30+ Movies About Race You Need to Watch
We are filmmakers, so when the going gets tough, we turn to...what else? Movies.
[Author’s note: This post is an update from the original, written in July 2016. Both were written in direct response to police brutality in the US against black civilians. Thus, while recognizing that racism and its effects are experienced by many groups, the article focuses on films by and about black people that deal directly with the long, entrenched, and multi-layered history of systemic racism against them and its effects until today. At the time of the update, people are once again on the streets across the country to protest the unlawful killing of an unarmed black citizen, George Floyd, among many others, amidst the Corona pandemic which has disproportionately affected communities of color. Fortunately, many more films have been made and released just in these past four years that can help us understand the issues behind the current situation as well as the lived black experience in America today.]
The going has certainly gotten tough in the U.S.A. lately. As summer has heated up, so has political rhetoric and devastating violence, each bringing to the fore one of our most complicated and deeply rooted national issues: race relations. Recent headlines have left many in our film community and beyond feeling sad, helpless, angry, confused, or a hot summer stew of all of them. As we discussed on a recent episode of Indie Film Weekly, no matter where you fall on these issues, it’s important to be educated on their historical context. Current events don’t exist in a bubble, and learning about their origins, as well as other people’s experiences, is the first step toward creating change.
And where does a filmmaker turn to become educated? Films, of course. Fortunately, Kino Lober is releasing the blu-ray box set Pioneers of African American Cinema, executive produced by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky). The 5-disc set will be an excellent primer on the African American experience captured in over 20 films, and spanning over 20 years of the early cinematic era.
As for me, I turned to our No Film School boards and staff, and my personal filmmaking community to ask for recommendations, and they came in droves. Out of more than 75 recommended films—from historic docs to searing narratives to animations—I’ve culled a group here for my summer playlist and maybe yours, too.
Table of Contents
1. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
We might as well begin at the beginning. Plainly put, the African-American experience is rooted in slavery. The Oscar-winner for Best Picture in 2014, a word often used to describe this brutal depiction of one slave’s experience is “unflinching.” The film is especially poignant because it is based on the real-life memoir of Solomon Northup, an African-American man who was born free but then kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Another powerful take on slavery and American history can be found in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997), which dramatizes another true story, this time about a mutiny by Africans being transported on a slave ship and their ensuing trial, fallout from which sowed the seeds for the Civil War.
2. A Raisin in the Sun (Daniel Petrie, 1961)
Starring some of our country’s most celebrated actors, Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, this was one of the first films to get really real about how everyday racism affects black families just trying to get by in America. In this case, it’s a Chicago family who has come into some unexpected money and the obstructions they face when trying to, for example, move into a traditionally “white neighborhood.” The film’s story still resonates for many today, as evidenced by its series of sold out performances every time the play (on which the film is based) comes to Broadway.
3. Boyz N the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
As everyone’s favorite NFS writer, V Renée, called out, “‘Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care what's going on in the hood.’ Brilliant!!!” She was pointing out one of the many lines in Singleton’s celebrated debut that made the realities of African American life in South Central Los Angeles crystal clear, at a time when many Americans had only heard of the region through gangsta rap. Not coincidentally, one of South Central’s legendary rappers, Ice Cube has his acting debut in the film, playing one of the three central characters wrapped up in the drama of the streets. Hard to believe that this could have been true as late as the ‘90s, but Boyz also made John Singleton the first African-American to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards.
4. The Butler (Lee Daniels, 2013)
This film, based on a true story, exhibits decades of sociopolitical change in America through the eyes of a black butler who served eight U.S. presidents in the White House. It does not shy away from the full spectrum of the African American experience, even including original footage of police violence during the Civil Rights movement. The mixed emotions and lived history that are represented in the film may be best summed up by Daniels’ own 91-year-old uncle, as Daniels described them in a CNN interview: “He was the first pediatric surgeon of color in America and when he saw this movie, I can't explain to you what it was like. He cried from the beginning to the end, and he laughed from beginning to end." (Daniels, by the way, was the second African American get the Best Director nom—18 years after Singleton—for Precious in 2009.)
5. Coonskin (Ralph Bakshi, 1975)
Perhaps the most controversial film on the list, this 1975 hybrid animation/live-action tale, rife with racially charged iconography, was originally protested as racist. However, its depiction of an African American fox, rabbit and bear who become big players in Harlem’s organized crime syndicate has since been noted as a searing indictment of the treatment of people of color in this country. In fact, a frequent commenter on our No Film School boards remarked that Coonskin is, “probably one of the most allegorical films I've ever watched about the black experience in America.” It’s worth noting that Bakshi was no stranger to controversy. By the time Coonskin was released, he had already fired up critics with 1972’s Fritz the Cat, the first animated film to receive an X rating.
6. Dear White People (Justin Simien, 2014)
This 2014 Sundance favorite takes a satirical approach to the issues at hand, showing that racism is alive and well, even in an era when people of color have access to our country’s most privileged institutions. Its plot centers around a biracial student at a predominantly white Ivy League university, and it uses comedy to expose the intercultural (and innercultural) tensions that she and her African-American classmates face. We will also be able to watch a 10-episode TV adaptation of the film on Netflix next year.
7. Fruitvale Station(Ryan Coogler, 2013)
Another Sundance breakout (as well as Best First Film Winner at 2013’s Cannes Un Certain Regard), this film tells of a true story that served as a devastating precursor to the rash of police killings of African American men in recent years. The movie opens with the actual footage of Oscar Grant and his friends being detained by the BART Police, who oversee the Bay Area’s public transit system. It goes on to portray the last day of Grant’s life through flashbacks, until the moment he was fatally shot in the back by those same police at Fruitvale Station in Oakland.
8. How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (Joe Angio, 2005)
There could be an entirely separate post on excellent documentaries that tackle these pressing social issues, but this one might be especially pertinent to filmmakers. It focuses on the life of provocative black filmmaker Melvin van Peebles, and features appearances from other film mavericks like his son, Mario van Peebles, and Spike Lee. Best known for his 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (lauded as the most successful independent film of its time), van Peebles had an incredibly diverse career ranging from novelist to Wall St. trader, but perhaps his most significant accomplishment is the way his irreverent (and often humorous) approach to social challenges changed the national conversation. As van Peebles himself says in the film, “I didn’t see the type of things I wanted to see, so I did it myself.”
9.Imitation of Life(Douglas Sirk, 1959)
The description of this film, and its 1934 predecessor by John M. Stahl, reveal them to be way ahead of their time. Yes, the lead black character, Annie, plays housekeeper to the lead white one, Lora, but they are also both single mothers and best friends. Through their lifelong relationship, issues not only of race but of identity, female independence and interdependence, and socioeconomic realities play out. The most interesting character may be Annie’s light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane, through whom we can witness society’s brutal hypocrisy (like when she is beaten by a white boyfriend who discovers she is black). Reading up about how the script was changed between the release of two films is an interesting study in America’s shifting social norms in and of itself.
10.In The Heat of The Night(Norman Jewison, 1967)
Another Poitier classic, and winner of 5 Oscars including Best Picture in 1968, this charged police drama follows the story of a black Philadelphia detective, played by Poitier. Intrigue ensues when he is brought on to investigate a murder in a small, bigoted Mississippi town after he himself is wrongfully accused of the crime. The film, particularly the “odd couple” relationship that develops between Poitier’s character and the white sheriff who originally accused him, inspired a popular TV series of the same name that ran from 1988-1995.
11. Let the Fire Burn(Jason Osder, 2014)
I got chills from the trailer alone of this documentary on what a courtroom testifier in the film calls “one of the most devastating days in the modern history of Philadelphia.” The found-footage documentary pieces together the events and aftermath surrounding the police action of dropping military-grade explosives onto a rowhouse occupied by members of the Black Power group MOVE, which resulted in eleven deaths (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. Though this incident was hardly the first time that fear of counterculture led to flagrant abuses of power, this is a powerful and thoughtful presentation, and particularly relevant amidst today’s conversations about what constitutes terrorism.
12. Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair, 1991)
Nair’s breakout hit focuses on a young Indian woman, whose family settles in Mississippi after being expelled with all other Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin (because “Africa is for Africans”). In her new home, she falls in love with a black man, and, well, hotness ensues, both in the heat of their romance and boiling intercultural tensions. Their love story is entertaining but not simple; it serves as a reminder that racism and race-based misunderstandings (or worse) exist not just between black and white, and not just in America, but across international borders and among many different groups. Two other titles including our most famously-spelled state were also recommended for this list and are worthy of your consideration: Mississippi Damned (Tina Mabry, 2009) and Oscar-Winner Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker, 2001).
13(+). PBS miniseries ad infinitum
If any media outlet can be said to have done a noteworthy job of covering the history of race relations in America, it’s good old PBS. One miniseries to start with isThe African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, written and narrated by noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It gives a comprehensive and appropriately complex picture of African American history in six parts, from the transatlantic slave journeys in 1500, all the way up to Barack Obama's presidential election. It also comes with a website chock full of educational resources appropriate for a wide range of ages, like more than 100 posts written by Professor Gates himself about prominent African Americans from US history.
For a focus specifically on the civil rights movement, reach no further than the 1987 American Experience seriesEyes on the Prize. This 14-hour saga was created and executive produced by celebrated documentarian Henry Hampton, and takes a deep dive into the people and acts behind the greatest social justice movement in American history.
Other recommended PBS fare to explore are African American Lives 1 & 2 (also helmed by Louis Gates, Jr.), and the Independent Lens episodesThrough a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
14. Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of our country’s most well known and beloved figures, but rarely do we get a closeup look at the man or the movement that he inspired. This Oscar-nominated historical fiction depicts a very specific but significant period of his life, when he planned and led the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to secure equal voting rights for African Americans. (Although race had not technically been a barrier to voting since the 15th amendment was passed in 1870, there were still plenty of state-sponsored restrictions on voting for of people of color 100 years later, especially in the South.) Though the events culminated successfully, with President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the victory did not come without bitter, violent and even deadly opposition, displayed in the film.
15. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
The directorial debut of indie film hero Cassavetes, its story centers around three African American siblings living in the New York City beatnik scene. The film’s portrayal of interracial relationships is a likely inspiration to others on this list that deal with the same. Shadows is particularly notable for its realism, and the tackling of race relations during the height of popularity of sanitized portrayals of American life in shows like Leave it to Beaver.
16(+). Spike Lee's entire filmography
Even when prolific filmmaker Spike Lee’s films aren’t about race, they’re about race. I’d go as far as to say that if you were only going to choose one item on this list to get your primer on race in America, it should be this one...although it itself includes well over 20 titles. Perhaps start with an early one like Do The Right Thing (1989)—an East Coast predecessor to Boyz N The Hood—and later move into heavier fare with his depiction of outspoken black activist Malcolm X(1991). A Spike Lee joint particularly relevant to those of us making media is Bamboozled (2000). And don’t forget about his many thought-provoking documentaries, including the heart-wrenching 4 Little Girls (1997), about four children who were killed in the 1963 bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama.
17. The Spook Who Sat By The Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)
On its face, this film about a militant black activist who uses his CIA training to arm African American freedom fighters might seem like the ultimate blaxploitation trope. However, the fact that the F.B.I. had a role in removing it from theaters in its original theatrical run tells us that there is more to it: a subversive and bitingly satirical message. In the words of Tim Reid, who helped resurface and release the film on DVD in 2004, “When you look back at the times...Martin Luther King was assassinated, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy. Black people were really angry and frustrated; we were tired of seeing our leaders killed. What do we do? Do we have a revolution? There is nothing that comes close to this movie in terms of black radicalism.”
18. Trouble the Water (Tia Lessin and Carl Deal , 2008)
Kanye West was always provocative, but before he was “Kimye,” he used to say some pretty relevant things. His public response to the government’s appalling lack of response to the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans—which disproportionately affected poor, black residents was, "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People." Oscar-nominated for best feature documentary, this films tells the story of one family’s Katrina experience with a stunning montage of real-time footage captured by the protagonists as their neighborhood floods with water from the storm. Spike Lee also tackled Katrina and its aftermath in his TV miniseries When the Levees Broke.
19: The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016)
Hands-down the most discussed film coming out of Sundance 2016, this period drama portrays the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. Its title is an ironic reference to one of the most racist films in history, a 1915 KKK propaganda work of the same name. Perhaps best described by Variety critic Justin Chang, the 2016 film “exists to provoke a serious debate about the necessity and limitations of empathy, the morality of retaliatory violence, and the ongoing black struggle for justice and equality in this country. It earns that debate and then some.” It was acquired by Fox Searchlight in a record-breaking deal at Sundance and has continued to spark debate since.
20. Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, 2017)
Many of the films on this list expose historic injustice. This urgent documentary brings us right into the heart of the modern day protest movement, captured in the most modern way, through a collage of footage largely captured by protesters and witnesses on the streets during the aftermath of Michael Brown’s murder. Brown was an unarmed black teen, shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, MO, and left lying in the streets for hours. As our own Jon Fusco writes, “The directors, however, don’t focus on the forensics reports or harsh statistics associated with institutionalized racism. You can find those on the internet. Instead, they sifted through nearly 400 hours of footage to deliver their message through the pain and heartbreak of the city’s residents.” The results are an up close-and-personal counter-narrative to the media coverage of the events. Another powerful documentary released that same year, Erik Ljung’s The Blood is at the Doorstep, follows a more intimate tale of one family’s journey into activism after one of their own, Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old unarmed black man diagnosed with schizophrenia, was shot 14 times and killed by a Milwaukee police officer in broad daylight. For an account of the unfolding of the umbrella protest movement starting with the murder of Trayvon Martin, check out Laurens Grant’s Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement.
21. I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)
Pulling from of our past coverage of this affecting, must-see documentary: “When Raoul Peck set out to revisit the work of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr, through the writings of their mutual friend James Baldwin, he might not have realized how necessary and timely that revisitation would be. Although all of the film’s subjects have left this world, their struggles feel as contemporary as ever—a fact which placesI Am Not Your Negro among the year’s most urgent documentaries. An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, the film weaves together an enormous trove of archival footage from contemporary American life with narration of Baldwin’s pointed observations voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. Ultimately, for an American audience in the throes of an identity crisis, the film embodies one of Baldwin’s most famous quotes: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’”
22. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, 2018)
Based on another James Baldwin work, If Beale Street Could Talk is the unfolding tale of childhood friends who become lovers, Tish and Fonny, in early-1970s Harlem. The couple is anticipating the birth of their first child when Fonny is wrongfully arrested for a rape he didn’t commit. Only a director as lyrical and gifted as Barry Jenkins could successfully make a love story into a searing social commentary, but it would be hard to find anyone unmoved by the first lines in the film, uttered by Tish and referring to visiting Fonny in prison: “I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass.” Two other notable works about real-life false accusations, arrests, and unjust trials are Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, about 1989’s Central Park jogger case against five innocent black teens, and Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy, about the attempted retrial for Walter McMillian, a black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a white woman that he didn’t commit.
23. 13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
Ava DuVernay looms large on this list and in the industry with good reason: she is a powerful woman telling powerful stories. This documentary is arguably among her strongest works in its very clear and compelling examination of the modern prison industrial complex and its direct lineage from slavery. If you struggle to understand the meaning of “systemic racism,” this film is a primer in how US policies throughout its history have deliberately and directly targeted black communities with results ranging from disenfranchisement to death row. And while we’re thinking about DuVernay, take a look at the list of films being distributed by her company ARRAY for a diverse slate of works by filmmakers of color.
24. Crime + Punishment (Stephen Maing, 2018)
Speaking of systemic racism, this investigative documentary literally goes inside the system, following a group of active duty black and Latino NYPD officers who risk their careers to expose and sue the department for targeting and arresting citizens from minority neighborhoods in order to fill their departmental quotas. Other protagonists include a 17-year-old boy falsely arrested in one of these sweeps, imprisoned in the infamous Rikers Island jail, and his mother who is trying to get him out but cannot afford bail. Our own Oakley Anderson-Moore calls the multi-award-winning documentary “the police drama of the decade.” Another police documentary with incredible access is Peter Nicks’ The Force, which ventures inside the notoriously harsh Oakland Police Department. Indiewire says of this vérité film that it’s “a portrait of police reform that illustrates the futility of police reform.”
25. Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu, 2019)
Part of the prison system imbalance explored in the previous two entries is death row, where “people of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43 % of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those currently awaiting execution,” according to the ACLU. Clemency explores this issue from an unexpected angle: the emotional toll it takes on a black prison warden who is responsible for carrying out death row executions. Alfre Woodard is widely lauded for her nuanced and powerful performance as the conflicted warden. The film premiered at Sundance in 2019, where Chukwu became the first black woman to win the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
26. Always in Season (Jacqueline Olive, 2019)
This potent and emotional documentary, which was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency at Sundance 2019, belongs in conversation with other films on this list that trace the origins of racial injustice in the US and tie them directly to current events. The film’s official logline lays out its premise most plainly: “When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.”
27. Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada, 2018)
Much of our country’s current focus is on the victims of police brutality, but what about those who witness it firsthand? How do they react? How would you? That poignant question is at the heart of three festival favorites released in 2018, The Hate U Give(George Tillman Jr.), Monsters and Men (Reinaldo Marcus Green), and Blindspotting. Blindspotting is possibly the most accessible of these titles, as the film often takes a comedic approach to its serious subject matter. In it, Daveed Diggs (who also co-wrote and produced) plays Collin, a parolee who is plagued by the witnessing of a white cop shooting a black civilian. The complications of racism, relationships, and urban gentrification in Oakland play out through Collin’s interactions with his over-the-top and reckless white best friend, played by the film’s other co-writer, Rafael Casal.
28. Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas, 2019)
Another film that may be considered more accessible is acclaimed music video director Matsoukas’ debut feature about a black couple on the run after a routine traffic stop unexpectedly escalates into the shooting of a white police officer. The supremely stylish work manages to be many things at once: gripping drama, romance, and social commentary while also packed with gorgeous compositions and a great soundtrack. But don’t let the polished veneer fool you. This is a straight up thriller wherein, for black Americans, everyday activities like going on a first date or stopping at a convenience store can quickly turn frightening or even tragic when the underlying tension is already so high.
29. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
Quoting again from our own past coverage: “When the 2017 Golden Globes placed this psychological thriller in its Musical or Comedy category, director Jordan Peele tweeted simply: Get Out is a documentary. Granted, Peele built his career as a comedian and the comment was a relatively cheeky one. After all, the scripted narrative is not technically a documentary. That being said, its horrifying premise about what happens when a black man goes to visit his white girlfriend’s seemingly liberal parents (details omitted to avoid spoilers) is pushed to the limits of absurdity, but the underlying sentiments of the film and the issues it brings to light are as real as it gets.”
30. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)
Like Get Out, this wildly inventive and entertaining social satire takes an absurd turn to make its point, but not one that’s any more absurd than the racism and capitalism that it lambastes. As with several other films on this list, it takes place in the midst of rapid gentrification in Oakland, where a black telemarketer rises in the ranks of his company in part by employing a code-switching “white voice” on his calls. Once again in the interest of avoiding spoilers, suffice it to say that he is met with a harsh awakening when he reaches the executive suites. A more poetic look at Bay Area gentrification can be found in Joe Talbot’s Last Black Man in San Francisco, for which the filmmaker won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance 2019.
Special mention: The Wire (TV series)
One of the vanguards of the cinematic TV wave, The Wire is oft-heralded as the most accurate depiction of urban issues—race and class divides chief among them—ever on the small screen. Each season of this intricately woven crime drama set in Baltimore takes on a different theme affecting city residents: drugs, the business (legal and illegal) that goes through Baltimore’s ports, the bureaucratic city government, the school system, and the local newspapers. I’ve managed to avoid the word “gritty” for this entire post, but The Wire is indeed gritty, gripping, dramatic, sometimes shocking, and even heartfelt: basically everything one might want in a binge-watch.
Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions. We’ve already started watching, and we’d love to hear from more of you. What films would you add to this list?
Featured image from 'Fruitvale Station'
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