11. Moonlight
In this Academy Award Best Picture winner, a young Black boy living in Miami during the ’80s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality while being raised by an abusive mother.
12. LA 92
LA 92 compiles footage showing how decades of police brutality eventually led to the 1992 protests demanding justice for Rodney King after all four of the police officers who brutalized him were acquitted.
13. Paris Is Burning
Paris Is Burning is considered one of the most important documentaries in cinema for the way it puts a face to the then-underground ’80s ballroom scene in New York. The film follows the Black and Latinx trans and queer people who, shunned by their families, battling HIV, and escaping violence, founded ballroom culture. Today, the documentary has influenced multiple hit TV shows including HBO Max’s Legendary, FX’s award-winning Pose, and Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
As much praise as the documentary has received since its 1991 release (it’s even been preserved in The National Film Archive by the Library of Congress), you can’t recognize it without also noting its shortcomings. Director Jennie Livingston, a white woman, has been critiqued—most notably by author and activist Gloria Jean Watkins, who is known by her pen name bell hooks—for exploiting the people of color who are at the center of the project.
14. Roxane Roxane
The creators of Fruitvale Station and Dope tell the story of Lolita “Roxanne Shanté” Gooden, a teen from New York trying to make it as an MC in the ’80s while also helping to provide for her family. Not only is the story itself compelling, but Mahershala Ali and Nia Long are also in the film, which should be reason enough to watch.
15. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson, an LGBTQ+-rights activist known for being the leading figure at the Stonewall Riots, was found dead in the Hudson River. Her death was declared a suicide and never investigated by the NYPD. In this film, Victoria Cruz, a trans activist, investigates Johnson’s murder on her own and revisits Johnson’s historic and important work.
16. One Night In Miami
Directed by Regina King, One Night In Miami reimagines the events of February 25, 1964, when Muhammad Ali, still called Cassius Clay then, NFL star Jim Brown, musician Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X spent a night together in a Miami—the same night Clay became the heavyweight champ. In the film, the foursome discusses being Black in America, religion, and their own legacies.
17. See You Yesterday
This is a good one to watch with the kiddos. See You Yesterday follows the story of two science wiz kids who invent time travel and attempt to use it to bring back someone they love who was killed by police brutality. Instead, they’ll learn that history repeats itself.
18. A Most Beautiful Thing
A sports movie for people who think they don’t like sports movies, this one chronicles the first African American high school rowing team in the country, made up of former members of rival Chicago gangs.
19. Mr. Soul
Learn the story behind the public television variety show SOUL! hosted and produced by the enigmatic, openly gay Ellis Haizlip. From 1968–1973, the “Black Tonight Show” provided a platform for Black literature, poetry and politics, shedding light on the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement.
20. Judas and the Black Messiah
FBI informant William O’Neal infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party, with an aim to keep an eye on chairman Fred Hampton. But as Hampton’s power grows, so does O’Neal’s moral quandary in this stunning portrait of the Black Panther movement.
CLICK “>” TO GO TO NEXT PAGE
