Beah: A Black Woman Speaks is a 2003 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about the life of Academy Award  nominated actress Beah Richards

Beah Richards

Beah Richards was an American actress of stage, screen and television. She was a poet, playwright and author....

. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton

Lisa Gay Hamilton

Lisa Gay Hamilton is an American film, television, and theater actress known for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the ABC legal drama The Practice, and for her critically acclaimed performance as young Sethe in Jonathan Demme's film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved...

, it won the Documentary Award at the AFI

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 Los Angeles International Film Festival in 2003.

People featured

• Beah Richards
  Beah Richards
  Beah Richards was an American actress of stage, screen and television. She was a poet, playwright and author....
  
   (archive footage)
• Bill Cobbs
  Bill Cobbs
  Wilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
  
  
• Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
  
  
• Lynn Hamilton
• Hugh Harrell Jr.
• Whitman Mayo
  Whitman Mayo
  Whitman B. Mayo was an American actor best known for his character Grady Wilson on the 1970s television sitcom Sanford and Son....
  
  
• Ruby Milsap
• Frank Silvera
  Frank Silvera
  Frank Alvin Silvera was an American actor and theatrical director.-Career:Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Spanish Jewish father and Jamaican mother. His family later emigrated to the United States, settling in Boston where Silvera attended English High School and Northeastern Law School...
  
  
• Spencer Tracy
  Spencer Tracy
  Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
  
   (archive footage)

Awards

The film won the 2003 documentary award at AFI Fest and the 2005 Peabody Award

Peabody Award

The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...

. In 2005 it was nominated for three Black Reel Awards and an Image Award.