Directed by Rosine Mbakam • 2011 • Belgium, Cameroon
Starring Pierrette Aboheu, Karelle Kenmogne, Cécile Tchana

Over the past decade, Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam has distinguished herself with her incisive observational documentary portraits of African women. With MAMBAR PIERRETTE, her f...

Directed by John Carluccio • 2019 • United States
Starring Maurice Hines, Debbie Allen, Cheryl Davis

This intimate, emotionally engaging portrait of the charismatic song-and-dance virtuoso Maurice Hines (1943–2023) follows him from his tap-dancing childhood into his late ’70s. Maurice and friend...

Directed by Lionel Rogosin • 1959 • United States
Starring Miriam Makeba, Vinah Makeba, Zachria Makeba

One of the bravest and most powerful political films ever made, Lionel Rogosin’s urgent indictment of racial injustice—filmed in secret in 1950s Johannesburg, South Africa—follows a young Zulu ...

Directed by Ellie Foumbi • 2021 • United States
Starring Babetida Sadjo, Souleymane Sy Savane, Jennifer Tchiakpe

Ellie Foumbi’s elegant moral thriller is a grippingly intense exploration of trauma, revenge, and forgiveness that stands as one of the most exciting feature debuts in recent memory. ...

Directed by Jon-Sesrie Goff • 2022 • United States

This moving and poetic documentary weaves a plaintive story about generational inheritance and the tension that defines our collective American history, especially Black history. Following his father, a minister, in the aftermath of a mass shoot...

Directed by Adepero Oduye • 2017 • United States
Starring Adepero Oduye

In this soul-stirring short featuring stunning cinematography from Bradford Young, PARIAH actor Adepero Oduye takes the stage as the great Nina Simone for an intimate, defiant performance.

Directed by Josell Ramos • 2003 • United States
Starring Larry Levan, David Mancuso, Frankie Knuckles

The origins of New York City’s legendary underground dance-club culture are explored in this kinetic cult documentary—a vivid chronicle of a scene that became an oasis for the city’s queer and B...

Directed by Ekwa Msangi • 2020 • United States
Starring Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, Jayme Lawson

In her luminous feature debut, filmmaker Ekwa Msangi chronicles a broken family’s journey to wholeness with empathy and insight. Seventeen years after his family was separated by the civil wa...

Directed by Blitz Bazawule • 2018 • Ghana, United States
Starring Ama K. Abebrese, Joe Addo, Henry Adofo

A profusion of dazzling, magical-realist images grace the visually and emotionally stunning debut feature from musician turned filmmaker Blitz Bazawule. Through the eyes of Esi (Cynthia Dankw...

Directed by Darol Olu Kae • 2023 • United States

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (The Ark) has been a legend in Los Angeles’s avant-garde jazz community for over sixty years. But since the death of its founder, pianist and composer Horace Tapscott, the band has spent the last three decades ebbi...

Directed by Cauleen Smith • 1998 • United States
Starring Toby Smith, April Barnett, Will Power

A rediscovered treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s DRYLONGSO embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/romance. Alarmed by the rat...

Directed by Dwayne LeBlanc • 2022 • United States
Starring Barrington Darius

This graceful, deeply atmospheric short follows Booker (Barrington Darius) as he returns to South Central LA after several years away. Confined to the interior of his car, we watch as he interacts with the people and pl...

Directed by Matt Wolf • 2019 • United States
Starring Michael Metelits, Marion Stokes

For over thirty years, Marion Stokes obsessively and privately recorded American television news twenty-four hours a day. A civil rights–era radical who became fabulously wealthy and reclusive later in life, he...

Directed by Cheryl Dunye • 1996 • United States
Starring Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker

The wry, incisive debut feature by Cheryl Dunye gave cinema something bracingly new and groundbreaking: a vibrant representation of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian filmmaker. Dunye s...

Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne • 2022 • France
Starring Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj

From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT) comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori (in remarkable debut perform...

Directed by Miryam Charles • Canada • 2022
Starring Schelby Jean-Baptiste, Florence Blain Mbaye, Marie Yardly Kavanagh

Shot on dreamy 16 mm, the stunning debut feature from Haitian-Canadian filmmaker Miryam Charles resurrects a tragedy that occurred within her own family—the unresolved death of ...

Directed by debbie tucker green • 2021 • United Kingdom
Starring Lashana Lynch, Tosin Cole, Danny Sapani

With this riveting adaptation of her acclaimed play, debbie tucker green pushes the boundaries of stage and screen alike. Dynamic, absorbing, and visually inventive, EAR FOR EYE traces racial...

Directed by Olive Nwosu • United Kingdom, Nigeria • 2021
Starring Teniola Aladese, Sheila Chukwulozie, Loveth Onyemaobi

Salewa (Sheila Chukwulozie), a young queer woman living with her wife in London, returns to her hometown in Nigeria for her mother’s funeral. There, she confronts her complex f...

Directed by Ayoka Chenzira • 1994 • United States
Starring Kim Weston-Moran, Victoria Gabrielle Platt, Mizan Nunes

A rediscovered treasure of independent cinema, this incisive comedic drama follows Rainbow Gold (Victoria Gabrielle Platt), a teenager coming of age in Brooklyn, as she looks to two...