Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris
This brilliant, haunting picture of life among Black residents of the post-segregation South deserves to take its place among the best social realist films of all time.
The story of Duff (Ivan Dixon) is a simple one: living a life outside of society as a member of a railroad section gang, he eschews the mores of polite Black society. That changes when he falls for Josie (jazz great Abbey Lincoln), whose family opposes their union, as he refuses to bear the condescension and hatred of white American society. Duff’s struggles to hold a job, have a happy relationship and support his son are heart-breaking, but the film has a breadth of compassion for all its characters.
Tender and supremely sensitive, Nothing But a Man was made for just $300,000 by director Michael Roemer, drawing on his own background as a Jew persecuted by the Nazis.