Charles Lane Movies

An African-American girl living in Brooklyn comes of age in this comedy-drama. The story's unique twist is that the girl is influenced by a variety of role-models. Rainbow is at an awkward stage of early adolescence. She is too old to play in the streets and too young to date. She is not sure she is ready to grow up. Her prim mother owns a beauty salon. She is not much help to Rainbow. When her sister Ruby surprises them with a visit from Europe, the mother's reserve is easily explained. When the sisters were young both of them tried to become professional singers. They separated when Alma, Rainbow's mom, got pregnant. Ruby went on to have a successful career in Parisian nightclubs impersonating Josephine Baker. Ruby's presence in the lives of the mother and daughter brings them back to life. Her mother begins to rediscover love, and Rainbow becomes inspired to begin experimenting with boys and adulthood. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

African-American mime artist Charles Lane directed and starred in this ultra-low-budget film. Lane plays a Chaplinesque homeless individual with a talent for sidewalk chalk art, who finds himself caring for an abandoned baby. The child's father has been killed in a robbery, so Lane begins a long, lonely search for the kid's next of kin. What little dialogue there is comes from the mouths of the multitude of oddball characters with whom Lane comes in contact while he roams the streets of New York. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi