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- Georgia May
- Moonlight (2016) Directed by Barry Jenkins. Starring Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes. Drama (1h 51m) 7.4 on IMDb — 98% on RT. With Moonlight, Barry Jenkins hits us with a triptych coming-of-age drama.
- Boyz N the Hood (1991) Directed by John Singleton. Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Ice Cube. Crime, Drama (1h 52m) 7.8 on IMDb — 96% on RT. John Singleton's blaxploitation coming-of-age film was a supreme hit—impressive given it was his directorial debut!
- Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Directed by Shaka King. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons. Biography, Drama, History (2h 6m) 7.4 on IMDb — 97% on RT.
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016) Directed by Raoul Peck. Starring Samuel L. Jackson. Documentary, History (1h 33m) 7.9 on IMDb — 99% on RT. While there are countless documentaries celebrating black culture (including Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's recent film Summer of Soul) and unmasking the reality of racism, I Am Not Your Negro is one of the absolute best of them all.
- Within Our Gates (1920), Selected by Julie Dash
- Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968), Selected by Garrett Bradley
- I Am Somebody (1970), Selected by Dawn Porter and Garrett Bradley
- Ganja & Hess (1973), Selected by Julie Dash
- Killer of Sheep (1978), Selected by Ramell Ross
- Suzanne, Suzanne (1982), Selected by Janicza Bravo
- My Brother’S Wedding (1983), Selected by Channing Godfrey Peoples
- Sugar Cane Alley (1983), Selected by Gina Prince-Bythewood
- She’S Gotta Have It (1986), Selected by Cheryl Dunye
- Do The Right Thing (1989), Selected by Amma Asante
“I saw Within Our Gates in the late ‘60s—it was a silent film, black and white, and it just had so many different things in it that I had never seen depicted onscreen before as an old movie,” says director Julie Dash, whose 1991 film about a multi-generational Gullah family, Daughters of the Dust,became the first feature by a Black woman to have a ...
William Greaves’ 1968 documentary-turned-narrative feature, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One is as much about the process of making a movie as it is about the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. “It’s really an experiment, and as a filmmaker, he’s illuminating the filmmaking process,” says director Garrett Bradley, who earlier this year became the first...
“It’s this remarkable verité, beautifully-filmed piece about Civil Rights activists,” says director Dawn Porter, whose recent documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble, about the late civil rights legend, premiered in July. Madeline Anderson’s 1970 short documentary film tells the story of a labor strike by Black female hospital workers in South Caroli...
“There are pieces of films that have swept me away, like Ganja & Hess,” says Dash of Bill Gunn’s gory experimental horror flick that took home the critics’ choice award, when it premiered at Cannes, for its smart, slyly hilarious inversion of the Blaxploitation genre. In particular, Dash has paid specific visual homage to the film with a scene in D...
“To me, Killer of Sheep is one of the first Black films, in the sense that it was responsive to the problem of imagery, by means of its sheer banality,” says director RaMell Ross, whose 2018 documentary film about the intimate moments shared in an Alabama community, Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, won a Special Jury Award at Sundance and w...
“Suzanne Suzanne really shook me to my core,” says Janicza Bravo, who directed the 2017 breakup dramedy Lemon and the hotly anticipated upcoming feature Zola. The 1982 semi-autobiographical short documentary was directed by artist Camille Billops and her husband James Hatch and centers on the story of Billops’ niece, who is dealing with the afterma...
“My Brother’s Wedding gave me such a strong specificity of place, set in the 1980s in South Central Los Angeles,” says Channing Godfrey Peoples, whose critically acclaimed 2020 film, Miss Juneteenth, tells the story of a resilient former beauty queen and single mother. Peoples points to the realism and beauty of My Brother’s Wedding as the standout...
“If I’m to speak on what’s influential on my career, I just remember watching the work of Euzhan Palcy, and Sugar Cane Alley was the first thing I saw from her,” says director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose 20-year career includes her 2000 debut feature, Love and Basketball; the 2014 romantic dramedy Beyond the Lights; and 2020’s action thriller for ...
“One of the most important films to me, that made me start making work, was She’s Gotta Have It, by Spike Lee,” says trailblazing director Cheryl Dunye, whose identity-probing, Black lesbian-centric films like her 1996 feature debut, The Watermelon Woman, have become an important part of the queer canon. Dunye says She’s Gotta Have It, Lee’s first ...
“One film that is always consistent for me is Do the Right Thing,” says director Amma Asante, who directed the 2013 drama Belle, which was inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a British admiral. Asante said that Spike Lee’s landmark 1989 movie about racial tensions unfolding on a hot summer day...
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- Cady Lang
- 13th (2016) - Director: Ava DuVernay. - IMDb user rating: 8.2. - Metascore: 81. - Runtime: 100 minutes. "13th" is a deep look at the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States.
- Do the Right Thing (1989) - Director: Spike Lee. - IMDb user rating: 8. - Metascore: 93. - Runtime: 120 minutes. "Do The Right Thing" is a seminal work by Spike Lee that is a vibrant and provocative exploration of racial tensions on a hot summer day in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
- Get Out (2017) - Director: Jordan Peele. - IMDb user rating: 7.8. - Metascore: 85. - Runtime: 104 minutes. "Get Out" is comedian Jordan Peele's directorial debut.
- Straight Outta Compton (2015) - Director: F. Gary Gray. - IMDb user rating: 7.8. - Metascore: 72. - Runtime: 147 minutes. "Straight Outta Compton" chronicles the rise and impact of the influential rap group N.W.A.
Feb 27, 2023 · From Touki Bouki to Friday, the 75 greatest movies by Black directors, as chosen by our special panel of filmmakers and critics. By Aisha Harris and Dan Kois. Feb 27, 20235:00 AM.
- Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1920) If we lived in a truly just world, Within Our Gates would have snuffed out the racist influence of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation early on, saving us from years of harmful stereotypes (and the revival of the KKK).
- The Blood of Jesus (Spencer Williams, 1941) If modern audiences know Spencer Williams’ legacy at all, it’s as Andy in the much-maligned Amos ’n’ Andy television show.
- Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène, 1966) Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) is a Senegalese woman, dreaming of a better, more exciting life, who follows her rich French employers back to Europe to continue her work as their nanny.
- The Learning Tree (Gordon Parks, 1969) In rural 1920s Kansas, teenager Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson) learns to deal with everyday racial prejudice, be it unsettling interactions with law enforcement, his teachers, or more generally, the white gaze.
Black movie directors have always been at the forefront of the film scene, whether we’re talking about the golden age of cinema or more modern movie-making. ... Dash’s films are a must-see for ...
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The 50 Best Films Directed by Black Filmmakers, Ranked. List activity. 6.3K views. 151 this week. Create a new list. List your movie, TV & celebrity picks. 50 titles. Sort by List order. 1. Do the Right Thing. 1989 2h R. 8.0 (115K) Rate. 93 Metascore.
