The United States Embassy in Jamaica and the Jamaica Library Service began its classic film series yesterday with a screening of To Kill a Mockingbird.

The films, which are free to the public, will be shown every Tuesday from September 15 to October 13, at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Library starting at 6 p.m.

The series will also include Lilies of the Field (September 22), The Wizard of Oz (September 29), Gone with the Wind (October 6) and A Patch of Blue (October 13).

Lilies of the Field features an Academy Award-winning performance by Sidney Poitier and the film was nominated for four additional Oscars, including Best Picture. Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier), an itinerant handyman, is driving through the Arizona desert when he meets five impoverished nuns. Stopping to fix their leaky farmhouse roof, Homer discovers that not only will the Mother Superior not pay him for the job, but she also wants him to build their chapel for free. Hesitant at first, Homer soon finds himself single-handedly raising the chapel and the financing. But, although he will not receive a monetary reward, Homer knows that when his work is done, he'll leave that dusty desert town a much better place than when he found it.

Most-watched film

The US Library of Congress named The Wizard of Oz as the most-watched film in history. It is often ranked among the top 10 best movies of all time by various critics and popular polls, and it has provided many indelible quotes to the American cultural consciousness. Its signature song, Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland, has been voted the greatest movie song of all time by the American Film Institute.

Gone With The Wind is revered as one of cinema's greatest epics of passion and adventure. With its immortal cast, magnificent cinematography and sweeping score, this cherished classic continues to thrill audiences today.

A Patch of Blue, starring Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters, will end the classic American film series. It is a low-budget, black and white movie filmed in 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement, and was then notable for its budding inter-racial romance. While this aspect may seem rather tame today, at the time the movie was filmed, it was still a controversial theme in many parts of America.