Description
Lorraine Hansberry’s immortal A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. Two years later, the production came to the screen, directed by Daniel Petrie. The original stars—including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee—reprise their roles as members of an African American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment, in this deeply resonant tale of dreams deferred. The Youngers await a life-insurance check they hope will change their circumstances, but tensions arise over how to use the money. Vividly rendering Hansberry’s sharp observations on generational conflict and housing discrimination, Petrie’s film captures the high stakes, shifting currents, and varieties of experience within black life in midcentury America.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry
- New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine
- Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
- Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr.
- New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited
- Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”
Cover based on a poster for the theatrical production of A Raisin in the Sun
Criterion Collection:
Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.
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