Highlighting Black Filmmakers

There are many ways you can support the “Black Lives Matter” movement. You can help by protesting (hopefully with a mask), aiding the cause financially, signing petitions, growing awareness via social media, confronting ignorance within your social circle, and by educating yourself through various media (music, film, television, podcasts, books, etc). Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t able to do everything on the aforementioned list, but hopefully you’re doing some of it. We all need to be more empathetic going forward, to take a step back and simply listen to what the black community wants and needs from us.

As this blog illustrates, I spend a great deal of time watching film and television. So I figured, why not highlight some things I have seen that helped open my eyes, and allowed me to (for an hour or two) be in the shoes of someone less fortunate and less privileged than I am. I certainly am not the most qualified person to be doing this (check out film critic Wesley Morris), but I’ll try to do my part anyway. I will bring up the black filmmakers and writers behind some of the best content out there, and then list a few projects of theirs that I find to be essential viewing. Hopefully you will find these suggestions informative, enlightening, and entertaining. This is also a protest against people who think they’re educating themselves by watching ‘white savior” movies made by white people (Green Book, The Help, The Blindside). To understand the plight of black people in this country, watch/read things created by black people. It isn’t hard.

Ava DuVernay

Selma (2014)(AMAZON)

When They See Us (2019)(NETFLIX).

13th (2016)(NETFLIX)

Not only is she making important and necessary work, but her stuff is absolutely engrossing. She’s made both film and television shows that speak to the black experience and showcase the history of our racist institutions and our corrupt justice system.

Barry Jenkins

Moonlight (2016)(NETFLIX)

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)(HULU)

While his films aren’t non-fiction like most of Ava DuVernay’s work, there is plenty of subtext throughout his films, which are uniquely dedicated to the black experience and all of the challenges that come with it.

Boots Riley

Sorry to Bother You (2018)(HULU)

This man’s directorial debut is a brilliant satire that highlights gentrification, capitalism, and race. Making satire in today’s day and age is extremely difficult due to just how outrageous our real world existence has become, but he somehow pulls it off by ramping up the absurdity to 11. It is genuinely one of the funniest movies of recent years while also being quite eye opening.

Spike Lee

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Da 5 Bloods (2020)(NETFLIX)

Spike is without a doubt one of the most famous and influential black filmmakers in history. He’s been chronicling the black experience for over 30 years. I would recommend the vast majority of his filmography. His 3rd film, Do The Right Thing, is his best and also, because history tends to repeat itself, feels prescient for this very moment we are experiencing. I just watched his most recent feature, Da 5 Bloods, which shows Lee’s work is as vital and as intoxicating as ever.

Daveed Diggs

Blindspotting (2018)(HULU/HBOMAX)

Diggs co-wrote and starred in one of the best films of 2018. It also happens to be one of the best films on racial bias, the challenges of avoiding recidivism, and gentrification. Diggs became a well known figure in part due to his role on the original cast of Hamilton, and he uses his musical talent to great effect in this role.

Raoul Peck

I Am Not Your Negro (2017)(AMAZON)

This documentary is filled with intelligent, thoughtful, and wise sentiments from the late James Baldwin. Baldwin is one of the most outspoken and influential people in the civil rights movement. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, who brings to life some of Baldwin’s writing. The director, Raoul Peck, uses vivid and often disturbing imagery to drive home the points.

George Tillman Jr.

The Hate U Give (2018)(AMAZON/HULU)

This film shows the pressures black adolescents feel to fit in with white culture and a world built around white privilege. It also illustrates the harsh realities of police taking the lives of innocent black people, and all the ripple effects that one loss can have on a family and community at large.

Dee Rees

Mudbound (2017)(NETFLIX)

This film, based in Mississippi during World War II, is a stark reminder of how far we still need to come in terms of equality. Rees does an amazing job of showing the contrast between two families that happen to be neighbors, but live two vastly different experiences solely because of the color of their skin.

Jordan Peele

Get Out (2017)

Us (2019)(HULU/HBOMAX)

Typically horror movies don’t provide much in terms of social commentary or criticism, but Jordan Peele changed that with his brilliant debut, Get Out. His movies are fun, beautifully shot, and filled with racial metaphors/symbolism that will leave you pondering things long after the credits have rolled.

Steve McQueen

12 Years a Slave (2013)

All of McQueen’s work can be difficult to watch at times, but it’s all brilliantly executed and exploding with importance. The tension is palpable from the opening shot to the closing credits, and his films require the audience to internalize every moment with the character’s on screen.

Ryan Coogler

Fruitvale Station (2013)

While many people likely know this talented young director from his work on Black Panther or Creed, his first film, Fruitvale Station, is perhaps his best and most urgent. It places a different perspective on police violence, by focusing on the victim and his life prior to the encounter.

Because this list is not anywhere close to being comprehensive, I urge you to seek out other black artists, and ensure their voices are heard. Below, I will include some other films/shows directed, written, and starring black people that touch on race and systemic oppression.

Just Mercy (Free this month on most platforms)

Watchmen (HBOMAX)

Insecure (HBOMAX)

Malcolm X (Netflix)

Waves

Straight Outta Compton

Precious (HULU/HBOMAX)

Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)

Atlanta (HULU)

Detroit (HULU)

Queen & Slim

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Beasts of No Nation (NETFLIX)

Dope

See You Yesterday (NETFLIX)

Black Panther (Disney+)

Black Lives Matter