The River Niger

In this gripping, intimate look at life in the ghetto, Johnny Williams (James Earl Jones) is a house painter who moonlights as a poet, struggling to financially and emotionally support his cancer-ridden wife Mattie (Cicely Tyson). But times are tough and the poverty-troubled streets are even tougher, and it takes every ounce of Johnny's love and courage for the couple to make it through their strife, finding redemption in The River Niger. (official distributor synopsis)