Title: Brother From Another Planet
Year: 1984
Director: John Sayles (Eight Men Out)
Writers: John Sayles
Stars: Joe Morton (“The Good Wife”), Steve James, Tom Wright, David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck)

The Story: A strange, silent being crash-lands on Ellis Island. He’s an intergalactic refugee with a healing touch, but he’s no “E.T.” Because he looks a black man, he winds up in Harlem, where his potential goes mostly unrecognized. Gradually, he find his way in the world, but two “men in black”-style slavecatchers from his home planet are hunting for him…

Why It’s Great: Who is John Sayles to make a movie about Harlem? Can a college-educated white guy make a movie about characters who mostly have less money, less education and a different cultural heritage than he does? Should he? How can he find universal points of identification without ignoring the uniqueness of the culture he’s portraying? The first inclination is to say: “don’t do it”. At worst, you’re going to offend a lot of people, at best, you’re going to be imitating other voices rather than finding your own. But this movie justifies itself beautifully. (It doesn’t hurt that Sayles empowered local filmmakers along the way, including cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson, who went on to help Spike Lee make hismovies.)

Three more reasons at Cockeyed Caravan.