Gospel Hill is a 2008 film directed and produced by Giancarlo Esposito, who also stars in the film. The film was released on February 10, 2009 on DVD in the United States after being at numerous film festivals.

Gospel Hill tells the intersecting story of two men in the fictional South Carolina town of Julia. Danny Glover plays John Malcolm, the son of a slain civil rights activist Paul Malcolm (Samuel L. Jackson, in an uncredited role). Jack Herrod (Tom Bower) is the white former sheriff who never officially solved the murder. Their paths begin to cross when a development corporation comes to town with plans to raze Julia's historic African-American community of Gospel Hill, now fallen into disrepair, to build a golf course. John Malcolm's wife Sarah (Angela Bassett), a schoolteacher, seems alone in her opposition to the project, which is being endorsed by Gospel Hill's prominent African-American physician, Dr. Palmer (Esposito). Meanwhile, a young white teacher (Julia Stiles) comes to town and falls for a handsome young landscaper (Taylor Kitsch), whose business is booming thanks to Dr. Palmer's patronage.

Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (born April 26, 1958) is an American film and television actor and director best known for his roles in such films as The Usual Suspects and School Daze and as Gus Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad. He currently appears in the ABC series Once Upon a Time, as the Evil Queen's magic mirror and "Daily Mirror" reporter Sidney.

Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same bill as entertainer Josephine Baker. His father was from Naples, and worked as a stagehand and carpenter. Esposito lived in Europe until the family settled in Manhattan when he was six.

Esposito made his Broadway debut (1966) at age eight playing a slave child opposite Shirley Jones in the short-lived Maggie Flynn. He did not take offense at the play's racial politics then; he was thrilled. "I had a solo and everything."

During the 1980s Esposito appeared in small roles in films such as Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and Trading Places and TV shows such as Miami Vice and Spenser: For Hire. He played J.C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie Taps. In 1988 he landed his breakout role as the leader ('Dean Big Brother Almighty') of the black fraternity "Gamma Phi Gamma" in director Spike Lee's film School Daze. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies: Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X.

Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress and comedienne. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X and Panther, Rosa Parks in The Rosa Parks Story, Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream,and Voletta Wallace in Notorious.

Bassett was born Angela Evelyn Bassett in Harlem, New York on August 16, 1958, the daughter of Betty Jane and Daniel Benjamin Bassett. After her parents' separation, she relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she and her sister D'nette were raised by their social worker/civil servant mother. As her interest in entertainment developed, Angela and her sister would often put on shows, reading poems or performing popular music for their family. At Boca Ciega High School, Bassett was a cheerleader and a member of the debate team, student government, drama club and choir.