The story focuses on Newark's Baraka family and its involvement in social activism, poetry, music, art and politics.

A collection of songs from the kings and queens of the keyboards, whose performances have captivated audiences over the decades and across a selection of the BBC’s best-loved music programmes. From piano pioneers like Little Richard, Nina Simone and Ray Charles, who showed the world that the new sounds of pop and rock didn’t just revolve around guitars, right through to modern maestros like Elton John, Lady Gaga and the BBC’s own Jools Holland, these are the big names who got us tapping our feet by letting their fingers do the talking.

Two incredible concerts from 1965 and 1968 showcasing the multifaceted diva in all her glory. Simone shines as a jazz vocalist extraordinaire on “Tomorrow Is My Turn,” as a definitive folk interpreter on Bob Dylan’s “The Ballad Of Hollis Brown” and as a passionate civil rights activist on both the epic “Four Women” and the scorching “Mississippi Goddam.” This DVD is a must for Nina Simone fans as she displays all of the qualities that made her both a supremely gifted jazz singer and pianist as well as the “High Priestess of Soul.”

A black essay on trains, beaches and space occupation.

Ronnie Scott’s opened in 1959 to provide a place where British Jazz musicians could jam. Eventually, American music musicians such as Johnny Griffin, Roland Kirk, Al Cohn, Stan Getz, Sony Stitt, Benny Golson, Donald Byrd, and Ben Webster played at the club making it the legendary Jazz club it is today. Today, the club still books the greatest Jazz acts in the world, but also plays host to such diverse musicians as the talented Nina Simone. This film features Nina Simone (vocals, piano) delivering an intense emotional performance at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, London on November 17, 1985. Simone is an eclectic musician, who adds a soulful mystique to whatever material she interprets. This brilliant performance at Ronnie Scott’s is testament to this fact.

The Legend, on Nina’s life and music, was made in France by Frank Lords and it is told in large part by Nina Simone herself. It is an honest portrayal based on her autobiography “I Put A Spell On You,” that shows Nina at her mightiest and at her most vulnerable.

Nina Simone has always been hard to classify. The “High Priestess of Soul” was trained as a classical pianist, but branched out early into pop, gospel, jazz and blues, playing and singing everyone’s compositions and writing many of her own. At 28 years old, she had already been seen in many clubs and had recorded several LPs when in 1961-62 she agreed to be filmed, without an audience, in a New York City studio. With a justified reputation as one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, Nina Simone has lit up the music world with some superlative performances over the years. This footage is culled from shows in 1961 and 1962, and sees Simone tackling a number of songs alone at the piano. Among them are I Loves You Porgy, For All We Know, Sunday In Savannah, and many others.

Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.

A presentation of key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, MLK is followed through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King's stirring speeches, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by a wide range of celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman Charlton Heston, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Walter Matthau, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams III, Joanne Woodward, and James Earl Jones.