Beginning during the racial turmoil of 60s Louisiana, 110-year-old ex-slave Jane Pittman grants an interview to a persistent journalist and relates the remarkable story of her life. Orphaned early, she toils on a plantation until a chance meeting with a white Union soldier changes her outlook.

Forget today’s “original content” for television: this 1974 film, epic in scope and grand in subject, transcends the pejorative label of “TV movie.” (Though it did win 9 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama.) A tremendous performance by Cicely Tyson leads this century-long tale of Black history.