Monday, Mar. 13, 2017 – Monday, Mar. 13, 2017

07:00 PM – 09:30 PM
US/Central

Presented by Sylvester Turner, Mayor of Houston

Mayor Sylvester Turner introduces the award-winning drama A Raisin in the Sun, his selection for the Movies Houstonians Love series. This film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s socially conscious play features powerful performances by the original Broadway cast: Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett Jr., and John Fiedler.

A Raisin in the Sun follows the Youngers, a black Chicago family aspiring to achieve the American Dream. The matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil), receives an insurance payment and plans to buy a house in a better neighborhood, but her son, Walter (Sidney Poitier), wants to invest it in a liquor store that will generate income. Tensions among the family members are complicated by the resistance of white residents who live near the new home. Daniel Petrie’s direction earned him an award at the Cannes Film Festival, but it is Hansberry’s sharply observed perspectives, realized in the memorable acting of McNeil and Poitier in particular, that assure this compelling film a place in movie history.

In 2005, A Raisin in the Sun was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry, alongside other American films deemed to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”