Black Star: Bird 
Join us in celebrating some of cinema’s greatest talents in Black Star, a major new season from the BFI, continuing until December.
Soldier, jazz musician, butler, samurai hitman, burglar, undertaker, ruthless dictator. These seven films demonstrate the versatility of Forest Whitaker, one of the finest – and most unassuming – actors working in cinema today. All films (except Bird) are screening from 35mm prints.
Forest Whitaker gives a tour de force performance (which earned him the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award) as jazz visionary Charlie "Bird" Parker, bringing out all the triumphs and tragic dimensions of Parker's life to the screen from the agony of addiction to the ecstacy of music-driven redemption.
Arguably the best cinematic jazz biography ever made (its director Clint Eastwood is a devoted fan), this love letter to the genre shows the legendary saxophonist on stage, where Whitaker is flawless, and the drug addict that couldn't break out of his own head and whose shyness clashed with a jolting popularity and unparalleled artistic vision.
Also screening as part of BFI Black Star: All About Forest Season:
