This week on Someone Else’s Movie, I’m joined by veteran television director Paris Barclay, who chose what some might see as an especially antiquated title for the episode: Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the 1967 dramedy of manners  about white liberal parents struggling with their daughter’s engagement to an upstanding Black doctor.

Sidney Poitier plays that character, and the joke of the film that that Poitier is the world’s most charismatic and considerate person, so of course racism is the only reason people couldn’t like him. And the context in which Kramer made his movie is essential to understand why it needed to be made — which Paris is more than happy to explain in the time we have together.

Another, far more challenging Black entertainer was emerging around the same time: Billy Preston, whose life Paris explores in his documentary Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It, which kicks off its theatrical run in New York on Friday and is technically the reason he’s on the podcast this week. Keep an eye out for that one, it’s good.

Wanna hear the conversation? Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice, or just download the episode directly from the web and listen to it while you sit nervously in your study, trying to figure out if your kid is the problem, or you are.

And then get on to Shiny Things, where you’ll find my review of Criterion’s exquisite 4K edition of the visual feast that is Jacques Tati’s PlayTime. There’s a lot more coming this week, including two very different views of American journalism and a surprisingly deep drama about a Neil Diamond interpreter. And there’s Friday’s What’s Worth Watching newsletter for subscribers to the paid tier. Not a paid subscriber? Would you like to be? It’s easy! Just sign up for the free trial, and I’ll see you there.