Derik Murray: Last News

Addie Morfoot Contributor In 2018, Network Entertainment founder Derik Murray met with Sidney Poitier to discuss making a documentary about the star’s life and career. Over the next two years, Murray established a foundation of trust with Poitier and his family, who all eventually agreed to the film. The result is “Sidney,” an Apple TV+ doc that examines the legacy of Poitier, who died earlier this year at 94. Directed by Reginald Hudlin (“The Black Godfather”), the doc was produced by Oprah Winfrey. One of the most acclaimed and recognizable movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the first Black man to receive the best actor award, Poitier was also a director and an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. The film includes interviews with Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Lenny Kravitz, Barbra Streisand and Spike Lee as well as an audio-recorded interview with Poitier’s longtime friend and colleague Harry Belafonte.

When the late Sidney Poitier embarked on a movie career in the early 1950s, he entered an industry with a history of depicting Black people in the most negative fashion. The Birth of a Nation, the seminal 1915 silent film, had set the template – portraying African American characters as sex-crazed and subhuman. 

Sidney Poitier wasn’t just an actor, filmmaker or activist. He was a pioneer who smashed stereotypes, and helped change the perception of Black people.

The Gotham Film & Media Institute has set the late actor, filmmaker and activist Sidney Poitier for the Icon Trbute at the 32nd annual Gotham Awards, taking place live and in person at NYC’s Cipriani Wall Street on November 28. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaBrian Gersh has been named president of Network Entertainment USA. He brings three decades of experience in the entertainment industry, having worked as an executive, agent, manager, and producer, where he has greenlit scores of film and television projects around the world.