Sidney, a documentary on the life and career of Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, has a new teaser for Apple TV+. The film will examine Poitier’s meteoric rise in the film industry and his efforts to use his platform to promote civil rights and social justice. The new teaser kicks off with an interview with the late Poitier, in which he reminisces about his youth. Poitier grew up in the Bahamas without access to electricity or the concept of a plumbing system that could provide water directly to a home. The singer had lived his whole life in a Black neighbourhood, so he had never given race tensions any attention until he moved to the United States.
In spite of his family’s financial struggles, Poitier was able to develop a strong feeling of community; nevertheless, this was shattered when he moved to the United States and encountered racism. Poitiers, rather than submitting to a racist culture, developed an impressive career in Hollywood, where he avoided any roles that would have reduced the status of Black actors. Quite the opposite, Poitier found fame via his portrayal of complex Black characters in stage productions and popular films like To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night which dealt with racial tensions.
Finally, after establishing his acting chops, Poitier began advocating for greater representation of Black people in Hollywood. Even when Jim Crow laws were upheld, racial segregation was institutionalised. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names—Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Lenny Kravitz, Barbra Streisand, Spike Lee, and Oprah Winfrey—talk about Poitier’s influence on Black culture in the United States and beyond in the film’s new trailer.
The film will explore not just Poitier’s impact on film, but also his career as a director, his battle for equality in the film industry, and his dedication to the global fight for civil rights. The Poitier family worked closely with the film’s creators to provide an accurate depiction of the actor’s life. Oprah Winfrey and Derik Murray of Network Entertainment produce the film Sidney, which is directed by Reginald Hudlin (Django Unchained), a nominee for an Academy Award. Jesse James Miller is the author of the documentary. On Friday, September 23, Sidney will have its world debut in select cinemas and on Apple TV+ throughout the world.