20 Films that Celebrate Black America

This coming-of-age dramedy follows Malcolm, Jib, and Diggy, a group of teenage outcasts who obsess over schoolwork and making music for their punk band. One day, the group finds itself in deep shit after accidentally stealing a bag of drugs from a house party. Together, they have to find a way to dispose of the contraband and get away from the thugs who want it—before it’s too late.

Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah follows the months leading up to Fred Hampton’s assassination. It all begins when William O’Neal, a troubled teenager, is offered a plea deal from the FBI to spy on Hampton and the Black Panthers. Tasked with gathering information on the Chicago-civil rights group, O’Neil winds up playing a tragic role in Hampton’s demise.

Straight Outta Compton documents the rise of West Coast hip-hop. The biographical drama tracks the career of N.W.A and the creation of its first album. With help from the group’s manager and community, Eazy E, Ice Cube, Dr.Dre, Dj Yella, MC Ren, and more uproot the music industry.

Time

What’s better than a good old-fashioned house party? In this comedy, Play, an aspiring DJ, throws a house party while his parents are out of town. As it turns out, throwing the event of the century comes with its fair share of twists and turns.

Black Women! In! Stem! What more can you ask for? Hidden Figures tells the true story of three NASA employees—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—whose scientific findings helped send astronaut John Glenn to space. Their achievement aided in the Space Race and changed the trajectory of NASA for years to come.

In this dark comedy, a culture war begins at a fictional Ivy League school when a Black student starts a radio show called Dear White People. Hellbent on calling out the injustices Black students face, Samantha White, the show’s host, begins critiquing just about everyone and everything in her path.

This musical film was directed and scored by Beyoncé. The project is an ode to Disney’s The Lion King, but with a modern twist. Tune in for the classic story you know and love—and stay for the reimagined music and visuals.

Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece about a Brooklyn neighborhood is still one of the most lauded pictures in his filmography. With an expansive ensemble cast, the film follows a Brooklyn neighborhood dealing with the stresses of growing racial tension. Spike Lee stars in the film alongside Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee among others. Do the Right Thing ends with a dedication to those who died at the hand of police brutality. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and was inducted into the National Film Registry.

Moonlight is one of A24’s best creations. The film follows the life of Chiron, a Black kid grappling with his sexuality. As he grows up, Chiron falls in love with his best friend and learns to accept his identity, despite all odds.

In her feature directorial debut, the award-winning director of Beyoncé’s “Formation” video, Melina Moutsakas, stunningly tells the story of two strangers (Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith), whose first date takes a traumatic and dangerous turn when they must flee after shooting a police officer in self-defense.

13th, a Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay, is an incredible look at how race and the justice system interact with the crippling mass incarceration problem in America. While likening the system to American slavery, DuVernay’s film skewers the prison industrial complex and sheds a light on the for-profit systems that have deeply corrupted correctional facilities across the United States. The film is celebrated among critics, having nabbed a Best Documentary nomination at the Academy Awards, and an Emmy win, to boot.

I Am Not Your Negro

Long after his death in 2005, August Wilson’s plays still stand as some of the most essential portraits of African-American life ever made. In recent years, Denzel Washington has committed himself to honoring Wilson’s legacy—developing adaptations of his plays, starring in them, renovating the August Wilson House—which brought us 2016’s Fences, showing us the discrimination the Maxson family faced living in the post-World War II-era, depressed Hill Disrict neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Nearly a decade ago, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was kneed in the head by BART police officers responding to a report of a subway station fight. He died later that day. In his directorial debut—and first collaboration with Michael B. Jordan—Ryan Coogler told Grant’s devastating story, showing us all of the promise his life had, and everything he did on New Year’s 2011, leading up to another unjust death of a Black man at the hands of white police officers.

In his unforgettable directorial debut, Jordan Peele uses the tropes of horror films to illustrate the horrors of racism. Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris, a Black man who uncovers a disturbing secret when he accompanies his white girlfriend on a visit home to meet her parents. Funny, frightening, and a trenchant criticism of race relations in America, Get Out opened the door to a new mode of storytelling about the evils of racism.

Directed by Ava DuVernay, Selma is a historical drama about the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Representative John Lewis, among others. DuVernay dramatizes King and Lewis’ efforts to prevent disenfranchisement of Black Americans, culminating in their historic marches over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Perhaps the most emotional element of this rousing story is how little has changed in the decades since, with Lewis still taking the congressional stand to secure a better, fairer future for Black Americans.

In this Best Picture winner based on an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northrup, Chiwitel Ejiofor plays Northrup, a Black man born free in New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film charts Northrup’s twelve years of back-breaking work on a southern plantation, as well as his efforts to escape slavery. Directed by Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave was celebrated as one of the finest films of the year for its unflinching look at the violence and abuse that Black Americans like Northrup were subjected to on plantations.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk is the moving story of Tish and Fonny, a Harlem couple whose bright future is torn apart when Fonny is arrested for a crime he never committed. Directed by Barry Jenkins, the film follows Fonny’s trials in the criminal justice system, while Tish carries to term a pregnancy that her loved ones consider “doomed,” as she and Fonny cannot marry with Fonny behind bars. In this deeply poignant film, Jenkins depicts love blossoming despite a broken system.

The Hate U Give

Based on the popular young adult novel by Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give emphasizes how issues of racism and police brutality are not simply adult problems—rather, they infect the upbringing of Black children and teenagers across the country. 16-year-old Starr Carter lives in a traditionally Black neighborhood and attends a predominantly white prep school, but everything changes for her when her childhood friend is wrongfully murdered before her very eyes during a routine traffic stop. Despite her efforts to keep her home persona and her school persona separate, Starr is thrust onto the national stage when she speaks out against her friend’s murder. The film then follows her journey as a nascent activist for racial justice, in all its up and downs. If you’re looking to educate the teens and pre-teens in your household about racism and police brutality, sit them down for a screening of The Hate U Give.