You Must Remember This (1992) - full transcript
A woman and a friend of hers investigate the mysterious past of Uncle Buddy. Among his properties they find a trunk he had received and never opened before.
(instrumental music)
(upbeat music)
♪ This is a story that
I'm telling to you now ♪
♪ About a girl who thought
she had it all somehow ♪
♪ All she thought about
was only what to gain ♪
♪ She almost paid the price
for causing others pain ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You got to put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without truth in your life ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ Put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without truth in your life ♪
♪ You need to check the
way that you're living ♪
♪ Ask yourself, am I truly giving ♪
♪ When your history's a mystery ♪
♪ You're bound to repeat it ♪
♪ Learn to be true, that's
the way you defeat it ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You've got to learn your
lesson, learn your lesson ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
(door knocking)
- Yo, what up, Mr. J?
- [Female] Who is it, honey?
- It's just Alphonso.
- Just Alphonso?
That's cold.
- Hey Alphonso.
- How you doing, Mrs. J?
- So?
- So, Mr. J, Ella and I
are going to the movies.
- Ella, Alphonso's here.
- Uncle Buddy, come on,
we're gonna be late.
Mom, I finished the dishes.
- Please put a jacket on
over that skimpy dress.
- Amen.
- Okay.
- What are you looking at?
- You've got a piece of
spinach between your teeth.
- I do?
- Psyche!
- Bye, mister and miss J.
You're dead!
- Anybody see a streak
of greased lightning
run through here?
Might've resembled a girl in pigtails.
- We did.
And thanks.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- Hey.
- Your seat, madam.
Would you like something to drink?
Some (mumbling)?
- Oh Hubie.
- It's hors d'oeuvres, Hubie.
(laughing)
- Yo Hubie.
You gotta see this flick, man.
- What flick is that, Phonso?
- Cowboys ride the
plains in the wild west.
- Yeah, they should make
more movies like that
only with black cowboys.
- Well you know, I saw Danny Glover
play a cowboy once.
He was bad.
- Uncle Buddy, why don't they
make more movies like that?
- Well, maybe someday somebody will.
Maybe even somebody I'm
talking to at this very moment.
- Yeah, I could see it now.
Ella Jackson presents an Ella Jackson film
written, produced, and
directed by Ella Jackson.
- I'll be the first in
line to buy tickets.
- Check this out, Mr. J.
If I made a movie about
buffalo soldiers and Indians,
I'll call it Boys In The Reservation.
(laughing)
- If you ever make a movie,
I hope you let someone
else choose the title.
- What do you say, Buddy?
- I'm fine, Janet, you?
- You're in good company tonight.
- Not too shabby, not too shabby.
- You gonna win that championship, Ella?
- You know that.
- That's what I like to hear.
So what are you having?
- Why don't we get some
of your famous peach cobbler a la mode?
- And I'll have one too.
- All right.
- I don't want anything.
- What?
- I'm not hungry.
- You're a teenage boy,
you're always hungry.
That's what you do best, eat.
- Make his a double
peach cobbler a la mode.
- Yeah.
- Mr. J, you always doing stuff for me
and I never get a chance
to do anything for you.
- Well, friends can do things for friends
without expecting payback.
- But you bought a popcorn at the movies
and the snacks after the movies.
When do I get to be your friend?
- Every time we hang out together.
If you weren't my
friend, would we hang out
so much together?
- Well, no.
- I rest my case.
But if you really wanna do
something special for me--
- Name it, Mr. J, just name it.
- Take Hubie's advice, let someone else
choose the titles of your films.
(laughing)
- Come on, teamwork.
Pass the ball, Ella.
(crowd cheering)
- Face baby dance.
- Face baby dance, is that
one of those authentic
basketball sayings.
- Ella, pass it.
Over here, pass it, Ella.
Ella, Ella.
Pass the ball.
(crowd cheering)
- I was open.
- Move, Cindy, I didn't see you, okay.
- Yeah, right.
(crowd cheering)
- That was a real close game.
Very close, but we won.
(applause)
If we want that championship,
we're gonna have to do it
one more time, two weeks from today.
So, what are we gonna
do while we're waiting.
We gotta practice hard.
- [Team] Yes.
- You're gotta (indistinct) hard.
- [Team] Yes.
- Do you want this championship?
- [Team] Yes.
- I can't hear you, do
you want the championship?
- [Team] Yes,
- All right, see you in practice.
There will be no excuses, Tamara.
- Oh, coach,
I really did have to get
my braces tightened, see.
- Close your mouth girl, the
reflection is killing me.
(laughter)
- [Coach] All right, see
you guys in practice.
Ella, great game, great game.
27 points and every one of them counts.
- Thanks coach.
- Great shot at being the
summer league top scorer.
- Yeah, now that the
blazers are out of it,
Miller can't score any more points.
- But Ella, that's not
our primary objective.
We want the team to be summer champs.
This is a team, Ella.
- But coach...
- No buts, we live or die as a team, okay.
- Yes, coach.
- Ella, Ella.
- Daddy, daddy.
- 27 points closer to
that score and trophy.
- 27 points closer to the summer
league special scholarship.
- All right.
Another 19 points and
you are the summer league
scoring champion.
I thought you should name this girl Magic.
- Magic Jackson, I like that.
I gotta go tell uncle Buddy.
Bye.
- Ella.
- Yeah, mom.
Thanks, bye.
- I need to hit the books.
Wow, it is late.
- Well, why don't I make dinner.
- I really would appreciate that.
- Yeah?
How much?
- A lot.
- Mister and Mrs. Jackson,
just turn the lights out
when you leave.
- Oh, oh, oh, oh,
that Alphonso is so cute.
- Tara, now I know what's
wrong with your game.
- What's that?
- You're blind.
- Hi Ella, great game.
- Thanks.
- Hi, Alphonso.
- There she is, Ella, the gun Jackson.
The girl who never met
a shot she didn't take.
- Alphonso, what is it?
- I wanna know one thing, which is bigger.
The basketball or your head.
Your head wins again.
- The biggest thing
around here is your mouth.
- So, I bet you go on to uncle Buddy
to brag about them 27 point, huh.
- Well, he's not your uncle.
- Well, he's not your uncle either,
he's your daddy's uncle.
So there.
- I'm not gonna hit you.
- Yeah, right.
- Really, I promise.
- You swear?
- I swear.
In the words of the terminator
asta la vista, sucker.
- It's asta la vista baby.
And give me back my bag
before I terminate you.
- Truce, truce, for real.
Thanks.
Still got a big head though.
♪ You must remember this ♪
♪ A kiss is still a kiss ♪
♪ A sigh is still a sigh ♪
♪ The fundamental things of life ♪
♪ As time goes by ♪
- How are you, sweetheart.
- Hi, uncle buddy.
- I hate it when you do that movie stuff.
That's 'cause you can't do it.
- How are you doing, Alphonso.
- Yo, Mr. J, you know me.
Just trying to do the right thing.
- Doing the right thing,
that's fresh out there.
- Somebody's been watching
too much yo MTV raps.
(laughter)
- Ella, I can't take the
suspense, did you win?
- Yeah.
- Bad game?
- Yeah, I scored 27 points.
- Oh, you little devil you.
This girl's gonna win a
trophy for best shooter
and an Oscar for being a faker.
- Yo, Mr. J, speaking of Oscars,
we all gonna go to movie tonight?
- Yeah, uncle Buddy.
- We've already seen all the new releases.
- But we haven't seen 'I
dismember momma' part two.
No one's allowed under 17
without a parent or guardian.
And a barf bag.
(laughter)
- No, I don't think so.
- I can do with that.
- 'Cause I just remembered,
down at the Baldwin
they're showing some oldies.
And tonight they got a real goodie.
'Back in the preacher' a western.
- Oh, can't miss that one.
You know how he loves them shoot them ups.
- No, but this isn't just any western,
this is a black western.
- Yeah, like the stories you
used to tell Alphonso and me.
About the Criole Kid, the top 10 Texas,
the team tombstone, the toughest hombre,
west of the Pekos.
- North of Rio Grand.
- South of little big horn.
- The East of, East of...
- East of death valley.
- Yeah.
- Well, this western is really special.
And Sydney Pwadyer directed it.
- That means he's in charge.
- Yes, he was in charge.
But he's also acting, right alongside
Harry Belofonte and he was just brilliant.
He plays this cavalry soldier.
- No, don't tell, uncle Buddy, don't tell.
- All right, all right.
Just remember who told
you it was brilliant.
- Buddy, excuse me, I
just wanna know one thing.
Who died and left you cisco and ebrich.
- Yo, Mr. J, we're on.
I'll see you two after dinner.
I gotta go home, so I'm
gone with the breeze.
- It's wind, I'm gone with the wind.
- I knew that, I was just testing you
to see if you were still on your toes.
Now, I'm finna fade out of here.
Fade out of here, that
was a good one, wasn't it.
- Okay, there you go, Thaddeus.
- It's about time.
- Listen, I did a little something special
for you here in the back.
I saw it on Yo MTV rap.
I shaved in your initial, a big T.
(laughter)
- Oh, man.
- Well?
- Well, what?
- A man slays over a
hot stove to make dinner
for his family and this
is all the thanks he gets.
- Daddy, this chicken's great.
- Yeah, these dumplings make
me proud to call you nephew.
- Everybody thinks the
only reason I married you
is 'cause you're so good looking.
- Yeah, well, when you
get that law degree,
I may just quit my job,
stay home and just cook
plenty of this little good home cooking
so you can keep your strength up.
Go out there, make that big money.
- What if I decide to become
a public interest lawyer.
They hardly make any money.
- In that case, I'll keep
my job and we'll start
clipping those coupons for the Kernel.
- Don't worry, Daddy.
When I become the first woman in the NBA,
I'm gonna take care of everybody.
- Uncle Buddy, you should
have seen her today.
- Yeah, uncle Buddy, that ball had eyes.
- That's my girl.
- She was great.
That's why I was wondering,
what was going on
between you and coach
Dawson after the game?
- That was no big thing.
- I was concerned, you looked upset.
- Honey, what are you talking about?
- I thought I heard
coach Dawson say the team
lives or dies as a team.
- Yeah, well, she should
have said the team
lives or dies by your jump shot.
Thank you very much.
- Honey, do you think she
was being critical of you?
- Mom, she wasn't being critical
and why would you bring it up?
- It seemed to me she wanted to help you.
- If coach Dawson wants to help,
she can start by recognizing pure genius
when is right in her face.
No, wait a minute, is it helpful to give
the top shooter the blues
for being the top shooter.
How is that helping.
Seems to me she stopped being so helpful.
- Can I go to my room, I'm really tired.
- Of course you are.
- All right, but you still
have to clear the table
and wash the dishes.
- Fine.
- Maybe I'm the one who should
stop trying to be so helpful.
- It's not you, it's that silly coach,
that's who upset her.
- Excuse me.
(knocks on the door)
- Who is it?
- I want to be alone.
- Uncle Buddy.
- Uncle Buddy, I'm supposed
to be (distorted sound)
I thought you could use some company.
- Thanks.
- I wish I could have seen that game.
- You would have bee
there if you could have.
You always are.
Besides, I felt you cheering me
all the way from the barber shop.
- I was, I was.
It's great to know you understand.
You know, I've always
liked that Magic Johnson.
Got that smile, like being
a star was the easiest thing
in the world.
You know better
- I guess I'm not Magic Jackson after all.
- Yes, you are.
But magic is just one part of it.
Hard work, teamwork.
That's the other part.
- But what am I supposed to do.
Why shouldn't I take the
shot if I know I can make it.
- Ella.
- Okay, I know that being a
hotdog isn't a good thing,
but how do I know when it's the right time
to pass off or when it's
the right time to shoot?
- Ella, you've got a good heart,
you want to do the right thing.
I trust you to find your own way.
- Suppose I don't.
- You will.
- You think I could
find my way and still be
summer league scoring champ?
(laughter)
(foreign language)
- Alphonso, you wanna die?
- The shot was all false, just
try to knock it in for you.
What are you looking for?
- I found your little pea brain.
Let me knock that in for you.
- Best be prepared to (indistinct)
- Excuse me.
Excuse me, is there Buddy
Jackson at this address?
- Yeah.
- Don't bump the walls.
Put it over here.
- Say bye I heard some
white wild (indistinct)
- Thank you.
- Sign it right here, please.
- Absolutely.
- Who did this thing come from
Indiana Jones or something.
- Thanks.
- Mom, it's from Ella Du Champ.
- Ella Du Champs.
- What if it's from the Ellen Du Champs.
- That really would be exciting,
but it probably isn't from her.
- Why not?
- Honey don't you think uncle Buddy
would have mentioned
knowing the Ella Du Champs.
- Hmm, mom you're gonna
make a great lawyer.
- Yo excuse me but who
is the Ella Du Champs.
- He doesn't know anything.
It's so pathetic.
- Ella Du Champs was a
famous black movie actress
in the 40s.
Ella.
- Oh it's just a paper mom.
Uncle Buddy said she's the most
beautiful woman in the world
and I was named after her.
Actually you were named
after Ella Du Champs
and Ella Fitzgerald.
See uncle buddy was a
big fan of Ella Du Champs
and your dad was a big
fan of Ella Fitzgerald
and we had this beautiful baby
girl with a big set of pipes.
Alphonso I tell you when
this girl started wailing,
we thought she was gonna break
every glass in the house.
- Well, this girl is still loud.
but I guess she was much
better looking as a baby huh.
- Ha-ha-ha, that's so funny.
- Ella what are you doing?
- Oh I was just making a face at Alphonso.
- What are you doing with your hands.
- Oh with my hands I just wanted to see
what was in the trunk, you know.
I wanted to make sure that it wasn't
from the Ella Du Champs.
- Do you see the name
Ella Jackson anywhere.
- Uh-oh, somebody got snack.
- But mom, uncle Buddy won't mind.
- I mind.
- Oh please.
Okay, okay I'll leave it alone.
Come on Alphonso, let's
go and shoot some jumpers.
- You never give up this easy.
- Who said anything about giving up.
Uncle buddy will let me open it.
Come on.
- That's nice.
- Thank you very much, sir.
You have a good day.
- Thanks.
- Thaddeus, if you're still alive,
could you signal by moving
one of your checkers.
Can I give you a hint, this
is not brain surgery man,
it's checkers, move.
- You heard that old
saying, you study long
you study wrong.
- There's no point in rushing, Thaddeus.
The more you rushing, the slower he goes.
- But I believe that ice
moved faster than him.
- Couldn't move no slower.
- Hallelujah.
- Guess what uncle Buddy,
you just got a trunk.
- I do, where.
- Good one, Mr. J
- Uncle Buddy, come on.
It just got delivered to the house
and I told mom that you'd say
it's okay for me to open it,
but she's in one of those
everything by the book moon.
So I need for you to say it's okay, okay.
- Slow down, I got a trunk?
From who?
- I can't believe I forgot the best part,
is from Ella Du Champs.
- [Man] Aint there an
actress by that name.
- You really must be getting old
to forget a woman like that.
They used to call her
the colored Vivian Lee.
But for my money, if they'd ever been
in the picture together, by the end of it,
people would have been saying Vivian who.
- Well what's Buddy doing,
getting a trunk from an actress?
- Well we're not sure
that it's from her yet,
but I can't wait to find out.
- Come on.
- No.
- What?
- I don't have to explain
myself to you, young lady.
- And then Ella said he
just went off on everybody.
- You know how Ella exaggerates.
It doesn't sound like uncle Buddy.
- And taking no for an answer
doesn't sound like Ella.
I wonder why he doesn't want it opened.
Maybe it is from Ella Du
Champs and maybe uncle Buddy
was the hairdresser on one of her movies
and they had this mad
passionate love affair
and then she dropped
him and broke his heart.
- If she broke his heart,
how come he wanted us
to name our daughter after her.
- You know, you can be very annoying
when you're being logical.
- Thank you.
(soft music)
- Hopefully he will have calmed down
by the time he gets home
because I am dying to ask him about her.
Oh hi uncle Buddy.
- Linda.
Uh Joe, I can't lift that trunk.
Could you get rid of it for me.
- Without opening it?
- Yes, without opening it.
- Well, aren't you curious
about what's in it?
- No I'm not and I don't
wanna be cross-examined
about it either.
Joe just get rid of the trunk, okay.
Can a man get any
privacy in his own house.
- Uh, uncle buddy, we're gonna have dinner
soon as Ella gets home from the library.
- I won't be eating this evening.
- I don't know what he's so upset about.
If I got a trunk from Denzel Washington,
I wouldn't be going
around telling everyone
not to cross-examine me in my own house.
- Why would you get a trunk
from Denzel Washington.
- None of your business.
- Uncle Buddy.
- Come in.
- I heard the music, are you okay.
- Just feeling a little blue.
- No, Uncle Buddy, you
don't have the blues.
- Everybody can have the
blues every now and then.
- But that means you're
sad or you're hurt.
- No, I just think I'm a little tired,
been overworking.
I'm not as young as I used to be.
- Could I read to you?
You always read to me when I'm tired.
- That's mighty kind of you, Ella,
but I think I just wanna
let my brain go empty.
- I could help you beat the blues.
- No, thank you for caring.
I'll see you in the morning.
Probably by then, blues
will be all washed away.
- Okay, good night then.
- Night too.
- Okay ladies, I want you to take a second
and look around.
Go ahead look.
Seems the same, doesn't it.
Same old faces in the same old
gym with the same old coach.
Well it's not.
This is the first time that
we've all been together
in this gym to practice for
the league championship.
This is all new.
Are we excited about this?
- [Team] Yes.
- Are we excited about this?
- [Team] Yes.
- All right.
(whistle blows)
Hey.
Great.
Real good.
Cindy, that pass was right to you.
- I'm sorry coach, I was in shock.
- 30 laps.
- You play like you're in shock.
- Ella, get back in line.
Hey, 50 laps.
All right.
Oh.
- Uncle Buddy.
(slow music)
- [Voice Over] My dear Buddy,
if you are reading this
then I am gone.
Don't think of me as old and sick,
remember me the way we
were when we were young
and full of dreams.
I leave you my treasure, what
remains of all that we were,
all that you were.
May it finally mean as much to you
as it has always meant to me.
Love, Ella.
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.
You mean to tell me that
you went into Mr. J's room,
took out his letter and then read it.
I don't believe this, I
really don't believe this.
What'd it say?
- It said something about
her leaving him a treasure.
- A treasure.
We rich, we rich.
Okay you gonna be rich,
I'm not gonna be rich.
All right, you're gonna be rich.
- Alphonso, I don't want
you to strain yourself here,
but try and think if it
was that kind of treasure,
why would uncle Buddy wanna get rid of it.
- Well maybe uncle Buddy
don't know what's in there.
- If he doesn't know what's in there,
why is he so upset?
- Is there smoke coming out my ears yet?
- Alphonso, we've got to open that trunk.
- Okay look, now what I want you to do
is when you get to your spot,
I want you to fake your opponent
like you're going around,
pull back, go up and angle your shot.
Okay, now your turn.
Now, remember you gotta
get your arc on the shot.
That's what makes it good.
Fake, shoot.
Ella if we're gonna win
this scoring trophy,
you're gonna have to get
more fade in that fadeaway.
Now get the ball.
- Ella, Ella.
- Ms. Space cadet, let's go.
- Ella girl, you need to
get a grip on yourself.
- [Man On TV] She's chosen
curtain number three.
Lana, show our viewers what's
behind curtain number three.
(instrumental music)
- Alphonso, you gotta
come over, right away.
Okay.
(laughter)
- It's a snake.
- I think it's dead.
- I knew that.
- Wow, what is all this stuff.
- What kind of treasure
is this supposed to be.
Just a bunch of old BT stuff.
- BT stuff.
- Yeah BT, you know
like before television.
Action.
- Alphonso, this must be
from the Ella Du Champs.
- How do you know that?
- This is a film can.
Who else would have a
trunk full of film cans.
- Wait, it's the movie
about the creole can.
- The creole can, but I
thought he made that up.
- I don't get it.
Make my day.
- Alphonso, I think this is uncle Buddy.
- It is uncle Buddy, with a serious babe.
- Check this out.
Wow it's just like the same
one that woman's wearing
in the picture.
Wow.
(laughter)
It's Mr J and the Duke, the Duke.
- That's John Wayne.
- Mr. J used to be in the movies.
- No Alphonso, he made
movies with Ella Du Champs.
Uncle buddy was W.B Jackson.
Uncle Buddy was a director.
- Why he used to be Spike Lee.
- This is so incredible.
People could go into the tower theater
and see a movie that my uncle Buddy made.
- Well that explains why he knows so much
about the movies.
Yo, Ella, if Mr J used to be Spike Lee,
why don't he tell anybody?
I mean, Spike Lee always tell everybody,
"Hey, I'm Spike Lee", and
people already know who he is.
- Yeah, why is this
stuff such a big secret?
- Uh-oh.
Hurry up.
The hat.
- Get out, just get out.
Get out of here.
(slow music)
- So then the lights go back
on and the money is gone.
Who took it, the cheap
lawyer, the expensive lawyer
or the tooth fairy.
- The cheap lawyer.
- No, the expensive lawyer.
The cheap lawyer and the tooth fairy
are figments of your imagination.
Isn't that a good lawyer joke?
I figure going to law school
doesn't mean I have to lose
my sense of humor.
I think it's not good to let your studies
take over all your life.
I bet you never thought
you'd hear me say that,
huh Ella.
- Should I bring up what happened today?
- I think you've waited long enough.
- Guess where I was today.
- Where.
- Paramount Studios.
- Isn't that exciting.
- Yeah, I was sent over to fix a computer,
it wasn't anybody important,
just some executive.
And while I was there, I
kept thinking how you two
film buffs would enjoy
being on a real movie lot.
- Tell them who you saw.
- Oh yeah yeah, Mr. Spark.
The guy from the "Star Trek" movies,
the one with the ears.
He had on the ears too, I
mean it was makeup of course,
but there he was and there
I was walking side by side.
- Isn't that great.
- Yeah.
- Now the best part about this
was that they have these
buildings over there
named after important Hollywood people.
They have the Cecil B. DeMille building,
they had a Lucille Ball building
and I saw the place where Eddie Murphy
has his production offices.
Way to go Eddie, huh.
- Is everything all right with you two?
- Fine.
- Great.
- I think I'll take my evening walk.
- Are you sure everything's all right?
- Yeah everything's cool, mom.
I'm just gonna go do the dishes now.
- Was that our daughter
volunteering to do the dishes?
- I don't know whether I should be happy
or go get a thermometer.
♪ You must remember this ♪
♪ A kiss is still a kiss ♪
♪ As time goes by ♪
- At least you're still in one piece.
- Well nothing happened.
I mean something happened
but nothing really happened.
- Wait, wait, I'm missing something.
- Uncle Buddy didn't say
anything to my parents.
- Wow.
- Yeah but he's really mad at me.
Trust me, I can tell.
- [Mrs. Jackson] Ella.
- Yeah mom, I'm on the porch.
- Honey, uncle Buddy forgot his lunch.
Would you drop it by the barbershop?
- Mom, I've got basketball
practice in an hour.
- Then you have plenty of time.
Now here, I'm leaving this in your capable
but currently idle hands.
- Yes ma'am.
Alphonso, the barbershop's
the last place I wanna go.
- Ella, you and Mr. J are tight.
I mean, how bad could it be.
- [Commentator] Through four
and a half minutes of play,
the Dodgers lead the Pittsburgh
Pirates three to one.
Okay, here we go.
- Would you two hold it down,
I'm trying to hear my ball game.
- [Commentator] Heading for the Dodgers.
And the first Pittsburgh
drawback is hit hard
to the right side.
- Well, hello Ella.
- Hi.
- Hi, cousin.
- Hi Ella.
- Hi uncle Buddy.
Uncle Buddy, I brought you your lunch.
Just put it over the counter, please.
Thank you.
- You're right, this is pretty bad.
- Why is he treating me like this,
all I did was open his stupid trunk.
- Yeah, he's definitely overreacting.
Ella, what are you looking at?
- Nothing.
- You're crying.
- No, I'm not.
- All right, I'm sorry, it's my mistake.
- Is that all you can do
is just joke all the time.
- Hey I'm sorry really,
don't cry about it.
- I can't help it.
I feel like I hurt him
and I don't know why
or how to fix it or anything.
- Well maybe you're not the
one that he's really mad at.
- Yeah, right.
- I mean think about
it, everything was fine
until this trunk came, right.
And all you really did was find out
that he used to make films.
- Yeah, but why is he so angry about that.
- It's not like it's some deep dark secret
and he's gonna end up on America's
most wanted or something.
- That's how he's acting.
- Yeah, we just gotta figure out why.
- How are we supposed to do that?
- Why, why, why do I got
to come up with everything.
- Oh, great.
You know what I wish though,
I wish we could find
somebody who knew him,
back when he was making movies.
- There was a poster with
Ella Du Champs on it.
And it was the name of a theater on it.
- It was a Tower Theater in Los Angeles.
- Yeah, it's over on
Broadway and they still
show her films there.
- Are you think you and I'm thinking.
- Yo, it's worth a shot.
- Meet me here after practice, okay.
- Hey, got you covered.
- Alphonso, this is a brilliant plan.
- Hey, I knew that.
- I don't know this
doesn't look right to me.
- How do you know that's
supposed to look like
when you've never been here before.
- Are you sure you took the right bus.
- Look, Fo knows buses
to go visit my aunt.
I once took the bus all the
way to Bakersfield by myself.
- Well if we're lost,
you're gonna wish you stayed
in Bakersfield by yourself.
- See, that's (indistinct)
(speaking foreign language)
- Well, way to go Fo.
(speaking foreign language)
- Don't tell me, he flunked Spanish I.
- And barely squeaked by in English.
- That's real funny, Ella.
- Listen, can you help
us, we're trying to get
some information.
Have you ever heard of a film called
'Two Gun Lily' from Lenox Avenue.
- Sorry Senorita.
- Well, have you ever
heard of a black director
named W.B Jackson.
- Are you sure you have the right place?
- Yeah, he had a film that
showed here a long time ago.
- Before you people were here.
- We people have been in
California for 500 years.
- Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not what I meant.
I'm talking about before when
this was a black theater,
you know before it was a Spanish theater.
- Maybe there is someone
here that can help you.
- Boss, these (foreign language)
wanna ask you a couple questions.
- What?
- These ninos wanna ask
you a couple of questions.
- Come in.
- Hi.
- What's on your mind?
- Have you ever heard of a film called
'Two gun Lily' from Lenox Avenue.
- Heard of, I used to show it.
- Then you know who W.B Jackson is.
- W.B Jackson, I haven't
heard that name in years.
- He's her uncle.
- So you are W.B Jackson's niece.
- Yeah, did you know him?
- No, but I sure admired his work.
I used to show his films
back in the old days.
- Back when this was a black theater, huh.
- Back when this was a white theater.
You don't know what I'm
talking about, do you?
See, six days out of the week,
this theater showed white Hollywood films.
But on Tuesday nights, they
used to run the race films.
They were films made by colored folks
with the colored casts.
We were colored back then.
Tuesday night was colored night.
- Wait a minute, you mean
to tell me that black,
I mean color filmmakers only got a chance
to show their films once a week?
- Sometimes not even that much, son.
Remember, those times were even harder
for our people than today.
If a colored filmmaker even got a chance
to show his film at all,
he was doing real good.
Whenever we showed a W.D Jackson
film, the house was full.
Colored people from all over the city
would be in there to see him.
- Wow, his movies must
have been really good.
- He was one of the best.
And in my line of work, you know.
Of course, his films always
had Ella Du Champs in them.
And she was so enough easy
on the eyes, yes indeed.
You know she was even in some
of those Hollywood films,
but all she ever got to play was maids.
- But why Gus, if she was
such a good actress, then why.
- Ella Du Champs was a
gorgeous, intelligent,
and talented woman.
If they'd let her play what
she was instead of just maids,
they'd have had to look not just at her
but all other colored women
in an entirely different light
and colored men too.
Hollywood had a chance to
put an end to prejudice,
they just weren't brave or
smart enough to take it.
Hey this looks like my uncle Buddy's car.
- Hey Mr. J's car is a 54 Studebaker,
this is a 49 Ford.
- Finest ever built.
- Yeah girl, don't you know anything?
- Mr. Gus, do you have any
idea why my uncle Buddy
stopped making films?
- Believe me, it's no picnic
to be colored and have dreams.
I never met your uncle, but
I know from all the work
I've seen that W.B Jackson
put an awful lot of heart
into every one of his films.
Takes a mighty big hurt to
kill a heart that strong.
- Mr. Gus, see there's this trunk.
- Speak up, I can't hear you.
- We've got a copy of "The Creole Kid".
- You do?
Well have you seen it?
- No, but do you think that
there's anything in there
that could help my uncle Buddy?
- You mean you've been
asking me all these questions
and you got the film
and you haven't seen it?
What's the matter with you kids.
- Mr. Gus, we need someone to show it.
- What do I look like to
you, a race car driver.
- But we do.
Well we do.
Listen, what good is
it gonna do your uncle
if it just stays in the trunk.
If you want to he can drop
the whole thing right now,
I don't care.
But if you really wanna help him.
- I know, I know, I just
hate it when you're right.
- Since you brought the film, I figured
I shouldn't show up empty-handed.
Here's a little something
that might interest you,
my scrapbook.
Now this is Clarence Muse.
He used to act in race
films and Hollywood films.
And he had his own dude
rants down near Lake Paris
where all the black
celebrities used to go.
Folks like Joe Lewis.
You know who I'm talking about, don't you?
The brown bomber, the heavyweight
champion of the world.
- Oh, I knew that.
- That's Hattie McDaniel.
- You know who she is.
- She's only the first black
actress ever to win an Oscar.
"Gone with the wind", 1939
and there have only been
four more black actors
to win ever since then.
- See, we know a lot of things.
- Hattie was such a good actress.
She brought such bearing,
such dignity to those parts
that folks left the theater
talking about the maid,
not the mistress.
Of course there were some white folks
who felt she was too
familiar with her employers,
too uppity, that was their word for her.
Oh, listen to me rattling on
like we don't have a movie to see.
Okay it's show time.
- Yeah, "The Creole Kid".
Reel one.
- Did you kids put the tape on this can?
- No.
- Do you have any idea when
whoever did it, did it?
- No, why, is there something wrong?
- If it's old nitrate film,
which is what I think it is,
you got a problem.
Nitrate film deteriorates.
You may have a movie in here
or you may have a can of mush.
- Great.
- Well, can you open it
so that we can find out?
- As long as this can stay
sealed up, you're fine.
But opening this up is a job for experts.
You better talk to my friend
at the American Film Institute.
(knocks on door)
- Come in.
- Hello, we're looking for Ricky Sewell.
- Yeah, well you can stop looking.
Ooh do you smoke?
- Say what?
- It's bad for you and it's
really bad for the film.
Nitrate film stock, very volatile.
Gets near the flame
and all you've got left
is a bunch of stinking smoke
and some funky old ashes.
- Excuse me but didn't Gus Middleton,
the projectionist call you?
- Oh, you're the kids
with the W.B Jackson film.
Well, why didn't you say so.
Come on.
Well if she did a good
job of taping the can,
which she obviously did
and kept it in a cool place
like a basement, it could
easily last for 50 years.
- And if she didn't.
- Well let's just hope she
knew what she was doing, okay.
All right ready?
- Yes.
- Let's do it.
Oh something smell like rotten eggs.
- A little sulfur smell is normal, yeah.
Ooh, it's not sticky, it's nice and dry.
- Well, what does that mean?
- That means that Ella
Du Champs was as clever
as she was beautiful.
- [All] Oh all right.
- Now we can take a look at the film.
- Oh no, not yet.
It needs to be sent to the lab at UCLA
to soak in renovx for three days,
then we can run it just
once through the flatbed
and then we gotta get this baby preserved.
- Three days?
- Yeah.
- I don't know how we're
gonna last that long
with this whole mystery on my mind 24/7.
know what I mean.
(instrumental music)
- I just have to see this
opening one more time.
What a brilliant opening sequence.
- Seen that plenty of times.
- Yes now.
But a tracking shot with a running horse
had rarely been done in race
films and he did it looking up
at the rider.
- Yeah, you know right
away that the creole kid
is the hero.
- That's right, just like your uncle.
- Do you really think that
my uncle Buddy's a hero.
- I do, I absolutely do.
And you want me to show you why.
This was my student film
project when I first came here.
It's called the Hollywood hall of shame.
This is how Hollywood
portrayed black Americans
in the 1930s.
That's Ben Crosby in blackface.
- Hey, you're late, stupid.
- Oh me?
- Yes, right through
that door, stage three.
Yeah hurry up.
- Hey, what's the idea, you're late.
- But, boy I'm lucky to be here at all.
- Samson, get up or you gonna be late
for your afternoon nap.
- Now this is an Ethel Waters movie.
My goodness, maybe he's dead.
- Yeah from the neck up.
This will get it, lunch is served.
- Did I hear y'all say
something about lunch.
- You sure did but just
make believe I was fooling
'cause you ain't get none know how.
- Well I ain't did nothing.
- As jazz did.
- No kid it'd be no clowns snatching back
and stuffing sounds from the job,
put it down oh can't leave it later.
Bring it down, (indistinct)
- That's Steppen Fetchet.
- Is that his real name.
- Lincoln Perry's his real name
but he did lots of Hollywood films
as Steppen Fetchet.
This is him again.
- What's your name.
- I was baptized David Begets Solomon.
- David Begets what?
- David begets Solomon about saying
George Lincoln Watson.
- Well now listen, if
you're going with me,
we're gonna stick right to
the bible, you're a Jonah.
- Oh, I am...
- [Ella] That's Shirley Temple.
- [Alphonso] And Hattie McDaniel.
- [Rickie] Yes, and
Bill Bojangles Robinson.
- You aint got no money.
M-O-N-I-E.
- Not only that, we most out of F-U-D-E.
- They can't even spell.
- That's too bad, look here.
Wouldn't they K-U-N-E-L
give a little L-O-N-E.
- You know miss Elizabeth
wouldn't take nothing from him.
Why before she'd do that, she'd go to the
P-O-H-O-S.
- P-O-H-O-S.
- Yeah sure, ain't you got no education.
Poor house.
- Now compare that image to this one.
- [Alphonso] That Creole
kid was a straight-up hero.
- That's right.
W.B. Jackson, Oscar Michelle
and the Lincoln Motion
Picture Film Company
and all the other pioneers
were the real heroes.
They had to do it all
themselves from finance
to final cut.
People like your uncle,
Ella laid the groundwork
for us today.
- Then what made them stop?
- Well lots of filmmakers
stopped, Alphonso.
I mean once Hollywood got
the drift that black movies
were a good business, they
started making it themselves.
- But that doesn't explain
why he never talks about it.
And why is he hiding who he really is.
What happened to him?
- I don't know Alphonso,
but the sure thing
is that he's not gonna tell us,
so we're just gonna
have to figure this out.
- Well you know, you
could start right here.
We have one of the best film
libraries in the country.
- Well then maybe we can
find an old newspaper
or a magazine or a book or something
that'll tell us what
happened to uncle Buddy.
- Well now that sounds like a plan.
Meanwhile I'm gonna get
this film to the lab
and start restoring the picture
and cleaning up the sound.
- Ricky, I appreciate
everything you're doing for me.
- Oh please do you know how rare it is
to find one of these
black independent films
in good condition, it's our heritage.
And besides there is a little
something in it for me.
After you get your uncle
Buddy back, I want him.
25.
- Right I talked to coach Dawson today.
Appealed coach Dawson.
You missed practice, where were you?
- I was late and you know
how she is about being late,
so I skipped it.
- Oh well, why did you just say so.
No big deal, right.
Your team is just getting ready
for the league championship,
you don't need to practice.
- But I'm practicing now, Daddy.
- Ella, you made a commitment
to the team and to yourself.
Now you're 19 points away from being
the league scoring champion.
19 points, I've seen you scored
19 points in one quarter.
- Wow, I didn't know
you were keeping track.
- Well, I keep track
and so do a lot of other people.
Look baby doll, if you're the star
in the right high school
program, you can write
your own ticket to college.
- But daddy, maybe basketball
isn't the only thing
happening for me now.
- What's that supposed to mean?
- Nothing, never mind.
- This have anything to do with boys?
- No, daddy.
- Oh then what is it?
- Can I just practice my free throws?
- Yeah.
Uncle Buddy, how you doing?
- Evening, Joe, Ella.
- Hi uncle Buddy.
- I don't know what's
going on with those two.
They used to be inseparable,
now they can't get far enough apart.
- I don't know.
- I think I wanna talk to uncle Buddy
and get to the bottom of this.
- Jonah don't interfere.
Whatever it is, they need to
work it out for themselves.
- Yeah, I guess you're right.
- All right, I've called
around the country
to every museum and
scholar I can think of.
I looked at the credits
on all uncle Buddy's films
and I've come up with a list
of names of all the people
he's worked with.
- All right.
- Come on, let's go.
Come on, shoot it, shoot it.
- Sorry.
(instrumental music)
- That's a big day, we're
gonna take that championship.
- [All] Yeah.
- Break on three.
One, two, three.
(applause)
- Can you come over tonight?
- No, we're gonna go see a film.
- Now that's what I call a movie.
When that kid refused to join that gang,
I was so proud of him, I could have cried.
- You did cry.
Don't think for a minute I believed
you were really sneezing.
- I never cry.
- Oh daddy, remember the time we watched
the "Poseidon Adventure".
- I don't wanna talk about that.
(laughter)
- Ella.
(car hooting)
Hi, is this your house.
- What are you doing here Rickie.
- Well I could say I was just returning
the original reels from the
lab plus a gorgeous transfer,
but the truth is I was hoping
to say hello to your uncle.
You're a friend of uncle Buddy's.
- Not exactly, she's a friend of mine.
This is Rickie Sewell from AFI.
- Hi.
- How do you do.
- Is that the American Film Institute.
- Oh yes.
Oh, I have this for you.
- Well let me help you.
- No, it's okay dad, I got it.
- You're telling me that
my uncle Buddy, the barber
is in reality the filmmaker W.B Jackson.
Are we talking about the same uncle Buddy
who has never mentioned
a word of this to me
in my entire life.
That was great.
Ella, I understand why
you did what you did,
but I don't understand why uncle Buddy
hid this from everybody for so many years.
- Maybe that's none of anybody's business.
Maybe none of you know
what it's like to fail
so miserably at something you truly loved.
- But uncle Buddy, you didn't fail.
- Child, how dare you
tell me what to think
of my own life.
- Ella.
- Here, I just had conscious (indistinct).
- Alphonso, I think I've lost him.
Rickie came over with a copy of the film
and uncle Buddy walked in.
And he's so upset, I don't think
he'll ever talk to me again.
- Come on, it's gonna be okay.
- It's worse than ever.
- Ella, it's not your fault.
- I just feel so helpless.
- Hey, we'll think of something.
Tomorrow's another day.
- I finally got one right.
- Well, what?
- Tomorrow's another day and
it's from "Gone with the wind."
- Oh, oh, I knew that.
- Alphonso, you're always
here when I need you.
- Well, you know everybody's
gotta be somewhere.
- I'm really glad that you're here.
- I like knowing that.
- You know I couldn't have
done any of it without you.
All those phone calls
and all that research.
That's it.
- What's it?
- The research.
Come on let's go.
- Where are we going?
- To my house.
I'll use the phone upstairs and you use
the phone downstairs.
Come on, we have to find
somebody who knew him.
(instrumental music)
- Hello, is this Mr. Washington?
My name's Ella Jackson and I was told
that you might have known
my uncle W.B Jackson.
You did?
Alphonso, guess what.
- So give me the 4-1-1.
- I found somebody who knows him.
- You did, who?
- Buck Washington.
He was an actor in uncle Buddy's films.
- All right this was like
a miracle or something.
He's going out of town.
One more day he would have been gone,
but guess what.
- What.
- I get to see him tomorrow afternoon.
- Ella, wow, tomorrow.
Tomorrow's the game, the game.
- I can do both really.
Trust Fo.
- The tall tan Texan.
Wow, Ella that's one of
your uncle Buddy's films.
- I played the villain of the piece,
the corrupt sheriff and the employee
of the evil cattle band.
Oh you must be Ella.
- Hi.
- And I'm Alphonso.
- Alphonso, welcome.
Yep that's the biggest
role I ever did with WB
as we knew him.
I can't tell you how
marvelous it is to know
that he's still with us.
Please come, have a seat.
- Wow, you really done a lot of stuff.
The lady who let us in
said you had a long career.
- Well, it's been a struggle,
but it has had its moments.
I was the original banana in
the cornflakes commercials.
- Hey, I've never seen those.
- Well, perhaps it was before your time.
How old are you?
No, no, don't answer.
- Mr. Washington, did
you do a lot of movies
with my uncle Buddy?
- Well, I started as a bit player.
By two films later, I had
my first co-starring role.
- Wow, you must have been really good.
- True, but it was your
uncle Buddy who gave me
the chance to grow and
to become even better.
That was his style.
He assembled this marvelous
little repertory company.
Myself of course, the
fabulous Ella Du Champs,
Lester Lawrence, Juneberg Baker.
He's probably the funniest
man who ever lived.
It was just a wonderful team of actors
and W.B gave us the opportunity
to do what all actors live to do.
What black actors seldom
get the chance to do.
- What's that?
- Act, just simply to act
without being stereotyped
by someone's prejudice
or breathtaking lack of vision.
- Mr. Washington, you knew my uncle Buddy,
you worked with him.
You said that he was great,
everybody said he was great.
I don't understand, what made him quit.
- Well, your uncle Buddy
probably came closer
than anyone else to breaking
through the color line.
But in the end, I fear it broke him.
- What do you mean?
- Excuse me, Ella.
- Alphonso, I can't leave yet.
- Oh, yes your basketball game.
Ella, this is for you.
This is your uncle Buddy as I knew him.
- Wow.
Mr. Washington, please continue,
I wanna hear this.
- Well, I'll try to be brief.
It all started one day when
W.B came back off the road.
You see whenever we completed a film,
W.B would go on the
road from town to town,
theater to theater showing the film.
Well, this particular day he came back
with the most amazing news.
He had just made a deal with
two white Hollywood producers
and we were gonna make
a real Hollywood movie.
- Wow, my uncle Buddy
made a Hollywood movie.
Nobody's ever said anything about that.
- Less said, the better.
- Why, what happened.
- You know it takes only one straw
to break the camel's back.
So the deal for W.B's
Hollywood western was made,
contracts just been signed.
And the bigwigs, wow,
they were so slap happy
about all the new audience money
they're about to pull in,
they decided they'd
celebrate with a big party
at the country club.
Old W.B got all dolled up I
tell you, he knew how to dress.
He had Ella Du Champs on his arm
and they were looking
just as fine as you please
when they stepped out
of that rented limousine
and walked right into
that fancy restaurant.
But they couldn't get past the door.
- What?
- Why, what happened?
- Well, the Maitre D said
that colored weren't allowed
and W.B just laughed at him
and told him not only was he going inside,
but there was a dinner party
going on inside in his honor
sponsored by the head of the studio.
He gave him the man's name
and that waiter backed off.
- I bet he did.
- Well, he went inside to check.
20 minutes later, he came back
with the head of the studio
with a napkin tucked under his chin
and a champagne glass in his hand,
but he verified that he knew W.B.
- And then they let him inside.
- No darling.
The head of the studio said
there'd been some mistake,
that he hadn't known that W.B himself
had intended to come.
And besides, the party
was for the picture,
the picture.
The country club served only whites
but if W.B and Ella wanted
to go around the back,
perhaps they could set up a small table
and a couple of chairs
just in the kitchen.
It only takes that one final straw.
Ella and me, well, we kept
on doing Hollywood movies.
But W.B, I believe that was that straw.
- Great, we barely have
enough time to get to the bus
and get you to your game on time.
Well, Bo, you're really
close to blowing it now.
Hello Bo, are you with me
or should I have scotty
beam you up.
Hey, where you going?
- I gotta go this way, catch
the bus back to uncle Buddy's.
- Are you crazy?
What about the game, the
scholarship, the trophy.
- Alphonso, I hurt him.
When I opened up that trunk,
I opened up a lot of pain.
I gotta go back and tell him I'm sorry.
I didn't know what he had gone through,
I didn't know about his dream.
- Ella, talk to him after the game,
this is the big one.
You can't possibly make
it to the game on time
if you go there first.
- I gotta go now, you catch
the bus and cover for me.
- Cover for you.
Yeah, right.
- Doesn't it seem just
a little strange to you
that Buddy is not going to Ella's game.
I mean it is the championship.
And when I asked him
about it, he just said
he wasn't going.
- That is strange.
- It sure is.
- Good night, Buddy.
- Where is she?
- Joe, this isn't like her.
- I just want to know she's all right,
then I wanna kill her.
(crowd cheering)
- Uncle Buddy.
Uncle Buddy, please talk to me.
- I used to talk to you.
I used to talk to you all the time.
I used to think that you were
the only person in the world
who understood me.
I trusted you.
- Then why did you hide this from me?
- Because it was none of your business.
If you had just minded your own business
and left that full trunk alone.
- Then I would have never
found out who you really are.
People love and respect you.
Uncle Buddy, you're an
inspiration to people
making movies now.
- Who's been filling your
head with such nonsense.
- Buck Washington.
He told me how brave
and courageous you were,
how you wouldn't back down,
how those white men at that restaurant.
- Ella, you don't know
what you're talking about.
- I do, I know that no one
should take that kind of insult.
They hurt you.
I'm sorry.
- Oh, little girl, little girl,
I've been through much worse than that,
it never stopped me.
Ever since I first held
a camera in my hand,
I was on a mission.
I was gonna take my company to Hollywood,
get inside the system and
make the kind of films
we all dreamed of, where
I could show black people
as people.
Well it never happened.
- What do you mean?
- I knew the days of race
films were coming to an end
and I was determined to
keep on making movies.
I had gotten myself a Hollywood contract.
You know how rare that was.
They gave me more money to make one film
than I had spent in all my films combined.
Man, I had business at the country club.
It did hurt me, I can't deny it,
but it didn't stop me, Ella.
The next day on the set, I
pretended nothing had happened.
After all for them, nothing had.
My whole company was there, Ella Du Champs
looking lovely as ever.
She was all set to play
this female gunslinger
who falls madly in love
with this fearless sheriff
played by...
- Buck Washington.
- Right.
No sooner had we got the cameras rolling,
than these studio execs, the
same guys from the dinner
came strolling up to me.
They didn't like Ella's costume.
They wanted it shorter, skimpier.
I protested but then Ella stepped in
trying to protect me.
She said she didn't mind,
she could make a burlap bag
look good and she did.
Then they started on Buck.
Why I make this sheriff
so serious all the time.
Who's gonna believe a serious black man.
Why not throw in a couple of eye rolls,
a couple of knee slaps.
- But it was your movie,
you were the director.
- No, it wasn't, not anymore.
From the first day, they overrode
everything I wanted to do,
every decision I made.
If I managed by some
chance to shoot a scene
the way I wanted to,
they'd have their boys
in the editing room change it all around
to the way they wanted it to be.
the way they wanted black people to be.
Before it was over, Buck was
almost wearing blackface.
And Ella, my beautiful Ella.
She was dressed like a tramp.
To see her like that, to
see what they did to her.
- You couldn't stop it?
- No, I tried.
Oh I was able to protect
them from some things,
but in the end, they suffered.
Ella and I were engaged to be married.
And the dream I had promised
them, the dream of honor
and dignity and respect was dead.
All the life kicked and yanked out of it.
I failed them, honey.
I failed the people that meant
the most to me in my life.
- You gave them a start.
You were just one person,
you couldn't do it
all by yourself.
But you made a beginning
for other black filmmakers.
Their success is your success.
- Don't you have somewhere you have to be?
- I'm sorry uncle Buddy.
I'm sorry that I opened your trunk
and let out all those
memories and all that hurt.
I'm sorry that you couldn't
do what you wanted to do
for your friends.
(somber music)
Maybe you couldn't do it
the way that you wanted to,
but you won uncle Buddy, you won.
(somber music)
(crowd cheering)
- There's Alphonso.
- Mr. Jackson.
- Where's Ella?
- Oh, Ella.
Where's Ella.
- Alphonso.
- There she is.
- [Coach] Watch your passing.
- She's here.
- Sorry I'm late.
- Have a seat, Ella.
- But coach.
- I said, have a seat.
- I can't believe you're gonna bench me.
What about the game.
- You sit there and
think think about that.
- Hey, what is that coach doing,
She's sitting here on the bench.
- You're complaining about
Ella getting benched.
Two seconds ago you
were ready to kill her.
- Yeah, but that coach is gonna cost Ella
the high scores trophy.
- Come on guys, let's do it.
(instrumental music)
- [Team] Go Lakers.
- All right girls, we have
come a long way together here.
We got only a little bit further to go.
Are we gonna make it?
- [Team] Yes.
- Are we gonna get there?
- [Team] Yes.
- I can't hear you,
are we gonna get there?
- [Team] Yes.
- All right.
(applause)
Ella, I want you to go in for Tamara.
- Get out there.
- Two down in.
17 more to go, huh.
- It's okay, we'll get it next time.
(instrumental music)
- Come on, Ella.
You can do it, Ella.
Come on, Ella, come on.
Great pass, baby doll.
What, it was a good pass.
(instrumental music)
(crowd cheering)
- How many does Ella have?
- Uh 17.
(instrumental music)
Did you see what she just did?
- Yeah, of course I did, it was wonderful.
- What do you mean wonderful,
she just blew the (indistinct)
- She did what is best for the team.
You should be proud.
- Free chicken for my girls.
Free chicken for everybody.
- Daddy, I didn't make high score.
- No.
- I'm sorry.
- Ella, I'm so proud of you.
- All right hit the shower, Ella.
You too, Cindy.
- Thanks, bye.
Hey guys, wait up.
- Not this time, champ.
Somebody else has dibs
on driving you home.
I will take the bag.
- You played a great game tonight, Ella.
- I was okay.
It was my team that was great.
- Their success is your success.
Oh by the way, this
postcard came for you today.
- Ricky wants you to speak
at her film festival.
I'm sorry uncle Buddy, I'll
take care of this, I promise.
I'll straighten it all out.
I'll do it first thing in
the morning, even tonight.
♪ You must remember this
a kiss is just a kiss ♪
♪ A sigh is just a sigh ♪
- You're gonna do it uncle Buddy?
- Do I have a choice?
Louie, I think this is the beginning
of a beautiful friendship.
(instrumental music)
(upbeat music)
♪ This is a story that
I'm telling to you now ♪
♪ About a girl who thought
she had it all somehow ♪
♪ All she thought about
was all there was to gain ♪
♪ We almost paid the price
for causing others pain ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You've got to ♪
♪ Ask yourself this question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without love in your life ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ask yourself this question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without love in your life ♪
♪ You need to check the
way that you're living ♪
♪ Ask yourself am I truly given ♪
♪ When your history is a mystery ♪
♪ You're bound to repeat it ♪
♪ Learn to love is the
only way to defeat ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You got to learn your lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn a lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be without you ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
(upbeat music)
♪ This is a story that
I'm telling to you now ♪
♪ About a girl who thought
she had it all somehow ♪
♪ All she thought about
was only what to gain ♪
♪ She almost paid the price
for causing others pain ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You got to put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without truth in your life ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ Put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without truth in your life ♪
♪ You need to check the
way that you're living ♪
♪ Ask yourself, am I truly giving ♪
♪ When your history's a mystery ♪
♪ You're bound to repeat it ♪
♪ Learn to be true, that's
the way you defeat it ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You've got to learn your
lesson, learn your lesson ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
(door knocking)
- Yo, what up, Mr. J?
- [Female] Who is it, honey?
- It's just Alphonso.
- Just Alphonso?
That's cold.
- Hey Alphonso.
- How you doing, Mrs. J?
- So?
- So, Mr. J, Ella and I
are going to the movies.
- Ella, Alphonso's here.
- Uncle Buddy, come on,
we're gonna be late.
Mom, I finished the dishes.
- Please put a jacket on
over that skimpy dress.
- Amen.
- Okay.
- What are you looking at?
- You've got a piece of
spinach between your teeth.
- I do?
- Psyche!
- Bye, mister and miss J.
You're dead!
- Anybody see a streak
of greased lightning
run through here?
Might've resembled a girl in pigtails.
- We did.
And thanks.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- Hey.
- Your seat, madam.
Would you like something to drink?
Some (mumbling)?
- Oh Hubie.
- It's hors d'oeuvres, Hubie.
(laughing)
- Yo Hubie.
You gotta see this flick, man.
- What flick is that, Phonso?
- Cowboys ride the
plains in the wild west.
- Yeah, they should make
more movies like that
only with black cowboys.
- Well you know, I saw Danny Glover
play a cowboy once.
He was bad.
- Uncle Buddy, why don't they
make more movies like that?
- Well, maybe someday somebody will.
Maybe even somebody I'm
talking to at this very moment.
- Yeah, I could see it now.
Ella Jackson presents an Ella Jackson film
written, produced, and
directed by Ella Jackson.
- I'll be the first in
line to buy tickets.
- Check this out, Mr. J.
If I made a movie about
buffalo soldiers and Indians,
I'll call it Boys In The Reservation.
(laughing)
- If you ever make a movie,
I hope you let someone
else choose the title.
- What do you say, Buddy?
- I'm fine, Janet, you?
- You're in good company tonight.
- Not too shabby, not too shabby.
- You gonna win that championship, Ella?
- You know that.
- That's what I like to hear.
So what are you having?
- Why don't we get some
of your famous peach cobbler a la mode?
- And I'll have one too.
- All right.
- I don't want anything.
- What?
- I'm not hungry.
- You're a teenage boy,
you're always hungry.
That's what you do best, eat.
- Make his a double
peach cobbler a la mode.
- Yeah.
- Mr. J, you always doing stuff for me
and I never get a chance
to do anything for you.
- Well, friends can do things for friends
without expecting payback.
- But you bought a popcorn at the movies
and the snacks after the movies.
When do I get to be your friend?
- Every time we hang out together.
If you weren't my
friend, would we hang out
so much together?
- Well, no.
- I rest my case.
But if you really wanna do
something special for me--
- Name it, Mr. J, just name it.
- Take Hubie's advice, let someone else
choose the titles of your films.
(laughing)
- Come on, teamwork.
Pass the ball, Ella.
(crowd cheering)
- Face baby dance.
- Face baby dance, is that
one of those authentic
basketball sayings.
- Ella, pass it.
Over here, pass it, Ella.
Ella, Ella.
Pass the ball.
(crowd cheering)
- I was open.
- Move, Cindy, I didn't see you, okay.
- Yeah, right.
(crowd cheering)
- That was a real close game.
Very close, but we won.
(applause)
If we want that championship,
we're gonna have to do it
one more time, two weeks from today.
So, what are we gonna
do while we're waiting.
We gotta practice hard.
- [Team] Yes.
- You're gotta (indistinct) hard.
- [Team] Yes.
- Do you want this championship?
- [Team] Yes.
- I can't hear you, do
you want the championship?
- [Team] Yes,
- All right, see you in practice.
There will be no excuses, Tamara.
- Oh, coach,
I really did have to get
my braces tightened, see.
- Close your mouth girl, the
reflection is killing me.
(laughter)
- [Coach] All right, see
you guys in practice.
Ella, great game, great game.
27 points and every one of them counts.
- Thanks coach.
- Great shot at being the
summer league top scorer.
- Yeah, now that the
blazers are out of it,
Miller can't score any more points.
- But Ella, that's not
our primary objective.
We want the team to be summer champs.
This is a team, Ella.
- But coach...
- No buts, we live or die as a team, okay.
- Yes, coach.
- Ella, Ella.
- Daddy, daddy.
- 27 points closer to
that score and trophy.
- 27 points closer to the summer
league special scholarship.
- All right.
Another 19 points and
you are the summer league
scoring champion.
I thought you should name this girl Magic.
- Magic Jackson, I like that.
I gotta go tell uncle Buddy.
Bye.
- Ella.
- Yeah, mom.
Thanks, bye.
- I need to hit the books.
Wow, it is late.
- Well, why don't I make dinner.
- I really would appreciate that.
- Yeah?
How much?
- A lot.
- Mister and Mrs. Jackson,
just turn the lights out
when you leave.
- Oh, oh, oh, oh,
that Alphonso is so cute.
- Tara, now I know what's
wrong with your game.
- What's that?
- You're blind.
- Hi Ella, great game.
- Thanks.
- Hi, Alphonso.
- There she is, Ella, the gun Jackson.
The girl who never met
a shot she didn't take.
- Alphonso, what is it?
- I wanna know one thing, which is bigger.
The basketball or your head.
Your head wins again.
- The biggest thing
around here is your mouth.
- So, I bet you go on to uncle Buddy
to brag about them 27 point, huh.
- Well, he's not your uncle.
- Well, he's not your uncle either,
he's your daddy's uncle.
So there.
- I'm not gonna hit you.
- Yeah, right.
- Really, I promise.
- You swear?
- I swear.
In the words of the terminator
asta la vista, sucker.
- It's asta la vista baby.
And give me back my bag
before I terminate you.
- Truce, truce, for real.
Thanks.
Still got a big head though.
♪ You must remember this ♪
♪ A kiss is still a kiss ♪
♪ A sigh is still a sigh ♪
♪ The fundamental things of life ♪
♪ As time goes by ♪
- How are you, sweetheart.
- Hi, uncle buddy.
- I hate it when you do that movie stuff.
That's 'cause you can't do it.
- How are you doing, Alphonso.
- Yo, Mr. J, you know me.
Just trying to do the right thing.
- Doing the right thing,
that's fresh out there.
- Somebody's been watching
too much yo MTV raps.
(laughter)
- Ella, I can't take the
suspense, did you win?
- Yeah.
- Bad game?
- Yeah, I scored 27 points.
- Oh, you little devil you.
This girl's gonna win a
trophy for best shooter
and an Oscar for being a faker.
- Yo, Mr. J, speaking of Oscars,
we all gonna go to movie tonight?
- Yeah, uncle Buddy.
- We've already seen all the new releases.
- But we haven't seen 'I
dismember momma' part two.
No one's allowed under 17
without a parent or guardian.
And a barf bag.
(laughter)
- No, I don't think so.
- I can do with that.
- 'Cause I just remembered,
down at the Baldwin
they're showing some oldies.
And tonight they got a real goodie.
'Back in the preacher' a western.
- Oh, can't miss that one.
You know how he loves them shoot them ups.
- No, but this isn't just any western,
this is a black western.
- Yeah, like the stories you
used to tell Alphonso and me.
About the Criole Kid, the top 10 Texas,
the team tombstone, the toughest hombre,
west of the Pekos.
- North of Rio Grand.
- South of little big horn.
- The East of, East of...
- East of death valley.
- Yeah.
- Well, this western is really special.
And Sydney Pwadyer directed it.
- That means he's in charge.
- Yes, he was in charge.
But he's also acting, right alongside
Harry Belofonte and he was just brilliant.
He plays this cavalry soldier.
- No, don't tell, uncle Buddy, don't tell.
- All right, all right.
Just remember who told
you it was brilliant.
- Buddy, excuse me, I
just wanna know one thing.
Who died and left you cisco and ebrich.
- Yo, Mr. J, we're on.
I'll see you two after dinner.
I gotta go home, so I'm
gone with the breeze.
- It's wind, I'm gone with the wind.
- I knew that, I was just testing you
to see if you were still on your toes.
Now, I'm finna fade out of here.
Fade out of here, that
was a good one, wasn't it.
- Okay, there you go, Thaddeus.
- It's about time.
- Listen, I did a little something special
for you here in the back.
I saw it on Yo MTV rap.
I shaved in your initial, a big T.
(laughter)
- Oh, man.
- Well?
- Well, what?
- A man slays over a
hot stove to make dinner
for his family and this
is all the thanks he gets.
- Daddy, this chicken's great.
- Yeah, these dumplings make
me proud to call you nephew.
- Everybody thinks the
only reason I married you
is 'cause you're so good looking.
- Yeah, well, when you
get that law degree,
I may just quit my job,
stay home and just cook
plenty of this little good home cooking
so you can keep your strength up.
Go out there, make that big money.
- What if I decide to become
a public interest lawyer.
They hardly make any money.
- In that case, I'll keep
my job and we'll start
clipping those coupons for the Kernel.
- Don't worry, Daddy.
When I become the first woman in the NBA,
I'm gonna take care of everybody.
- Uncle Buddy, you should
have seen her today.
- Yeah, uncle Buddy, that ball had eyes.
- That's my girl.
- She was great.
That's why I was wondering,
what was going on
between you and coach
Dawson after the game?
- That was no big thing.
- I was concerned, you looked upset.
- Honey, what are you talking about?
- I thought I heard
coach Dawson say the team
lives or dies as a team.
- Yeah, well, she should
have said the team
lives or dies by your jump shot.
Thank you very much.
- Honey, do you think she
was being critical of you?
- Mom, she wasn't being critical
and why would you bring it up?
- It seemed to me she wanted to help you.
- If coach Dawson wants to help,
she can start by recognizing pure genius
when is right in her face.
No, wait a minute, is it helpful to give
the top shooter the blues
for being the top shooter.
How is that helping.
Seems to me she stopped being so helpful.
- Can I go to my room, I'm really tired.
- Of course you are.
- All right, but you still
have to clear the table
and wash the dishes.
- Fine.
- Maybe I'm the one who should
stop trying to be so helpful.
- It's not you, it's that silly coach,
that's who upset her.
- Excuse me.
(knocks on the door)
- Who is it?
- I want to be alone.
- Uncle Buddy.
- Uncle Buddy, I'm supposed
to be (distorted sound)
I thought you could use some company.
- Thanks.
- I wish I could have seen that game.
- You would have bee
there if you could have.
You always are.
Besides, I felt you cheering me
all the way from the barber shop.
- I was, I was.
It's great to know you understand.
You know, I've always
liked that Magic Johnson.
Got that smile, like being
a star was the easiest thing
in the world.
You know better
- I guess I'm not Magic Jackson after all.
- Yes, you are.
But magic is just one part of it.
Hard work, teamwork.
That's the other part.
- But what am I supposed to do.
Why shouldn't I take the
shot if I know I can make it.
- Ella.
- Okay, I know that being a
hotdog isn't a good thing,
but how do I know when it's the right time
to pass off or when it's
the right time to shoot?
- Ella, you've got a good heart,
you want to do the right thing.
I trust you to find your own way.
- Suppose I don't.
- You will.
- You think I could
find my way and still be
summer league scoring champ?
(laughter)
(foreign language)
- Alphonso, you wanna die?
- The shot was all false, just
try to knock it in for you.
What are you looking for?
- I found your little pea brain.
Let me knock that in for you.
- Best be prepared to (indistinct)
- Excuse me.
Excuse me, is there Buddy
Jackson at this address?
- Yeah.
- Don't bump the walls.
Put it over here.
- Say bye I heard some
white wild (indistinct)
- Thank you.
- Sign it right here, please.
- Absolutely.
- Who did this thing come from
Indiana Jones or something.
- Thanks.
- Mom, it's from Ella Du Champ.
- Ella Du Champs.
- What if it's from the Ellen Du Champs.
- That really would be exciting,
but it probably isn't from her.
- Why not?
- Honey don't you think uncle Buddy
would have mentioned
knowing the Ella Du Champs.
- Hmm, mom you're gonna
make a great lawyer.
- Yo excuse me but who
is the Ella Du Champs.
- He doesn't know anything.
It's so pathetic.
- Ella Du Champs was a
famous black movie actress
in the 40s.
Ella.
- Oh it's just a paper mom.
Uncle Buddy said she's the most
beautiful woman in the world
and I was named after her.
Actually you were named
after Ella Du Champs
and Ella Fitzgerald.
See uncle buddy was a
big fan of Ella Du Champs
and your dad was a big
fan of Ella Fitzgerald
and we had this beautiful baby
girl with a big set of pipes.
Alphonso I tell you when
this girl started wailing,
we thought she was gonna break
every glass in the house.
- Well, this girl is still loud.
but I guess she was much
better looking as a baby huh.
- Ha-ha-ha, that's so funny.
- Ella what are you doing?
- Oh I was just making a face at Alphonso.
- What are you doing with your hands.
- Oh with my hands I just wanted to see
what was in the trunk, you know.
I wanted to make sure that it wasn't
from the Ella Du Champs.
- Do you see the name
Ella Jackson anywhere.
- Uh-oh, somebody got snack.
- But mom, uncle Buddy won't mind.
- I mind.
- Oh please.
Okay, okay I'll leave it alone.
Come on Alphonso, let's
go and shoot some jumpers.
- You never give up this easy.
- Who said anything about giving up.
Uncle buddy will let me open it.
Come on.
- That's nice.
- Thank you very much, sir.
You have a good day.
- Thanks.
- Thaddeus, if you're still alive,
could you signal by moving
one of your checkers.
Can I give you a hint, this
is not brain surgery man,
it's checkers, move.
- You heard that old
saying, you study long
you study wrong.
- There's no point in rushing, Thaddeus.
The more you rushing, the slower he goes.
- But I believe that ice
moved faster than him.
- Couldn't move no slower.
- Hallelujah.
- Guess what uncle Buddy,
you just got a trunk.
- I do, where.
- Good one, Mr. J
- Uncle Buddy, come on.
It just got delivered to the house
and I told mom that you'd say
it's okay for me to open it,
but she's in one of those
everything by the book moon.
So I need for you to say it's okay, okay.
- Slow down, I got a trunk?
From who?
- I can't believe I forgot the best part,
is from Ella Du Champs.
- [Man] Aint there an
actress by that name.
- You really must be getting old
to forget a woman like that.
They used to call her
the colored Vivian Lee.
But for my money, if they'd ever been
in the picture together, by the end of it,
people would have been saying Vivian who.
- Well what's Buddy doing,
getting a trunk from an actress?
- Well we're not sure
that it's from her yet,
but I can't wait to find out.
- Come on.
- No.
- What?
- I don't have to explain
myself to you, young lady.
- And then Ella said he
just went off on everybody.
- You know how Ella exaggerates.
It doesn't sound like uncle Buddy.
- And taking no for an answer
doesn't sound like Ella.
I wonder why he doesn't want it opened.
Maybe it is from Ella Du
Champs and maybe uncle Buddy
was the hairdresser on one of her movies
and they had this mad
passionate love affair
and then she dropped
him and broke his heart.
- If she broke his heart,
how come he wanted us
to name our daughter after her.
- You know, you can be very annoying
when you're being logical.
- Thank you.
(soft music)
- Hopefully he will have calmed down
by the time he gets home
because I am dying to ask him about her.
Oh hi uncle Buddy.
- Linda.
Uh Joe, I can't lift that trunk.
Could you get rid of it for me.
- Without opening it?
- Yes, without opening it.
- Well, aren't you curious
about what's in it?
- No I'm not and I don't
wanna be cross-examined
about it either.
Joe just get rid of the trunk, okay.
Can a man get any
privacy in his own house.
- Uh, uncle buddy, we're gonna have dinner
soon as Ella gets home from the library.
- I won't be eating this evening.
- I don't know what he's so upset about.
If I got a trunk from Denzel Washington,
I wouldn't be going
around telling everyone
not to cross-examine me in my own house.
- Why would you get a trunk
from Denzel Washington.
- None of your business.
- Uncle Buddy.
- Come in.
- I heard the music, are you okay.
- Just feeling a little blue.
- No, Uncle Buddy, you
don't have the blues.
- Everybody can have the
blues every now and then.
- But that means you're
sad or you're hurt.
- No, I just think I'm a little tired,
been overworking.
I'm not as young as I used to be.
- Could I read to you?
You always read to me when I'm tired.
- That's mighty kind of you, Ella,
but I think I just wanna
let my brain go empty.
- I could help you beat the blues.
- No, thank you for caring.
I'll see you in the morning.
Probably by then, blues
will be all washed away.
- Okay, good night then.
- Night too.
- Okay ladies, I want you to take a second
and look around.
Go ahead look.
Seems the same, doesn't it.
Same old faces in the same old
gym with the same old coach.
Well it's not.
This is the first time that
we've all been together
in this gym to practice for
the league championship.
This is all new.
Are we excited about this?
- [Team] Yes.
- Are we excited about this?
- [Team] Yes.
- All right.
(whistle blows)
Hey.
Great.
Real good.
Cindy, that pass was right to you.
- I'm sorry coach, I was in shock.
- 30 laps.
- You play like you're in shock.
- Ella, get back in line.
Hey, 50 laps.
All right.
Oh.
- Uncle Buddy.
(slow music)
- [Voice Over] My dear Buddy,
if you are reading this
then I am gone.
Don't think of me as old and sick,
remember me the way we
were when we were young
and full of dreams.
I leave you my treasure, what
remains of all that we were,
all that you were.
May it finally mean as much to you
as it has always meant to me.
Love, Ella.
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.
You mean to tell me that
you went into Mr. J's room,
took out his letter and then read it.
I don't believe this, I
really don't believe this.
What'd it say?
- It said something about
her leaving him a treasure.
- A treasure.
We rich, we rich.
Okay you gonna be rich,
I'm not gonna be rich.
All right, you're gonna be rich.
- Alphonso, I don't want
you to strain yourself here,
but try and think if it
was that kind of treasure,
why would uncle Buddy wanna get rid of it.
- Well maybe uncle Buddy
don't know what's in there.
- If he doesn't know what's in there,
why is he so upset?
- Is there smoke coming out my ears yet?
- Alphonso, we've got to open that trunk.
- Okay look, now what I want you to do
is when you get to your spot,
I want you to fake your opponent
like you're going around,
pull back, go up and angle your shot.
Okay, now your turn.
Now, remember you gotta
get your arc on the shot.
That's what makes it good.
Fake, shoot.
Ella if we're gonna win
this scoring trophy,
you're gonna have to get
more fade in that fadeaway.
Now get the ball.
- Ella, Ella.
- Ms. Space cadet, let's go.
- Ella girl, you need to
get a grip on yourself.
- [Man On TV] She's chosen
curtain number three.
Lana, show our viewers what's
behind curtain number three.
(instrumental music)
- Alphonso, you gotta
come over, right away.
Okay.
(laughter)
- It's a snake.
- I think it's dead.
- I knew that.
- Wow, what is all this stuff.
- What kind of treasure
is this supposed to be.
Just a bunch of old BT stuff.
- BT stuff.
- Yeah BT, you know
like before television.
Action.
- Alphonso, this must be
from the Ella Du Champs.
- How do you know that?
- This is a film can.
Who else would have a
trunk full of film cans.
- Wait, it's the movie
about the creole can.
- The creole can, but I
thought he made that up.
- I don't get it.
Make my day.
- Alphonso, I think this is uncle Buddy.
- It is uncle Buddy, with a serious babe.
- Check this out.
Wow it's just like the same
one that woman's wearing
in the picture.
Wow.
(laughter)
It's Mr J and the Duke, the Duke.
- That's John Wayne.
- Mr. J used to be in the movies.
- No Alphonso, he made
movies with Ella Du Champs.
Uncle buddy was W.B Jackson.
Uncle Buddy was a director.
- Why he used to be Spike Lee.
- This is so incredible.
People could go into the tower theater
and see a movie that my uncle Buddy made.
- Well that explains why he knows so much
about the movies.
Yo, Ella, if Mr J used to be Spike Lee,
why don't he tell anybody?
I mean, Spike Lee always tell everybody,
"Hey, I'm Spike Lee", and
people already know who he is.
- Yeah, why is this
stuff such a big secret?
- Uh-oh.
Hurry up.
The hat.
- Get out, just get out.
Get out of here.
(slow music)
- So then the lights go back
on and the money is gone.
Who took it, the cheap
lawyer, the expensive lawyer
or the tooth fairy.
- The cheap lawyer.
- No, the expensive lawyer.
The cheap lawyer and the tooth fairy
are figments of your imagination.
Isn't that a good lawyer joke?
I figure going to law school
doesn't mean I have to lose
my sense of humor.
I think it's not good to let your studies
take over all your life.
I bet you never thought
you'd hear me say that,
huh Ella.
- Should I bring up what happened today?
- I think you've waited long enough.
- Guess where I was today.
- Where.
- Paramount Studios.
- Isn't that exciting.
- Yeah, I was sent over to fix a computer,
it wasn't anybody important,
just some executive.
And while I was there, I
kept thinking how you two
film buffs would enjoy
being on a real movie lot.
- Tell them who you saw.
- Oh yeah yeah, Mr. Spark.
The guy from the "Star Trek" movies,
the one with the ears.
He had on the ears too, I
mean it was makeup of course,
but there he was and there
I was walking side by side.
- Isn't that great.
- Yeah.
- Now the best part about this
was that they have these
buildings over there
named after important Hollywood people.
They have the Cecil B. DeMille building,
they had a Lucille Ball building
and I saw the place where Eddie Murphy
has his production offices.
Way to go Eddie, huh.
- Is everything all right with you two?
- Fine.
- Great.
- I think I'll take my evening walk.
- Are you sure everything's all right?
- Yeah everything's cool, mom.
I'm just gonna go do the dishes now.
- Was that our daughter
volunteering to do the dishes?
- I don't know whether I should be happy
or go get a thermometer.
♪ You must remember this ♪
♪ A kiss is still a kiss ♪
♪ As time goes by ♪
- At least you're still in one piece.
- Well nothing happened.
I mean something happened
but nothing really happened.
- Wait, wait, I'm missing something.
- Uncle Buddy didn't say
anything to my parents.
- Wow.
- Yeah but he's really mad at me.
Trust me, I can tell.
- [Mrs. Jackson] Ella.
- Yeah mom, I'm on the porch.
- Honey, uncle Buddy forgot his lunch.
Would you drop it by the barbershop?
- Mom, I've got basketball
practice in an hour.
- Then you have plenty of time.
Now here, I'm leaving this in your capable
but currently idle hands.
- Yes ma'am.
Alphonso, the barbershop's
the last place I wanna go.
- Ella, you and Mr. J are tight.
I mean, how bad could it be.
- [Commentator] Through four
and a half minutes of play,
the Dodgers lead the Pittsburgh
Pirates three to one.
Okay, here we go.
- Would you two hold it down,
I'm trying to hear my ball game.
- [Commentator] Heading for the Dodgers.
And the first Pittsburgh
drawback is hit hard
to the right side.
- Well, hello Ella.
- Hi.
- Hi, cousin.
- Hi Ella.
- Hi uncle Buddy.
Uncle Buddy, I brought you your lunch.
Just put it over the counter, please.
Thank you.
- You're right, this is pretty bad.
- Why is he treating me like this,
all I did was open his stupid trunk.
- Yeah, he's definitely overreacting.
Ella, what are you looking at?
- Nothing.
- You're crying.
- No, I'm not.
- All right, I'm sorry, it's my mistake.
- Is that all you can do
is just joke all the time.
- Hey I'm sorry really,
don't cry about it.
- I can't help it.
I feel like I hurt him
and I don't know why
or how to fix it or anything.
- Well maybe you're not the
one that he's really mad at.
- Yeah, right.
- I mean think about
it, everything was fine
until this trunk came, right.
And all you really did was find out
that he used to make films.
- Yeah, but why is he so angry about that.
- It's not like it's some deep dark secret
and he's gonna end up on America's
most wanted or something.
- That's how he's acting.
- Yeah, we just gotta figure out why.
- How are we supposed to do that?
- Why, why, why do I got
to come up with everything.
- Oh, great.
You know what I wish though,
I wish we could find
somebody who knew him,
back when he was making movies.
- There was a poster with
Ella Du Champs on it.
And it was the name of a theater on it.
- It was a Tower Theater in Los Angeles.
- Yeah, it's over on
Broadway and they still
show her films there.
- Are you think you and I'm thinking.
- Yo, it's worth a shot.
- Meet me here after practice, okay.
- Hey, got you covered.
- Alphonso, this is a brilliant plan.
- Hey, I knew that.
- I don't know this
doesn't look right to me.
- How do you know that's
supposed to look like
when you've never been here before.
- Are you sure you took the right bus.
- Look, Fo knows buses
to go visit my aunt.
I once took the bus all the
way to Bakersfield by myself.
- Well if we're lost,
you're gonna wish you stayed
in Bakersfield by yourself.
- See, that's (indistinct)
(speaking foreign language)
- Well, way to go Fo.
(speaking foreign language)
- Don't tell me, he flunked Spanish I.
- And barely squeaked by in English.
- That's real funny, Ella.
- Listen, can you help
us, we're trying to get
some information.
Have you ever heard of a film called
'Two Gun Lily' from Lenox Avenue.
- Sorry Senorita.
- Well, have you ever
heard of a black director
named W.B Jackson.
- Are you sure you have the right place?
- Yeah, he had a film that
showed here a long time ago.
- Before you people were here.
- We people have been in
California for 500 years.
- Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not what I meant.
I'm talking about before when
this was a black theater,
you know before it was a Spanish theater.
- Maybe there is someone
here that can help you.
- Boss, these (foreign language)
wanna ask you a couple questions.
- What?
- These ninos wanna ask
you a couple of questions.
- Come in.
- Hi.
- What's on your mind?
- Have you ever heard of a film called
'Two gun Lily' from Lenox Avenue.
- Heard of, I used to show it.
- Then you know who W.B Jackson is.
- W.B Jackson, I haven't
heard that name in years.
- He's her uncle.
- So you are W.B Jackson's niece.
- Yeah, did you know him?
- No, but I sure admired his work.
I used to show his films
back in the old days.
- Back when this was a black theater, huh.
- Back when this was a white theater.
You don't know what I'm
talking about, do you?
See, six days out of the week,
this theater showed white Hollywood films.
But on Tuesday nights, they
used to run the race films.
They were films made by colored folks
with the colored casts.
We were colored back then.
Tuesday night was colored night.
- Wait a minute, you mean
to tell me that black,
I mean color filmmakers only got a chance
to show their films once a week?
- Sometimes not even that much, son.
Remember, those times were even harder
for our people than today.
If a colored filmmaker even got a chance
to show his film at all,
he was doing real good.
Whenever we showed a W.D Jackson
film, the house was full.
Colored people from all over the city
would be in there to see him.
- Wow, his movies must
have been really good.
- He was one of the best.
And in my line of work, you know.
Of course, his films always
had Ella Du Champs in them.
And she was so enough easy
on the eyes, yes indeed.
You know she was even in some
of those Hollywood films,
but all she ever got to play was maids.
- But why Gus, if she was
such a good actress, then why.
- Ella Du Champs was a
gorgeous, intelligent,
and talented woman.
If they'd let her play what
she was instead of just maids,
they'd have had to look not just at her
but all other colored women
in an entirely different light
and colored men too.
Hollywood had a chance to
put an end to prejudice,
they just weren't brave or
smart enough to take it.
Hey this looks like my uncle Buddy's car.
- Hey Mr. J's car is a 54 Studebaker,
this is a 49 Ford.
- Finest ever built.
- Yeah girl, don't you know anything?
- Mr. Gus, do you have any
idea why my uncle Buddy
stopped making films?
- Believe me, it's no picnic
to be colored and have dreams.
I never met your uncle, but
I know from all the work
I've seen that W.B Jackson
put an awful lot of heart
into every one of his films.
Takes a mighty big hurt to
kill a heart that strong.
- Mr. Gus, see there's this trunk.
- Speak up, I can't hear you.
- We've got a copy of "The Creole Kid".
- You do?
Well have you seen it?
- No, but do you think that
there's anything in there
that could help my uncle Buddy?
- You mean you've been
asking me all these questions
and you got the film
and you haven't seen it?
What's the matter with you kids.
- Mr. Gus, we need someone to show it.
- What do I look like to
you, a race car driver.
- But we do.
Well we do.
Listen, what good is
it gonna do your uncle
if it just stays in the trunk.
If you want to he can drop
the whole thing right now,
I don't care.
But if you really wanna help him.
- I know, I know, I just
hate it when you're right.
- Since you brought the film, I figured
I shouldn't show up empty-handed.
Here's a little something
that might interest you,
my scrapbook.
Now this is Clarence Muse.
He used to act in race
films and Hollywood films.
And he had his own dude
rants down near Lake Paris
where all the black
celebrities used to go.
Folks like Joe Lewis.
You know who I'm talking about, don't you?
The brown bomber, the heavyweight
champion of the world.
- Oh, I knew that.
- That's Hattie McDaniel.
- You know who she is.
- She's only the first black
actress ever to win an Oscar.
"Gone with the wind", 1939
and there have only been
four more black actors
to win ever since then.
- See, we know a lot of things.
- Hattie was such a good actress.
She brought such bearing,
such dignity to those parts
that folks left the theater
talking about the maid,
not the mistress.
Of course there were some white folks
who felt she was too
familiar with her employers,
too uppity, that was their word for her.
Oh, listen to me rattling on
like we don't have a movie to see.
Okay it's show time.
- Yeah, "The Creole Kid".
Reel one.
- Did you kids put the tape on this can?
- No.
- Do you have any idea when
whoever did it, did it?
- No, why, is there something wrong?
- If it's old nitrate film,
which is what I think it is,
you got a problem.
Nitrate film deteriorates.
You may have a movie in here
or you may have a can of mush.
- Great.
- Well, can you open it
so that we can find out?
- As long as this can stay
sealed up, you're fine.
But opening this up is a job for experts.
You better talk to my friend
at the American Film Institute.
(knocks on door)
- Come in.
- Hello, we're looking for Ricky Sewell.
- Yeah, well you can stop looking.
Ooh do you smoke?
- Say what?
- It's bad for you and it's
really bad for the film.
Nitrate film stock, very volatile.
Gets near the flame
and all you've got left
is a bunch of stinking smoke
and some funky old ashes.
- Excuse me but didn't Gus Middleton,
the projectionist call you?
- Oh, you're the kids
with the W.B Jackson film.
Well, why didn't you say so.
Come on.
Well if she did a good
job of taping the can,
which she obviously did
and kept it in a cool place
like a basement, it could
easily last for 50 years.
- And if she didn't.
- Well let's just hope she
knew what she was doing, okay.
All right ready?
- Yes.
- Let's do it.
Oh something smell like rotten eggs.
- A little sulfur smell is normal, yeah.
Ooh, it's not sticky, it's nice and dry.
- Well, what does that mean?
- That means that Ella
Du Champs was as clever
as she was beautiful.
- [All] Oh all right.
- Now we can take a look at the film.
- Oh no, not yet.
It needs to be sent to the lab at UCLA
to soak in renovx for three days,
then we can run it just
once through the flatbed
and then we gotta get this baby preserved.
- Three days?
- Yeah.
- I don't know how we're
gonna last that long
with this whole mystery on my mind 24/7.
know what I mean.
(instrumental music)
- I just have to see this
opening one more time.
What a brilliant opening sequence.
- Seen that plenty of times.
- Yes now.
But a tracking shot with a running horse
had rarely been done in race
films and he did it looking up
at the rider.
- Yeah, you know right
away that the creole kid
is the hero.
- That's right, just like your uncle.
- Do you really think that
my uncle Buddy's a hero.
- I do, I absolutely do.
And you want me to show you why.
This was my student film
project when I first came here.
It's called the Hollywood hall of shame.
This is how Hollywood
portrayed black Americans
in the 1930s.
That's Ben Crosby in blackface.
- Hey, you're late, stupid.
- Oh me?
- Yes, right through
that door, stage three.
Yeah hurry up.
- Hey, what's the idea, you're late.
- But, boy I'm lucky to be here at all.
- Samson, get up or you gonna be late
for your afternoon nap.
- Now this is an Ethel Waters movie.
My goodness, maybe he's dead.
- Yeah from the neck up.
This will get it, lunch is served.
- Did I hear y'all say
something about lunch.
- You sure did but just
make believe I was fooling
'cause you ain't get none know how.
- Well I ain't did nothing.
- As jazz did.
- No kid it'd be no clowns snatching back
and stuffing sounds from the job,
put it down oh can't leave it later.
Bring it down, (indistinct)
- That's Steppen Fetchet.
- Is that his real name.
- Lincoln Perry's his real name
but he did lots of Hollywood films
as Steppen Fetchet.
This is him again.
- What's your name.
- I was baptized David Begets Solomon.
- David Begets what?
- David begets Solomon about saying
George Lincoln Watson.
- Well now listen, if
you're going with me,
we're gonna stick right to
the bible, you're a Jonah.
- Oh, I am...
- [Ella] That's Shirley Temple.
- [Alphonso] And Hattie McDaniel.
- [Rickie] Yes, and
Bill Bojangles Robinson.
- You aint got no money.
M-O-N-I-E.
- Not only that, we most out of F-U-D-E.
- They can't even spell.
- That's too bad, look here.
Wouldn't they K-U-N-E-L
give a little L-O-N-E.
- You know miss Elizabeth
wouldn't take nothing from him.
Why before she'd do that, she'd go to the
P-O-H-O-S.
- P-O-H-O-S.
- Yeah sure, ain't you got no education.
Poor house.
- Now compare that image to this one.
- [Alphonso] That Creole
kid was a straight-up hero.
- That's right.
W.B. Jackson, Oscar Michelle
and the Lincoln Motion
Picture Film Company
and all the other pioneers
were the real heroes.
They had to do it all
themselves from finance
to final cut.
People like your uncle,
Ella laid the groundwork
for us today.
- Then what made them stop?
- Well lots of filmmakers
stopped, Alphonso.
I mean once Hollywood got
the drift that black movies
were a good business, they
started making it themselves.
- But that doesn't explain
why he never talks about it.
And why is he hiding who he really is.
What happened to him?
- I don't know Alphonso,
but the sure thing
is that he's not gonna tell us,
so we're just gonna
have to figure this out.
- Well you know, you
could start right here.
We have one of the best film
libraries in the country.
- Well then maybe we can
find an old newspaper
or a magazine or a book or something
that'll tell us what
happened to uncle Buddy.
- Well now that sounds like a plan.
Meanwhile I'm gonna get
this film to the lab
and start restoring the picture
and cleaning up the sound.
- Ricky, I appreciate
everything you're doing for me.
- Oh please do you know how rare it is
to find one of these
black independent films
in good condition, it's our heritage.
And besides there is a little
something in it for me.
After you get your uncle
Buddy back, I want him.
25.
- Right I talked to coach Dawson today.
Appealed coach Dawson.
You missed practice, where were you?
- I was late and you know
how she is about being late,
so I skipped it.
- Oh well, why did you just say so.
No big deal, right.
Your team is just getting ready
for the league championship,
you don't need to practice.
- But I'm practicing now, Daddy.
- Ella, you made a commitment
to the team and to yourself.
Now you're 19 points away from being
the league scoring champion.
19 points, I've seen you scored
19 points in one quarter.
- Wow, I didn't know
you were keeping track.
- Well, I keep track
and so do a lot of other people.
Look baby doll, if you're the star
in the right high school
program, you can write
your own ticket to college.
- But daddy, maybe basketball
isn't the only thing
happening for me now.
- What's that supposed to mean?
- Nothing, never mind.
- This have anything to do with boys?
- No, daddy.
- Oh then what is it?
- Can I just practice my free throws?
- Yeah.
Uncle Buddy, how you doing?
- Evening, Joe, Ella.
- Hi uncle Buddy.
- I don't know what's
going on with those two.
They used to be inseparable,
now they can't get far enough apart.
- I don't know.
- I think I wanna talk to uncle Buddy
and get to the bottom of this.
- Jonah don't interfere.
Whatever it is, they need to
work it out for themselves.
- Yeah, I guess you're right.
- All right, I've called
around the country
to every museum and
scholar I can think of.
I looked at the credits
on all uncle Buddy's films
and I've come up with a list
of names of all the people
he's worked with.
- All right.
- Come on, let's go.
Come on, shoot it, shoot it.
- Sorry.
(instrumental music)
- That's a big day, we're
gonna take that championship.
- [All] Yeah.
- Break on three.
One, two, three.
(applause)
- Can you come over tonight?
- No, we're gonna go see a film.
- Now that's what I call a movie.
When that kid refused to join that gang,
I was so proud of him, I could have cried.
- You did cry.
Don't think for a minute I believed
you were really sneezing.
- I never cry.
- Oh daddy, remember the time we watched
the "Poseidon Adventure".
- I don't wanna talk about that.
(laughter)
- Ella.
(car hooting)
Hi, is this your house.
- What are you doing here Rickie.
- Well I could say I was just returning
the original reels from the
lab plus a gorgeous transfer,
but the truth is I was hoping
to say hello to your uncle.
You're a friend of uncle Buddy's.
- Not exactly, she's a friend of mine.
This is Rickie Sewell from AFI.
- Hi.
- How do you do.
- Is that the American Film Institute.
- Oh yes.
Oh, I have this for you.
- Well let me help you.
- No, it's okay dad, I got it.
- You're telling me that
my uncle Buddy, the barber
is in reality the filmmaker W.B Jackson.
Are we talking about the same uncle Buddy
who has never mentioned
a word of this to me
in my entire life.
That was great.
Ella, I understand why
you did what you did,
but I don't understand why uncle Buddy
hid this from everybody for so many years.
- Maybe that's none of anybody's business.
Maybe none of you know
what it's like to fail
so miserably at something you truly loved.
- But uncle Buddy, you didn't fail.
- Child, how dare you
tell me what to think
of my own life.
- Ella.
- Here, I just had conscious (indistinct).
- Alphonso, I think I've lost him.
Rickie came over with a copy of the film
and uncle Buddy walked in.
And he's so upset, I don't think
he'll ever talk to me again.
- Come on, it's gonna be okay.
- It's worse than ever.
- Ella, it's not your fault.
- I just feel so helpless.
- Hey, we'll think of something.
Tomorrow's another day.
- I finally got one right.
- Well, what?
- Tomorrow's another day and
it's from "Gone with the wind."
- Oh, oh, I knew that.
- Alphonso, you're always
here when I need you.
- Well, you know everybody's
gotta be somewhere.
- I'm really glad that you're here.
- I like knowing that.
- You know I couldn't have
done any of it without you.
All those phone calls
and all that research.
That's it.
- What's it?
- The research.
Come on let's go.
- Where are we going?
- To my house.
I'll use the phone upstairs and you use
the phone downstairs.
Come on, we have to find
somebody who knew him.
(instrumental music)
- Hello, is this Mr. Washington?
My name's Ella Jackson and I was told
that you might have known
my uncle W.B Jackson.
You did?
Alphonso, guess what.
- So give me the 4-1-1.
- I found somebody who knows him.
- You did, who?
- Buck Washington.
He was an actor in uncle Buddy's films.
- All right this was like
a miracle or something.
He's going out of town.
One more day he would have been gone,
but guess what.
- What.
- I get to see him tomorrow afternoon.
- Ella, wow, tomorrow.
Tomorrow's the game, the game.
- I can do both really.
Trust Fo.
- The tall tan Texan.
Wow, Ella that's one of
your uncle Buddy's films.
- I played the villain of the piece,
the corrupt sheriff and the employee
of the evil cattle band.
Oh you must be Ella.
- Hi.
- And I'm Alphonso.
- Alphonso, welcome.
Yep that's the biggest
role I ever did with WB
as we knew him.
I can't tell you how
marvelous it is to know
that he's still with us.
Please come, have a seat.
- Wow, you really done a lot of stuff.
The lady who let us in
said you had a long career.
- Well, it's been a struggle,
but it has had its moments.
I was the original banana in
the cornflakes commercials.
- Hey, I've never seen those.
- Well, perhaps it was before your time.
How old are you?
No, no, don't answer.
- Mr. Washington, did
you do a lot of movies
with my uncle Buddy?
- Well, I started as a bit player.
By two films later, I had
my first co-starring role.
- Wow, you must have been really good.
- True, but it was your
uncle Buddy who gave me
the chance to grow and
to become even better.
That was his style.
He assembled this marvelous
little repertory company.
Myself of course, the
fabulous Ella Du Champs,
Lester Lawrence, Juneberg Baker.
He's probably the funniest
man who ever lived.
It was just a wonderful team of actors
and W.B gave us the opportunity
to do what all actors live to do.
What black actors seldom
get the chance to do.
- What's that?
- Act, just simply to act
without being stereotyped
by someone's prejudice
or breathtaking lack of vision.
- Mr. Washington, you knew my uncle Buddy,
you worked with him.
You said that he was great,
everybody said he was great.
I don't understand, what made him quit.
- Well, your uncle Buddy
probably came closer
than anyone else to breaking
through the color line.
But in the end, I fear it broke him.
- What do you mean?
- Excuse me, Ella.
- Alphonso, I can't leave yet.
- Oh, yes your basketball game.
Ella, this is for you.
This is your uncle Buddy as I knew him.
- Wow.
Mr. Washington, please continue,
I wanna hear this.
- Well, I'll try to be brief.
It all started one day when
W.B came back off the road.
You see whenever we completed a film,
W.B would go on the
road from town to town,
theater to theater showing the film.
Well, this particular day he came back
with the most amazing news.
He had just made a deal with
two white Hollywood producers
and we were gonna make
a real Hollywood movie.
- Wow, my uncle Buddy
made a Hollywood movie.
Nobody's ever said anything about that.
- Less said, the better.
- Why, what happened.
- You know it takes only one straw
to break the camel's back.
So the deal for W.B's
Hollywood western was made,
contracts just been signed.
And the bigwigs, wow,
they were so slap happy
about all the new audience money
they're about to pull in,
they decided they'd
celebrate with a big party
at the country club.
Old W.B got all dolled up I
tell you, he knew how to dress.
He had Ella Du Champs on his arm
and they were looking
just as fine as you please
when they stepped out
of that rented limousine
and walked right into
that fancy restaurant.
But they couldn't get past the door.
- What?
- Why, what happened?
- Well, the Maitre D said
that colored weren't allowed
and W.B just laughed at him
and told him not only was he going inside,
but there was a dinner party
going on inside in his honor
sponsored by the head of the studio.
He gave him the man's name
and that waiter backed off.
- I bet he did.
- Well, he went inside to check.
20 minutes later, he came back
with the head of the studio
with a napkin tucked under his chin
and a champagne glass in his hand,
but he verified that he knew W.B.
- And then they let him inside.
- No darling.
The head of the studio said
there'd been some mistake,
that he hadn't known that W.B himself
had intended to come.
And besides, the party
was for the picture,
the picture.
The country club served only whites
but if W.B and Ella wanted
to go around the back,
perhaps they could set up a small table
and a couple of chairs
just in the kitchen.
It only takes that one final straw.
Ella and me, well, we kept
on doing Hollywood movies.
But W.B, I believe that was that straw.
- Great, we barely have
enough time to get to the bus
and get you to your game on time.
Well, Bo, you're really
close to blowing it now.
Hello Bo, are you with me
or should I have scotty
beam you up.
Hey, where you going?
- I gotta go this way, catch
the bus back to uncle Buddy's.
- Are you crazy?
What about the game, the
scholarship, the trophy.
- Alphonso, I hurt him.
When I opened up that trunk,
I opened up a lot of pain.
I gotta go back and tell him I'm sorry.
I didn't know what he had gone through,
I didn't know about his dream.
- Ella, talk to him after the game,
this is the big one.
You can't possibly make
it to the game on time
if you go there first.
- I gotta go now, you catch
the bus and cover for me.
- Cover for you.
Yeah, right.
- Doesn't it seem just
a little strange to you
that Buddy is not going to Ella's game.
I mean it is the championship.
And when I asked him
about it, he just said
he wasn't going.
- That is strange.
- It sure is.
- Good night, Buddy.
- Where is she?
- Joe, this isn't like her.
- I just want to know she's all right,
then I wanna kill her.
(crowd cheering)
- Uncle Buddy.
Uncle Buddy, please talk to me.
- I used to talk to you.
I used to talk to you all the time.
I used to think that you were
the only person in the world
who understood me.
I trusted you.
- Then why did you hide this from me?
- Because it was none of your business.
If you had just minded your own business
and left that full trunk alone.
- Then I would have never
found out who you really are.
People love and respect you.
Uncle Buddy, you're an
inspiration to people
making movies now.
- Who's been filling your
head with such nonsense.
- Buck Washington.
He told me how brave
and courageous you were,
how you wouldn't back down,
how those white men at that restaurant.
- Ella, you don't know
what you're talking about.
- I do, I know that no one
should take that kind of insult.
They hurt you.
I'm sorry.
- Oh, little girl, little girl,
I've been through much worse than that,
it never stopped me.
Ever since I first held
a camera in my hand,
I was on a mission.
I was gonna take my company to Hollywood,
get inside the system and
make the kind of films
we all dreamed of, where
I could show black people
as people.
Well it never happened.
- What do you mean?
- I knew the days of race
films were coming to an end
and I was determined to
keep on making movies.
I had gotten myself a Hollywood contract.
You know how rare that was.
They gave me more money to make one film
than I had spent in all my films combined.
Man, I had business at the country club.
It did hurt me, I can't deny it,
but it didn't stop me, Ella.
The next day on the set, I
pretended nothing had happened.
After all for them, nothing had.
My whole company was there, Ella Du Champs
looking lovely as ever.
She was all set to play
this female gunslinger
who falls madly in love
with this fearless sheriff
played by...
- Buck Washington.
- Right.
No sooner had we got the cameras rolling,
than these studio execs, the
same guys from the dinner
came strolling up to me.
They didn't like Ella's costume.
They wanted it shorter, skimpier.
I protested but then Ella stepped in
trying to protect me.
She said she didn't mind,
she could make a burlap bag
look good and she did.
Then they started on Buck.
Why I make this sheriff
so serious all the time.
Who's gonna believe a serious black man.
Why not throw in a couple of eye rolls,
a couple of knee slaps.
- But it was your movie,
you were the director.
- No, it wasn't, not anymore.
From the first day, they overrode
everything I wanted to do,
every decision I made.
If I managed by some
chance to shoot a scene
the way I wanted to,
they'd have their boys
in the editing room change it all around
to the way they wanted it to be.
the way they wanted black people to be.
Before it was over, Buck was
almost wearing blackface.
And Ella, my beautiful Ella.
She was dressed like a tramp.
To see her like that, to
see what they did to her.
- You couldn't stop it?
- No, I tried.
Oh I was able to protect
them from some things,
but in the end, they suffered.
Ella and I were engaged to be married.
And the dream I had promised
them, the dream of honor
and dignity and respect was dead.
All the life kicked and yanked out of it.
I failed them, honey.
I failed the people that meant
the most to me in my life.
- You gave them a start.
You were just one person,
you couldn't do it
all by yourself.
But you made a beginning
for other black filmmakers.
Their success is your success.
- Don't you have somewhere you have to be?
- I'm sorry uncle Buddy.
I'm sorry that I opened your trunk
and let out all those
memories and all that hurt.
I'm sorry that you couldn't
do what you wanted to do
for your friends.
(somber music)
Maybe you couldn't do it
the way that you wanted to,
but you won uncle Buddy, you won.
(somber music)
(crowd cheering)
- There's Alphonso.
- Mr. Jackson.
- Where's Ella?
- Oh, Ella.
Where's Ella.
- Alphonso.
- There she is.
- [Coach] Watch your passing.
- She's here.
- Sorry I'm late.
- Have a seat, Ella.
- But coach.
- I said, have a seat.
- I can't believe you're gonna bench me.
What about the game.
- You sit there and
think think about that.
- Hey, what is that coach doing,
She's sitting here on the bench.
- You're complaining about
Ella getting benched.
Two seconds ago you
were ready to kill her.
- Yeah, but that coach is gonna cost Ella
the high scores trophy.
- Come on guys, let's do it.
(instrumental music)
- [Team] Go Lakers.
- All right girls, we have
come a long way together here.
We got only a little bit further to go.
Are we gonna make it?
- [Team] Yes.
- Are we gonna get there?
- [Team] Yes.
- I can't hear you,
are we gonna get there?
- [Team] Yes.
- All right.
(applause)
Ella, I want you to go in for Tamara.
- Get out there.
- Two down in.
17 more to go, huh.
- It's okay, we'll get it next time.
(instrumental music)
- Come on, Ella.
You can do it, Ella.
Come on, Ella, come on.
Great pass, baby doll.
What, it was a good pass.
(instrumental music)
(crowd cheering)
- How many does Ella have?
- Uh 17.
(instrumental music)
Did you see what she just did?
- Yeah, of course I did, it was wonderful.
- What do you mean wonderful,
she just blew the (indistinct)
- She did what is best for the team.
You should be proud.
- Free chicken for my girls.
Free chicken for everybody.
- Daddy, I didn't make high score.
- No.
- I'm sorry.
- Ella, I'm so proud of you.
- All right hit the shower, Ella.
You too, Cindy.
- Thanks, bye.
Hey guys, wait up.
- Not this time, champ.
Somebody else has dibs
on driving you home.
I will take the bag.
- You played a great game tonight, Ella.
- I was okay.
It was my team that was great.
- Their success is your success.
Oh by the way, this
postcard came for you today.
- Ricky wants you to speak
at her film festival.
I'm sorry uncle Buddy, I'll
take care of this, I promise.
I'll straighten it all out.
I'll do it first thing in
the morning, even tonight.
♪ You must remember this
a kiss is just a kiss ♪
♪ A sigh is just a sigh ♪
- You're gonna do it uncle Buddy?
- Do I have a choice?
Louie, I think this is the beginning
of a beautiful friendship.
(instrumental music)
(upbeat music)
♪ This is a story that
I'm telling to you now ♪
♪ About a girl who thought
she had it all somehow ♪
♪ All she thought about
was all there was to gain ♪
♪ We almost paid the price
for causing others pain ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You've got to ♪
♪ Ask yourself this question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without love in your life ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ask yourself this question ♪
♪ Where would you be
without love in your life ♪
♪ You need to check the
way that you're living ♪
♪ Ask yourself am I truly given ♪
♪ When your history is a mystery ♪
♪ You're bound to repeat it ♪
♪ Learn to love is the
only way to defeat ♪
♪ Oh Vanessa ♪
♪ You got to learn your lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn a lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Put yourself in question ♪
♪ Where would you be without you ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪
♪ Learn the lesson ♪