J.J. is a rookie in the Sheriff's Department and the first black officer at that station. Racial tensions run high in the department as some of J.J.'s fellow officers resent his presence. His only real friend is the other new trooper, the first female officer to work there, who also suffers similar discrimination in the otherwise all-white-male work environment. When J.J. becomes increasingly aware of police corruption during the murder trial of Teddy Woods, who he helped to arrest, he faces difficult decisions and puts himself into great personal danger in the service of justice.

Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

Pierce Mundy works at his parents' South Central dry cleaners with no prospects for the future and his childhood buddies are in prison or dead. With his best friend just getting out of jail and his brother busy planning a wedding to a snooty upper-middle-class black woman, Pierce navigates his conflicting obligations while trying to figure out what he really wants in life. MY BROTHER'S WEDDING is an eye-opening revelation (it is wise, funny, heartbreaking and timeless).

Charles Burnett, one of America's most highly regarded independent filmmakers, wrote and directed this domestic drama about a black middle-class family living in South central Los Angeles. However, there are no gangs, no guns, no drugs but instead a lyrical story that draws on folklore and the supernatural.
family tensions are already simmering when Harry (Danny Glover) arrives to visit his old friends. He exudes an easy charm, knows secret past and present and is soon installed in the heart of the family. However, as his stay lengthens, so does he begin to cast an even more malevolent spell, provoking turmoil, setting son against son, reviving past hatreds, and inflicting a mysterious illness.
Glover delivers a career-topping performance as the garrulous family friend, full of hidden menace, effortlessly evoking nostalgia and horror in the same breath.
As ever, Burnett provides a wonderful music track featuring gospel, blues and jazz and a cameo from the legendary Jimmy Weatherspoon.
'A slow-burning, soul-insinuating, 12-bar blues of a movie.' Tom Charity, Time Out
'Danny Glover is marvellous, and terrifying, as a charismatic old-timer.' The Times
(from the description on the back cover of the DVD)

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

美国公共电视台（PBS）为了庆祝“蓝调年”，以连续七天，每天将近两小时(含制作说明与相关纪录片)的大手笔，播出由导演马丁·斯科塞斯担任总监制的七部纪录片，统称为《布鲁斯——百年蓝调音乐之旅》。
Blues音乐是居住在美国的黑人在艰难困苦的生活中创造出的音乐风格。它发源于密西西比河的三角洲地带，起源于20世纪初，早期为人们劳作时的劳动号子。Blues最初主要是人声的叙述，后来才加上了乐器的伴奏，它对爵士乐、摇滚乐、乡村乐和西方音乐都有相当大的贡献。
Directed by
Charles Burnett (episode "Warming by the Devil's Fire")
Clint Eastwood (episode "Piano Blues")
Mike Figgis (episode "Red, White and Blues")
Marc Levin (episode "Godfathers and Sons")
Richard Pearce (episode "The Road to Memphis")
Martin Scorsese (episode "Feel Like Going Home")
Wim Wenders (episode "The Soul of a Man")