A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry’s immortal A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. Two years later, the production came to the screen, directed by Daniel Petrie. The original stars—including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee—reprise their roles as members of an African American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment, in this deeply resonant tale of dreams deferred. The Youngers await a life-insurance check they hope will change their circumstances, but tensions arise over how to use the money. Vividly rendering Hansberry’s sharp observations on generational conflict and housing discrimination, Petrie’s film captures the high stakes, shifting currents, and varieties of experience within black life in midcentury America.
Special Features
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry
- New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine
- Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
- Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr.
- New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited
- Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”
Cover based on a poster for the theatrical production of A Raisin in the Sun
Special Features
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry
- New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine
- Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
- Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr.
- New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited
- Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”
Cover based on a poster for the theatrical production of A Raisin in the Sun
Cast
- Sidney Poitier
- Walter Lee Younger
- Claudia McNeil
- Lena Younger
- Ruby Dee
- Ruth Younger
- Diana Sands
- Beneatha Younger
- Ivan Dixon
- Asagai
- John Fiedler
- Mark Lindner
- George Murchison
- Stephen Perry
- Travis Younger
Credits
- Director
- Daniel Petrie
- Screenplay by
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Produced on the stage by
- Philip Rose
- Produced on the stage by
- Produced by
- David Susskind
- Produced by
- Philip Rose
- Music by
- Laurence Rosenthal
- Cinematography by
- Lawton Jr. Charles
- Edited by
- Lyon William A.
- Edited by
- Paul Weatherwax
A scene from A Raisin in the Sun
