Now Streaming: Confronting Racism Through Film
“The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” – James Baldwin.
Film is not only the great empathy machine, but an art form that can encompass other mediums and multiple voices in seeking the truth. In this moment, we look to the visions and voices of black artists and change-makers, in front of and behind the camera. These are stories about race in America, and about the struggle and sacrifice made by African-Americans for equality and freedom. Here is our recommended watch list.
13th
2016, Dir. Ava DuVernay (Netflix)
DuVernay in this documentary makes the case that slavery, which was supposedly abolished by the 13th Amendment, lives on in myriad ways, as African Americans are criminalized, dehumanized and incarcerated in appalling numbers.
CRIME + PUNISHMENT
2018, Dir. Stephen T. Maing (Hulu)
Within the New York City Police Department, a group of black and Latinx officers resist the institutionalized racism of the quota system. This thoughtful documentary tells their story.
DO NOT RESIST
2016, Dir. Craig Atkinson (Amazon Prime)
In the years following 9/11, police departments throughout the US have become increasingly militarized, using weapons and tactics perfected against occupied communities in other countries. As a result, a state of quasi-war has come to exist between police and policed, most damagingly in the relations between people of color and police departments. This documentary, made in the wake of Ferguson, examines the issues at hand, and what might be done to solve the problem.
FRUITVALE STATION
2013, Dir. Ryan Coogler (Amazon Prime)
Ryan Coogler’s first feature-length film is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year old man killed by transit police in Oakland on New Years Day 2009. Coogler, and his lead actor Michael B. Jordan, show us the humanity of this young man and give us an insight beyond the details of the crime that took his life.
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
2017, Dir, Raoul Peck (Amazon Prime)
Few if any intellectuals ever confronted the psychological and spiritual implications of racism – for all parties involved – like the writer James Baldwin. This film uses film clips, sections of an unpublished manuscript and archival footage to help us understand the apocalyptic toll of racism on all of us.
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
2018, Dir. Barry Jenkins (Hulu)
Barry Jenkins’ bold and operatic adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel follows a young couple as they attempt to build a life together in early ’70s New York. Discrimination by landlords, employers, and the police is presented as a realistic part of life, and the parallels with contemporary conditions are clear.
AMERICAN PROMISE
2013, Dir. Michéle Stephenson & Joe Brewster (YouTube)
Filmed over the course of 12 years, AMERICAN PROMISE depicts the progress of two young black boys as they proceed through the competitive New York preparatory school system, long considered a necessary point of passage for financial and career success. The moments of cultural interface here are allowed to play out without preachiness. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions about the options available to the boys, and we can evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of this system.
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE
2014, Dir. Justin Simeon (Rentable on Amazon & YouTube)
This comedy-drama takes us onto a campus where a number of black students confront the racist legacy of some of the college institutions. This thoughtful and engaging film spawned a Netflix series of the same name, which is also recommended.
DO THE RIGHT THING
1989, Dir. Spike Lee (Rentable on Amazon and YouTube)
Over the course of a blistering hot summer day in Brooklyn, an Italian-American owned pizzeria in a predominately black neighborhood becomes the focal point of a struggle over race, heritage and respect. Spike Lee does not make any of his characters straw men for his perspective. The dynamic lives and breathes with real energy, and the viewer is left to draw his or her own conclusions. A vibrant, vital, essential masterpiece of Cinema. Lee’s epic MALCOLM X is also highly recommended.
MUDBOUND
2017, Dir. Dee Rees (Netflix)
A small Southern town is the setting of this historical drama as we follow two families on opposing sides of the color line before and after the cataclysmic change wrought on their communities and their nation by World War II, as well as the ongoing historical scourge of racism in the South.
WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD’S ON FIRE
2019, Dir. Roberto Minervini (Kanopy)
Houston-based filmmaker Minervini is a close observer and sympathetic chronicler of the minutiae of culture. Here he examines several threads of African American cultural life in New Orleans. We visit the New Black Panther Party as it works for positive change – and basic sustenance of life, we follow a female ex-con as she starts a business, and we accompany two young boys as they navigate life in their neighborhood.
THE BLACK PANTHERS, VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION
2015, Dir. Stanley Nelson (Kanopy)
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson provides the thorough and definitive documentary that the Black Panther Party deserves. Many people whose education about this movement has been fragmentary may be surprised to learn about the extent of the activities of the party. Far more than a militant arm of resistance, the Panthers provided education, nutrition, and other resources. Nelson does not whitewash the gender inequality within the movement either, as the interviewees provide a blueprint for further lessons to be learned as the movement continues.
FREEDOM RIDERS
2010, Dir. Stanley Nelson (Kanopy)
Stanley Nelson here turns his attention to a great American story, the chronicle of the Freedom Rides of 1961, in which more than 400 Americans, black and white, traveled together on buses and trains through the segregated south making demonstrations of unity and resistance and carrying the struggle into the heart of Jim Crow territory. Nelson lets the Riders themselves tell their stories – many of which are harrowing beyond belief.
THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975
2011, Dir. Göran Olsson (Free to stream on Amazon)
The ’67 through ’75 era comes to life in this compendium of recently discovered 16mm footage shot by a Swedish television crew. Because the films are not edited into a news context, the subjects, including Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver and Bobby Seale, are seen in all their candor as they interact with one another and the journalists. Here we are able to see these thinkers and leaders unconstrained by paradign-reinforcing media structures.
On that note, coming in July to the AFS Virtual Cinema, we have a biographical documentary about one of those Freedom Riders, who has since gone on to much more. We are sure you are familiar with him, Representative John Lewis. The documentary is called JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE and it opens on July 3.
Also, MISS JUNETEENTH is coming June 19th to AFS Virtual Cinema. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, is the celebration of the end of slavery in Texas. In this first narrative feature by Texas filmmaker Channing Godfrey Peoples, a former Miss Juneteenth queen in Fort Worth confronts the legacy of structural racism in her personal life, as she struggles for better opportunities for herself and her teenaged daughter. The film debuted to great praise at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
