Backdrop fallback

Roots: The Gift

Roots: The Gift

Share

Roots: The Gift

1988

1h 33m

7.3(14 votes)

Drama

History

TV Movie

Overview

On Christmas Eve 1770, a young African warrior, who three years prior had been captured and sold into slavery in America, leads a desperate group of runaway slaves as they attempt to reach freedom in the North.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Television

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton

Kunta Kinte

Louis Gossett Jr.

Louis Gossett Jr.

Fiddler

Avery Brooks

Avery Brooks

Cletus Moyer

Kate Mulgrew

Kate Mulgrew

Hattie Carraway

Shaun Cassidy

Shaun Cassidy

Edmund Parker, Jr.

John McMartin

John McMartin

Edmund Parker, Sr.

Jerry Hardin

Jerry Hardin

William Reynolds

Annabella Price

Annabella Price

Sarah Parker

Michael Learned

Michael Learned

Amelia Parker

Fran Bennett

Fran Bennett

May

Creative team

Directed by: Kevin Hooks
Written by: David Eyre
Produced by: Mark Wolper

Similar Movies

Christmas on Windmill Way

Christmas on Windmill Way

Mia Meijer gets ready for the Christmas Market Dutch Bake-Off and suspects that her grandmother, Ann, will walk away with the cherished Golden Rolling Pin thanks to her Kerststol, a traditional Dutch fruited Christmas bread. But Mia's world is rocked when she learns that Ann was having financial troubles and had to sell the land deed to the Windmill Way property in her family for generations. Making matters worse, the buyer is Mia's former boyfriend, property developer Brady Schaltz, who must let Mia and Ann know the Meijer family-owned heritage Dutch sawmill, renowned for the past 90 years for its fine millwork and beautiful wooden furniture, will be torn down to put up a luxurious resort.

I'm Charlie Walker

I'm Charlie Walker

1971 post civil rights San Francisco seemed like the perfect place for a black Korean War veteran and his family to realize their dream of economic independence, and a chance for him to be his own boss. Charlie Walker would soon find out how naive he was. In a city full of impostors and naysayers, he refused to take "No" for an answer. That is, until a catastrophic disaster opened a door that had never been open to a Black man before. This is a story about what happened when he stepped through that door with both feet.

The Man Card

The Man Card

For years, right-wing politicians and pundits have repeatedly criticized the left for playing “the race card” and “the woman card.” This new film turns the tables and takes dead aim at the right’s own longstanding – but rarely discussed – deployment of white-male identity politics in American presidential elections. Ranging from Richard Nixon’s tough-talking, law-and-order campaign in 1968 to Donald Trump’s hyper-macho revival of the same fear-based appeals in 2020, "The Man Card" shows how the right has mobilized dominant ideas about manhood and enacted a deliberate strategy to frame Democrats and liberals as soft, brand the Republican Party as the party of “real men,” and position conservatives as defenders of white male power and authority in the face of transformative demographic change and ongoing struggles for racial, gender, and sexual equality.

Marfa Girl

Marfa Girl

A disaffected Texas teen spends his 16th birthday getting high, hanging out and having casual sex.

Suite Dreams

Suite Dreams

New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more.

Deadlocked

Deadlocked

A young man is accused of rape and murder and placed on trial. His father doesn't believe that he is guilty, so in act of desperation he grabs the bailiff's guns and takes the whole jury hostage and insists that the prosecuting attorney re-investigates the crime that his son's accused of.

An Old Fashioned Christmas

An Old Fashioned Christmas

Isabella takes her granddaughter to Ireland to stay with a famous family friend for the holidays, only to discover that the best Christmases are simply spent with each other.

The Trap

The Trap

A woman becomes obsessed with a man she can't have, and carries the torch for more than 15 years.

We are like Oranges

The film can be described as an Alice in Wonderland- inspired saga. In the film we meet Josef, a young Afro-Swede in high school who, during a lesson, ends up in a dream world where he travels in time and meets people who contributed to the perception of racism in Sweden. The film addresses the consequences of his journey when racist classmates decide to take revenge as his new-found knowledge is seen a betrayal of the Sweden they know. The film also depicts how ethnic Swedes have been subjected to racism as well as how people in Sweden have worked against racism. The film is unique in addressing the less known parts of Swedish history. The main purpose is to demonstrate that it is possible to stop hate crimes through increased knowledge and that it is up to the individual to stand up for what is right.

23rd Street

23rd Street

After witnessing a tragedy on Christmas Eve, a young man returns to his old neighborhood seeking justice for the wrongs done to his family.

Home for Christmas

Home for Christmas

An old-time crook is unwittingly united with his long-lost son and 6-year-old granddaughter.

The GLO Friends Save Christmas

The GLO Friends Save Christmas

Blanche, the Wicked Witch of the North Pole, is jealous of Santa Claus. She imprisons him and his reindeer in an icy cage on a raging river, so they can't deliver their presents on Christmas Eve. Her timid sidekick, Moose the unimaginatively-named moose, tries to stop her, but she zaps him far away with her magic. The Glo Friends find out what she's done, and they set out to try and save Santa. They rescue Moose from a tree along the way, and Blanche tries to imprison them in ice flowers. But her schemes fail, as they reach Santa anyway, and face her in a final showdown to rescue him.

School Spirit

School Spirit

A group of social outcasts, stuck in weekend detention, find themselves stalked by their school’s urban legend who is set on killing bad students.

Blood Moon

Blood Moon

When Esme and her ten-year-old son, Luna move to a small desert town looking for a fresh start, they attract all the wrong kinds of attention. Esme must battle to protect her son and a terrifying secret before the next full moon reveals all.

Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored

Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored

A narrator tells the story of his childhood years in a tightly knit Afro-American community in the deep south under racial segregation.

New Year, New You

New Year, New You

A group of old friends gather for a girls’ night on New Years Eve. But as they begin to rehash old memories, many of the gripes they’ve been harboring manifest in murderous ways.

Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches

Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches

Acclaimed actors draw from five of Douglass’ legendary speeches, to represent a different moment in the tumultuous history of 19th century America as well as a different stage of Douglass’ long and celebrated life, while famed scholars provide context for the speeches, and remind us that Frederick Douglass’ words about racial injustice still resonate deeply today.

Boiling Pot

Boiling Pot

On a college campus in modern America, ideas that have long been neglected as "issues of the past" emerge as racial tensions and frictions grow between different student groups.

A Merry Christmas Match

A Merry Christmas Match

Corey Calvin lives in a ski village where she works at her late father's local antique shop, having sidelined her her big city dreams of becoming a theater director. When Los Angeles hunk Ryder Donnelly comes into her shop, sparks fly and she starts to wonder what could be.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis

A year in the life of a turn-of-the-century middle class family, leading up to the opening of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Recommended Movies

Mary

Mary

A miraculous conception. A merciless king. A murderous pursuit. Mary's journey to give birth to Jesus unfolds in this biblical coming-of-age epic.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans

In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron warriors. Fortunately, a group of three Mohican trappers comes to their rescue.

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

Uprising

Uprising

In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.

Gandhi

Gandhi

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

The Way Back

The Way Back

A small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.

A Call to Spy

A Call to Spy

The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.

A United Kingdom

A United Kingdom

The inspiring true story of Seretse Khama, the King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments. Seretse and Ruth defied family, Apartheid and empire - their love triumphed over every obstacle flung in their path and in so doing they transformed their nation and inspired the world.

Harriet

Harriet

The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

The Finest Hours

The Finest Hours

The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.

Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on revenge.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

Shirley

Shirley

Shirley Chisholm makes a trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.

The Eichmann Show

The Eichmann Show

The behind-the-scenes true life story of a groundbreaking producer, Milton Fruchtman, and blacklisted TV director Leo Hurwitz who, overcoming enormous obstacles, set out to capture the testimony of one of the war's most notorious Nazis, Adolf Eichmann, who is accused of executing the 'final solution' and organising the murder of 6 million Jews. This is the extraordinary story of how the trial came to be televised and the team that made it happen.

Starving in Suburbia

Starving in Suburbia

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

All the Way

All the Way

Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'

The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.