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A slice of American black culture, a world many white people know little about, is explored in the movie touted in today's "Trailer of the Day" for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

In "Tell Them We Are Rising," filmmaker Stanley Nelson looks at the past, present and future of America's historic black colleges and universities (sometimes referred to as HBCUs).

These are the schools where African-American students went when generations of segregation and Jim Crow laws kept them out of mainstream higher education. Even with integration at many better-known school, the HBCUs still soldier on, fulfilling the same role they did before: Giving a place for African-Americans who can't further their education any other way.

Nelson is a veteran of Sundance, having brought seven previous films to Park City: "The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords" (1999), "Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind" (2001), "The Murder of Emmett Till" (2003), "A Place of Our Own" (2004), "Freedom Riders" (2010), "Freedom Summer" (2014), and "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution" (2015).

"Tell Them We Are Rising" will debut in the festival's Documentary Premieres section, and will screen at the following times and venues:

• Monday, Jan. 23, 11:45 a.m., The MARC, Park City.

• Wednesday, Jan. 25, 9 p.m., Temple Theatre, Park City.

• Thursday, Jan. 26, noon, Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room.

• Friday, Jan. 27, 9 p.m., Salt Lake City Library Theatre.

• Saturday, Jan. 28, 5:45 p.m., Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City.

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 19-29 in Park City and at venues in Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon.