The N-Word (2004)

Director:

Todd Williams

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

African American | Blacks Whites | Hip Hop | Poetry | Racial Slur

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

F. Lee Bailey	...	Himself (archive footage)
Sandra Bernhard	...	Herself
Donald Bogle	...	Himself
Todd Boyd	...	Himself
Elaine Brown	...	Herself
LeVar Burton	...	Himself
George Carlin	...	Himself
Cee-Lo	...	Himself
Morris Chestnut	...	Himself
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.	...	Himself (archive footage)
Stanley Crouch	...	Himself
Ice Cube	...	Himself
Damon Dash	...	Himself
Chuck D.	...	Himself
Dr. Dre	...	Himself (archive footage)
Eazy-E	...	Himself (archive footage)
Laurence Fishburne	...	(archive footage)
Mark Fuhrman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Nelson George	...	Himself
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Herself
Dick Gregory	...	Himself
Bryant Gumbel	...	Himself
Lisa Gay Hamilton	...	Herself
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Himself
Quincy Jones	...	Himself
Robin Kelley	...	Himself
Coretta Scott King	...	Herself (archive footage)
Martin Luther King	...	Himself (archive footage)
Regina King	...	Herself
Peter Kosaka	...	(archive footage)
Talib Kweli	...	Himself
Ted Lange	...	Himself (archive footage)
Matt Lauer	...	Himself (archive footage)
Nia Long	...	Herself
Jennifer Lopez	...	Herself (archive footage)
Moms Mabley	...	Herself (archive footage)
Method Man	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham	...	Himself (archive footage)
Wynton Marsalis	...	Himself
Chi McBride	...	Himself
Paul Mooney	...	Himself
Bijou Phillips	...	(archive footage)
Alvin F. Poussaint M.D.	...	Himself
Richard Pryor	...	Himself (archive footage)
Michael Rapaport	...	Himself
Ving Rhames	...	Himself
Chris Rock	...	Himself
Tim Roth	...	(archive footage)
John Salley	...	Himself
M.C. Serch	...	Himself
Tupac Shakur	...	(archive footage)
Ron Shelton	...	Himself
Brooke Shields	...	(archive footage)
Russell Simmons	...	Himself
John Singleton	...	Himself
Cree Summer	...	Herself
Fred Williamson	...	(archive footage)
George C. Wolfe	...	Himself
Bokeem Woodbine	...	(archive footage)

Directed by
Todd Williams

Produced by
Andrew Cohen	....	executive producer
Helena Echegoyen	....	producer
Rakeda Ervin	....	associate producer
Nelson George	....	producer
Andretta Hamilton	....	associate producer
Peter Ochs	....	consulting producer
Samuel Paul	....	supervising producer

Original Music by
Michael Cohen

Cinematography by
Alan Pierce
Mark Ritchie

Film Editing by
Brad Katz
Peter Ochs

Editorial Department
Brad Jones	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Jim Black	....	music consultant

Production Companies

• Trio Film

Distributors

• Trio (II) (2004) (USA) (TV)
• Urban Works Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

The N-Word: Divided We Stand (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

USA:86 min (Los Angeles Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Trio Film

Movie Connections:

References Pulp Fiction (1994)

Still as complex a word as ever.

Interesting documentary, aired on Trio in early July. IMDb has the movie clocked at 86 minutes, while Trio squeezed it into a one hour time slot with commercials to boot. I want to know what I didn't get to see and am anticipating its release on DVD.

The film explores the history of the word throughout its inception to present day. Woven into the narrative are poetry, music, and commentary from celebrities about their personal experiences with the word and their viewpoints. Each perspective is unique, as is each experience... some are much more comfortable with the word than others.

This movie will have you pondering for a while, the power of one word to hurt as much as this one does. Highly recommended.