My MBP 2011 Snowleopard 10.6 wont start

My HD only has 5.3gig left available. I think the HD may be too full to start. It just stays on the gray Apple Logo startup screen. Is there a solution that doesn't involve wiping and starting over? I have about 20 gigs of movies I'd like to delete but I can't get to them from recovery.

thanks very much.