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Dramatic films and television series
Eve's Bayou by Kasi Lemmons (director)
In 1962 Louisiana, Roz Batiste is a beautiful and dedicated mother of three, who is forced to admit that her family is falling apart due to her philandering husband Louis when her younger daughter, Eve, witnesses one of her father's infidelities. Struggling to make sense of what she has seen, Eve turns to her older sister Cisely, who dismisses her in fear of the truth, and then to her Aunt Mozelle, a known psychic and rumored black widow. Unable to find the understanding she is looking for Eve decides to take matters into her own hands.
Publication Date: 1997
Fences by Denzel Washington (director)
In 1950s Pittsburgh, a Black garbage collector named Troy Maxson--bitter that baseball's color barrier was only broken after his own heyday in the Negro Leagues--is prone to taking out his frustrations on his loved ones.
Publication Date: 2016
Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee (director)
It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Tensions are growing, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie is Sal's delivery boy. Radio Raheem has the letters of love and hate written on his hands. He is defiant and together with a motivated Buggin Out, push Sal and his sons to their breaking point. The cops intervene, using force and brutality to apprehend the large Radio Raheem. He is unwilling to succumb to the over-excessive brutality of the police and the racist views of Sal and his family. The overzealous police officers don't understand the repercussions of the violence they just unleashed. The neighbors band together to protest this extreme form of pure, toxic bigotry. Mob mentality takes over and the other local non-African American store owners become threatened. Tempers flare and rage is in the air.
Publication Date: 1989
Within Our Gates by Oscar Micheaux
Among the most fascinating chapters of film history is that of the so-called "race films" that flourished in the 1920s-'40s. Unlike the "black cast" films produced within the Hollywood studio system, these films not only starred African Americans but were funded, written, produced, edited, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color. Entrepreneurial filmmakers built an industry apart from the Hollywood establishment, cultivating visual and narrative styles that were uniquely their own.
Publication Date: 1920
Beyond the Lights by Gina Prince-Bythewood (director)
Noni is a young music superstar, and the pressure of fame has put her on edge. When she meets Kaz, a young cop and aspiring politician who's been assigned to her detail, she falls in love, despite the protests of those urging her to put career ambitions ahead of romance.
Publication Date: 2014
Boyz n the Hood by John Singleton (director)
Three friends struggle to survive in South Central Los Angeles, where friendship, pain, danger, and love form a true picture of life in the 'hood in this critically acclaimed, action-filled story.
Publication Date: 1991
Black Panther by Ryan Coogler (director)
King T'Challa returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from divisions within his own country. When two enemies conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must join forces with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Wakandan Special Forces, to prevent Wakanda from being drawn into a world war.
Publication Date: 2018
I Can Do Bad All By Myself by Tyler Perry (director)
After Madea catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of her married boyfriend, April wants nothing to do with them. But her attitude begins to change when Sandino, a handsome Mexican immigrant looking for work, moves into April's basement room. Making amends for his own past, Sandino challenges April to open her heart. Now, April has to decide between her old ways and the new possibilities of family, faith, and love.
Publication Date: 2009
Straight Outta Compton by F. Gary Gary (director)
In 1987, five young men, using rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in Compton, California, into music. Tells the true story of how these men formed the musical group N.W.A., and how they used their lyrics, swagger, bravado, and talent to stand up to the authorities that meant to keep them down.
Publication Date: 2015
Documentaries films and television series
Zora's Roots by PBS (television network)
Examines the life of author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Follows Hurston, best known for her novel, Their eyes were watching God, to the places that shaped her childhood and her life's work, where she returned again and again for inspiration and solace. Tells her story through the people who knew her and the places and events that she brought to the world through her writing.
Publication Date: 2008
Baadasssss Cinema by Isaac Julien (director)
Features a look back at the early 1970s blaxploitation films, or films in which the cast and target audience consisted mainly of Black Americans. Uses original film footage in combination with interviews of Richard Roundtree, Quentin Tarantino, and Pam Grier, among others, to explore the films, casting, soundtracks, fashion, and storylines that helped this genre of films to achieve cult status.
Publication Date: 2002
African American Lives 2 by PBS (television network)
eatures Gates guiding eleven other African Americans on a search for their ancestry while exploring the history of African Americans from the Middle Passage and slavery to the early 20th century. Shows how genealogical investigations and DNA analysis help Maya Angelou, Bliss Broyard, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Peter Gomes, Kathleen Henderson, Linda Johnson Rice, Tom Joyner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Chris Rock, Tina Turner, and Gates himself discover where they come from and who they are.
Publication Date: 2008
Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind by PBS (television network)
Uncovers the story of Marcus Garvey, a visionary yet enigmatic, brilliant yet manipulative Jamaican immigrant who between 1916 and 1921 built the largest black mass movement in world history and explores his dramatic successes and failures before his fall into obscurity.
Publication Date: 2001