Sidney Poitier (1927-2022) broke multiple barriers with a filmography that showcased his dazzling vitality and made him cinema’s first Black superstar.
Join the BFI for this special event celebrating and exploring the incredible life and career of Sidney Poitier, being held on the 3rd anniversary of his passing at the age of 94.
“Sidney Poitier was many things. An actor, director and activist. Hollywood’s first Black superstar. A trailblazer and an inspiration. And, of course, he was Mr Tibbs. This season, whose title is taken from a 1968 James Baldwin profile, commemorates Poitier’s legacy–films that reflect the progression of his career across 40 years. Born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, from the outset Poitier projected a new and dignified African American character – one that dismantled longstanding racist stereotypes. Conscious of his responsibility as the only major Black actor in Hollywood, Poitier initially cultivated a persona of virtue and respectability. As the winds shifted and audiences began demanding an edgier Black hero, Poitier used his clout to make films that reflected the new mood. He imbued all his characters with an emotional truth and cemented his position as Hollywood’s firstBlack star.”
– Jonathan Ali, BFI season programmer
EVENTS
For Love of Sidney Poitier
Monday 6th January | 18:20
This panel discussion, hosted by season programmer Jonathan Ali of the Twelve30 Collective, will consider Poitier’s key roles and films, positioning his filmography within the wider landscape of Hollywood and American culture. It will also reflect on his status as Hollywood’s first Black superstar and his role in inspiring future generations. (Immediately followed by a showing of For Love of Ivy).
Find out more and book tickets here.
Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light
Thursday 9th January | 18:15
An Omnibus portrait of the actor and activist, accompanied by a wealth of archival clips. One Bright Light is a fascinating edition of the famous BBC Arts series, with Sidney Poitier talking candidly about his life and career. This will screen with various other interviews with Poitier, career overviews, analyses and appreciations of his work. The programme even includes excerpts from the BBC quiz show Mastermind, featuring rounds on Poitier.
Find out more and book tickets here.
THE EARLY FILMS
No Way Out
Wednesday 1st January | 18:40
Saturday 11th January | 20:35
In his landmark debut, Poitier plays a medical intern accused by a racist hoodlum of murdering his brother while both were in the Black doctor’s care. Poitier shines in a groundbreaking role that challenged Hollywood stereotyping of Black characters while establishing the compassionate and dignified persona that would come to dominate his roles over the subsequent two decades.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Blackboard Jungle
Thursday 2nd January | 20:55
Monday 13th January | 18:20
Sidney Poitier cuts a cool figure as a teen rebel in this classic about high-school delinquency.
Poitier plays the role of Gregory Miller, the leader of an interracial gang at an inner-city school where a new teacher struggles to maintain control. Although a supporting character, Poitier as Miller is unforgettable – a sullen, self-assured, sexually charged Black counterpart to the Hollywood youth antihero of the 1950s.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Edge of the City (aka A Man is Ten Feet Tall)
Friday 3rd January | 17:40
Thursday 23rd January | 20:40 (with intro from season programmer Jonathan Ali).
This gritty film sees Poitier play Tommy Tyler, a New York City dockworker who takes a new hire under his wing. But a racist colleague soon threatens their friendship. Tommy is the embodiment of the self-sacrificing hero, a role that defined this stage of Poitier’s career.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Something of Value
Friday 3rd January | 20:40
Sunday 19th January | 12:40 (with a pre-recorded intro by researcher Liz Chegeon)
In a drama set and shot in Kenya, Poitier plays Kimani, the childhood friend of Peter, the son of British settlers. Political circumstances drive them apart with Kimani joining the Mau Mau rebellion – which eventually leads to a climactic showdown between the former friends. Poitier delivers a compellingly complex performance, in the first of several films he made in Africa where his character fights for liberation from white-minority rule.
Find out more and book tickets here.
STARDOM
The Defiant Ones
Sunday 5th January | 12:20
Sunday 19th January | 15:40
Poitier’s first collaboration with director Stanley Kramer is an action-packed thriller that transformed the actor into the first bona fide Black movie star. He plays Noah Cullen, an escaped convict in the Deep South who is handcuffed to a racist white man. To stay alive and out of reach of the authorities, the pair forge an embittered friendship. As a man seething with rage from a life of indignity, Poitier is superb. This film role earned him a landmark first Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Find out more and book tickets here.
A Raisin in the Sun
Saturday 4th January | 15:45
Friday 24th January | 20:30
A role Sidney Poitier played on the stage, and won huge praise for, was then offered to him for the screen adaptation: the tale of a chauffeur who dreams of better things for himself and his family than life in a cramped apartment on Chicago’s South Side. Accompanied by a formidable ensemble of African American acting talent, Poitier skilfully conveys a fight for dignity and a fight to be the anchor his loved ones so desperately need.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Paris Blues
Saturday 4th January | 20:45
Friday 24th January | 18:10
Sidney Poitier charms and woos as the dashing American jazz musician Eddie Cook, who is enjoying the freedom of bohemian Paris with his bandmate, Ram Bowen (played by Paul Newman). The handsome pair fall for two American women visiting the city, and Eddie is torn as his new beau tries to convince him to return to America with her. This film features a score composed by the one and only Duke Ellington, as well as an on-screen cameo by Louis Armstrong.
Find out more and book tickets here.
The Slender Thread
Saturday 4th January | 18:30
Monday 27th January | 20:35 (with an intro by season programmer Jonathan Ali)
Following his historic Best Actor Oscar win in 1963 for Lilies of the Field, Poitier joined actress Anne Bancroft this psychological drama. He is riveting as psychiatry student Alan Newell, who must use every tactic he has to keep a depressed woman, who has swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills, on a crisis – centre hotline long enough for the authorities to rescue her.
Find out more and book tickets here.
In the Heat of the Night
Sunday 5th January | 18:30
Wednesday 15th January | 20:45
Sidney Poitier delivers his most celebrated performance as a detective investigating a murder. Now one of the great lines in film history, ‘They call me Mr Tibbs!’ announced the arrival of Poitier’s detective to Rod Steiger’s racist Mississippi sheriff. They find themselves working together on a sinister murder case. Winner of the Best Picture Oscar and spawning two sequels, this police procedural cemented Poitier’s legacy as a Black cinema icon and remains as electrifying today as it was when it was first released. It was the first major film in colour that was lit specifically for a Black actor, and it features the iconic slap scene – a brilliant on-screen show of defiance and resistance from a Black man against a white man.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Sunday 5th January | 14:50
Wednesday 8th January | 20:40
Friday 31st January | 18:00
Sidney Poitier was at the peak of his fame, and exuding peak levels of charm, in this hit 60s comedy about an interracial marriage. In it, Poitier’s character John Prentice seeks to convince his white partner’s parents that he is a worthy son-in-law. The film was a huge success in the US and has gone down in film history as one of the greats.
Find out more and book tickets here.
BLAXPLOITATION AND BEYOND
For Love of Ivy
Monday 6th January | 20:30
Saturday 25th January | 12:30
Sidney Poitier and jazz singer Abbey Lincoln light up the screen in this charming romantic comedy.
Poitier plays Jack Parks, a successful businessman with a secret gambling operation who is blackmailed into seducing the maid of a white suburban family. With his virile, roguish, tuxedo-clad character, Poitier deliberately refashioned his cinematic persona for a film based on his own original story idea.
Find out more and book tickets here.
The Lost Man
Saturday 11th January | 18:00
Monday 20th January | 20:35
Sidney Poitier is a brooding Black Power revolutionary in this tense thriller. Wounded during an armed robbery that was intended to finance the Black struggle, Poitier’s character seeks help from a white, middle-class liberal woman, even as the police close in. Poitier is at his most militant in a film that reflects America’s changing racial and political climate.
Find out more and book tickets here.
A Warm December
Sunday 12th January | 12:30
Thursday 30th January | 18:10
Sidney Poitier plays a doctor who visits London after the death of his wife and falls in love with a mysterious woman who has her own tragic past. This is Sidney Poitier’s first film that he directed on his own as well as starred in.
Find out more and book tickets here.
The Wilby Conspiracy
Tuesday 28th January | 20:40
Friday 17th January | 18:10 (with an introduction)
Sidney Poiter teams up with another film legend, Michael Caine, in this political thriller set in South Africa. Poitier continued his shift away from his suave, clean-cut screen persona with this role, where he plays a militant freedom fighter who escapes the police and goes on the run with an Englishman (Caine).
Find out more and book tickets here.
Stir Crazy
Friday 17th January | 20:40
Wednesday 29th January | 20:40 (with an introduction by researcher/curator Matthew Barrington)
Stir Crazy is the first film that Poitier directed but didn’t act in. It’s a buddy comedystarring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, that follows two best friends hatching an elaborate escape plan from prison. It was the first film by a Black director to gross over $100 million at the box office.
Find out more and book tickets here.
Sneakers
Saturday 18th January | 20:35
Monday 27th January | 18:00
One of Sidney Poitier’s last big screen roles was 1992’s Sneakers, an entertaining heist thriller film. In it, Poitier plays a retired CIA agent and member of an expert security team, who undergo a mysterious mission, only to find themselves trapped in a web of intrigue.
Find out more and book and tickets here.
SCREENING FROM OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING
Seniors’ Free Matinee
Cry, the Beloved Country + intro and Q&A with Marcus Powell, speaker, film historian.
Monday 6th January | 14:00
One of Sidney Poitier’s greatest roles sees him play a young priest, who accompanies an ageing preacher trying to find his adult children in Apartheid South Africa. Shot on location in both South Africa and in the UK, this film co-stars Canada Lee, a veteran actor and civil rights activist.
This screening is free for anyone over 60–just book by phone on020 7960 2102 (lines open from 12-7pm Mon-Sat, and 12-6pm Sun) or book in person at BFI Southbank.
Find out more and book here.
The Sidney Poitier: His Own Person Season at the BFI Southbank runs from 1st-31st January 2025.