Best movies like Roots: The Gift
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In December 1775, Cletus Moyer is a free black Northerner in colonial America, helping slaves escape captivity. In the days just prior to Christmas, a group of bounty hunters captures Moyer. Because of his capture, dozens of slaves who have already left their plantations are in danger of being captured as well. Moyer implores two slaves from a nearby plantation to take his place: Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka in his mid-twenties who was captured in what is now Gambia, and Fiddler, an elderly man who was born into slavery. Kunta is eager to help (and to escape himself), but Fiddler is unwilling, fearful of the consequences if they are caught.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 627
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Best tv shows and movies like Roots: The Gift (1988):
Similar in 82%
The 24th (2020)
Plot Summary:
The incredibly powerful and timely true story of the all-black Twenty-Fourth United States Infantry Regiment, and the Houston Riot of 1917. The Houston Riot was a mutiny by 156 African American soldiers in response to the brutal violence and abuse at the hands of Houston police officers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 988
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, contemplative, visually appealing
Similar in 82%
Grandma's House (2016)
Plot Summary:
Based upon the true story of Kimberley T. Zulkowski's Grandmother, Margie Ree Harris. "Grandma's House" gives a compelling insight into how the Executive Producer's life changed when she moved into her Grandmother's home, and their generations became one under the same roof. Chock-full of passion, Faith, and Family, the Film demonstrates the trials and tribulations she faced living with a Grandparent who stood as an inner-city Matriarch and Pillar of Strength to selflessly serve her Family, and surrounding community.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Union Bound (2016)
Plot Summary:
He went to war to free slaves but in the end was freed by them.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Ganga Zumba (1963)
Plot Summary:
The life of a runaway slave who founded the Quilombo dos Palmares, an outlaw community of Brazilian slaves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Brazil
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Freedom (2014)
Plot Summary:
Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing, christian film
Similar in 86%
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987)
Plot Summary:
The life of an aging black slave, Tom, and the people he interacts with.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 588
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Slaves (1969)
Plot Summary:
A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
Sankofa (1993)
Plot Summary:
A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 784
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Ghana, Burkina Faso, UK, Germany, Ethiopia
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: inspirational, independent film, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965)
Plot Summary:
In the pre-Civil War South, a sadistic plantation-owner brutalizes his slaves to the point of them heaving no other choice but to rebel. Always obedient, peaceful and honest old slave Tom plays a central role in this tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1978)
Plot Summary:
With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the Logans apart. Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year- the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she is black- to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride- no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 336
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 85%
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (1996)
Plot Summary:
James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excellent match is arranged with an American businessman, but when he takes his new wife Mary across the border his true character emerges - he sells her into slavery. James and Elizabeth must go to Virginia to rescue their daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, christian film
Similar in 87%
Crisis at Central High (1981)
Plot Summary:
Story of the federally-ordered integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 163
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
The Price of Sugar (2013)
Plot Summary:
A story about two half-sisters life in the eighteenth century Suriname. There is Lynda, a white colonial and slave owner, and her slave Mini-Mini's. While Lynda is slowly embittered by the hard life in the colony, Mini-Mini gets a chance at her own happiness. The question is, if she dares to seize that chance, as this happiness is at the expense of her mistress and half sister?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Netherlands, Germany, South Africa
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
A House Divided (2000)
Plot Summary:
In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a vast cotton plantation. But the dreadful secret which has blighted her life threatens to deprive her of the birthright which her beloved father David had struggled for so long to create. Raised by her father and grandmother to be the perfect white Southern Belle, Amanda's true mother was a black slave Julia. Confronted with the forces of greed and bigotry, Amanda has to face not only the hatred of a racist world, but the complex truth of a family whose lives have been built on a lie.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 287
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, suspenseful, period drama
Similar in 81%
Heat Wave (1990)
Plot Summary:
A rookie black journalist investigates the tensions of the Watts section of Los Angeles in the bloody summer of 1965.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 213
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad (1994)
Plot Summary:
A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: political, edutainment, sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Middle Passage (2000)
Plot Summary:
A realistic look at the horrors of the slave trade, told entirely through the voice of a dead African slave whose spirit haunts the ocean route.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, Martinique
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sentimental, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, experimental
Similar in 88%
Roots (2016)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots", chronicling the history of an African slave sold to America and his descendants.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: historical drama, captivating, sincere, rough, suspense, inspirational, gothic, political, educational, black cinema
Similar in 76%
Roots: The Next Generations (1979)
Plot Summary:
The dramatization of Alex Haley's family line from post Civil War America to the writer's search for his roots.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 840 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, family saga
Similar in 84%
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Plot Summary:
Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virgina that results in a violent retaliation from whites.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: factual, brutal, emotional, stylized, intense, controversial, exciting, powerful, gothic, serious
Similar in 81%
Mandingo (1975)
Plot Summary:
A slave owner in the 1840s trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, sexy, serious, suspense, suspenseful, controversial, grindhouse, sexual, southern gothic, biting
Similar in 84%
Shadrach (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery, and that land is owned by the large Dabney family, consisting of Vernon, Trixie and their seven children, and to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, independent film, sincere, serious, realistic, light, road movie, sexy
Similar in 89%
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)
Plot Summary:
In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: political, epic, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Long Walk Home (1990)
Plot Summary:
Two women, black and white, in 1955 Montgomery Alabama, must decide what they are going to do in response to the famous bus boycott lead by Martin Luther King.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: inspirational, independent film, touching, realistic, political, gothic, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 79%
Roots (1977)
Plot Summary:
African teen Kunta Kinte, brought to America to be enslaved, and the generations of his family.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 588 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, uplifting, suspense, historical drama, thought provoking, sincere, serious, epic
Similar in 75%
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
Plot Summary:
During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. Known as the "Tuskegee Airman" for the name of the airbase at which they were trained, these men were forced to constantly endure harassement, prejudice, and much behind the scenes politics until at last they were able to prove themselves in combat.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: inspirational, factual, emotional, sincere, serious, tense, exciting, realistic, hood, fairy tale
Similar in 87%
Glory (1989)
Plot Summary:
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: epic, inspirational, suspense, realistic, rough, factual, period piece, emotional, talky, serious
Similar in 88%
Harriet (2019)
Plot Summary:
The story of Harriet Tubman, who helped free hundreds of slaves from the South after escaping from slavery herself in 1849.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History
Country: China, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, costume drama, tense, enigmatic, psychological, political, historical drama, exciting, inspirational, road movie
Similar in 89%
Amistad (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, period piece, epic, dramatic, compassionate, factual, uplifting, serious, captivating
Similar in 85%
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Plot Summary:
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 731000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: motivational, heartbreaking, disturbing, harsh, bleak, atmospheric, emotional, factual, brutal, rough