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The Watermelon Woman (1996). Cheryl Dunye plays a version of herself in this witty, nimble landmark of New Queer Cinema. |
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A Raisin in the Sun (1961). A black family living in a cramped tenement in 1940s Chicago have a chance to improve their lives via an insurance-policy check, but are in disagreement as to how best to spend the windfall. |
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Akeelah and the Bee (2008). An inner-city girl strives to become a spelling champ in this uplifting family film. |
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Boys N the Hood (1991). The tale of three teens growing up in an L.A. neighborhood: one lives for sports; another for crime; and the last learns about strength of character and being responsible. |
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Fences (2016). Adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a black garbage collector in 1950s Pittsburgh named Troy Maxson. Bitter about his lot in life, Maxson frequently takes out his frustrations on his loved ones. |
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For Colored Girls (2010). The interconnected lives of nine black women, including a wife dealing with an alcoholic husband, a sexually liberated single gal, and a magazine executive. |
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Just Mercy (2013). A powerful and thought-provoking true story, “Just Mercy” follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. |
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Moonlight (2012). MOONLIGHT is the tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality. |
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Pariah (2011). This poignant drama follows a black teenager (Adepero Oduye) living in Brooklyn as she embraces her identity as a lesbian and struggles with how much she can confide in her parents (Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell). |
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Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009). Professor Stuart Hall discusses the complexities of race. Although it is a major way in which people are classified, race is also just a socio-historical construct, rather than a biological one. |
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Get Out (2017). In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift) and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation. |
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I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2016). An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. |
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I am not a Witch (2017). In her BAFTA award-winning debut feature, Rungano Nyoni crafts a satiric feminist fairy-tale set in present-day Zambia. |
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The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019). A wistful odyssey populated by skaters, squatters, street preachers, playwrights, and the other locals on the margins, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a poignant and sweeping story of friendship, community, and the true meaning of home. Joe Talbot's directorial debut is a deep and resonant meditation on the stories we tell ourselves to find our place in the world. |
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Middle of Nowhere (2011). Written and directed by Ava DuVernay, who won the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Best Director Award for her work, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE chronicles a woman's separation from her incarcerated husband and the journey to maintain her marriage and her identity amidst crisis and chaos. |
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Dolemite (1975). Rudy Ray Moore stars in this legendary classic and pillar of the 'blaxploitation' genre. Sent to prison on a frame-up by some crooked cops and his arch rival, the notorious Willy Green, Dolemite is offered an early release if he can bring down Green and the politicians on his payroll who are terrorizing the city. Dolemite, Queen Bee and their beautiful All-Girl Army of Kung-Fu Killers take on the mob in this cult film favorite. |
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Ganja & Hess (1973). Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and the horror cinema, Bill Gunn's revolutionary independent film GANJA & HESS is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity. |
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Miss Juneteenth (2020). A former beauty queen and single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the "Miss Juneteenth" pageant. |
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Space is the Place (1974). A landmark Afrofuturist film. Your librarian highly recommends watching this! |
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Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2015). Spike Lee's stylized thriller DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS is a new kind of love story. Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. He, however, is not a vampire. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status in our seemingly sophisticated society. |
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Night Catches Us (2010). Set in 70s Philadelphia. After years away, an ex-black panther returns to his old neighborhood only to find himself drawn right back into the rivalries and love affair he left behind. Music by the Roots. |
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Cane River (1982). Written, produced, and directed by Emmy Award-winning documentarian, Horace B. Jenkins, and crafted by an entirely African American cast and crew, CANE RIVER is a racially-charged love story in Natchitoches Parish, a "free community of color" in Louisiana. A budding, forbidden romance lays bare the tensions between two black communities, both descended from slaves but of disparate opportunity--the light-skinned, property-owning Creoles and the darker-skinned, more disenfranchised families of the area. This lyrical, visionary film disappeared for decades after Jenkins died suddenly following the film's completion, robbing generations of a talented, vibrant new voice in African American cinema. Available now for the first time in nearly forty years in a brand-new, state-of-the-art 4k restoration. |
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Sidwalk Stories (1989). A young artist living in New York, on the fringes of the financial district and its rushing crowds, tries to make a living sketching passers-by on the street. He survives on his meager means and has found refuge in an abandoned building. One night, on the corner of a back alley, he finds a little girl whose father has just been murdered. While struggling to take care of her, he meets a young rich woman who immediately falls in love with this awkward couple. This silent, black and white comedy is a moving and funny homage to Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. |
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Body and Soul (1925). A landmark film directed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Paul Robeson in his film debut. BODY AND SOUL follows The film follows the exploits of an escaped prisoner who seeks refuge in the town of Tatesville, Georgia, by passing himself off as a Reverend. He is joined in town by a fellow criminal, and the pair scheme to swindle the phony reverend's congregation of their offerings. Music by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky |
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The Price (2017). Seyi, a bright young Nigerian-American working on Wall Street, must navigate complicated family expectations, a turbulent romantic relationship, and a system of cultural complexities caused by class and race. With a dying father, a burgeoning romance with a white girlfriend, and dangerous new business opportunities, Seyi's life is in a delicate balance. When his ambition drives Seyi to morally dubious waters, secrets threaten to erupt and shatter his world. Seyi must confront himself and decisions he has made, facing the crimes of the past in a desperate attempt to salvage the present. |
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Mother of George (2013). In this dazzlingly beautiful romantic drama, a Nigerian woman living in Brooklyn must make a choice which could have dire consequences when she has failed to conceive a child a year after her glorious wedding. |
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Within Our Gates (1920). In this early silent film from pioneering director Oscar Micheaux, kindly Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) takes a fundraising trip to Boston in hopes of raising money to keep a Southern school for impoverished black children open to the public. She then meets the warmhearted Dr. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), who falls in love with Sylvia and travels with her back to the South. Their romance eventually leads to revelations about her family's past and her own mixed-race, European ancestry. |
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Daughters of the Dust (1991.) At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina - former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors' Yoruba traditions - struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots. |