Virginia S. Ellsworth

Made especially for the HBO cable network, this well-wrought feature is comprised of three short stories by three noted black American authors, each of which is directed by a respected black director.

In the future, the inmates of a private underground prison are computer-controlled with cameras, dream readers, and devices that can cause pain or death. John (Christopher Lambert) and his illegally pregnant wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) are locked inside "The Fortress" but are determined to escape before the birth of their baby.

A wife and mother drifts back to her life as a call girl.

A woman's husband leaves her and their three daughters. Years later she sets out to find him and get him to pay back child support.

An American with a Japanese upbringing, Chris Kenner is a police officer assigned to the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. Kenner is partnered with Johnny Murata, a Japanese-American who isn't in touch with his roots. Despite their differences, both men excel at martial arts, and utilize their formidable skills when they go up against Yoshida, a vicious yakuza drug dealer with ties to Kenner's past.

A waitress, a barman and an underwear designer try to rob a New York restaurant where two of them work.

A Blue Ribbon winner at the American Film Festival, this hard-hitting, dramatic production is about the relationship between a young man with AIDS and his estranged mother. Unable to understand or accept each other's lives, mother and son are at a stalemate of their own making.

A New York private eye searches for a socialite who supposedly drowned 10 years before.

After his brother Robeson disappears without a trace while exploring Africa in search of a legendary 'white tribe', Allan Quatermain decides to follow in his footsteps to learn what became of him. Soon after arriving, he discovers the Lost City of Gold, controlled by the evil lord Agon, and mined by his legions of white slaves.

Martial arts expert Matt Hunter was one of the most promising operatives in Army intelligence until his parents were killed by terrorists, and he retired to the family's farm in Louisiana to take care of his 12-year-old sister Sara and their grandfather Jimmy. Larry Richards, a black man running for the Senate, is one of Matt's best friends. Larry has become the target of The Pentangle, a racist organization led by a man named Glastenbury, and Glastenbury doesn't want Larry to be elected. In an attempt on Larry's life during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, The Pentangle kills one of Larry's sons. Matt lets Larry, his wife Daisy, and his other son move to the remotely located farm so they can hide from Glastenbury and the Pentangle, but the Pentangle strikes again, setting the farmhouse on fire. Matt and Sara escape as the only survivors. Then the Pentangle kidnaps Sara, sending Matt on a mission to rescue Sara from Glastenbury and the Pentangle

In this remake of the classic 50s SF tale, a boy tries to stop an invasion of his town by aliens who take over the the minds of his parents, his least-liked schoolteacher and other townspeople. With the aid of the school nurse the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Marines.

Abigail Chandler has written her stuffy Boston relatives that she's a successful opera singer in New York. In reality, she works at a burlesque house and is billed as High-C Susie. When her sister Martha comes for a visit, Abigail tries to hide the truth from her.

Two bumbling magicians help a Middle Eastern prince regain his rightful throne from his despotic uncle.