In the Heat of the Night

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

In the Heat of the Night

U.S., 1967

Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, this racially charged noir stars Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs, a Black detective drawn into a murder investigation in a racially hostile Mississippi town. The film made history with “the slap” — a moment of defiance when Tibbs strikes back at a white plantation owner murder suspect. James Baldwin praised Poitier’s dignity, while critiquing the film’s liberal fantasy of white awakening and redemption.—Public Programmer Beandrea July

DCP, color, 110 min. Director: Norman Jewison. Screenwriter: Stirling Silliphant. With: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates.