Black Studies: Documentaries

The group of Black filmmakers that have come to be known as the L.A. Rebellion created a watershed body of work that strives to perform the revolutionary act of humanizing Black people on screen. The filmmakers in this group met as students in film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s.

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement, Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews.

In this documentary film, Isabelle Boni-Claverie explores the role of race and the persistence of racism in France, as well as the impact of the French colonial past. Through an exploration of her personal family history, and interviews with historians and academics.

A tribute to the contributions of African-Americans in film over the last century. Film shorts feature premier artists such as Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, amd many more. Includes interviews with major stars such as Snoop Dogg, Ice T., Quincy Jones, Spike Lee and Russell Simmons.

This documentary discusses the struggle of Black Pullman porters to unionize, even though rebuked by white organized labor, and the eventual formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under A. Philip Randolph. Explores the impact of this group on the American civil rights movement.

Shows that the history of black photographers intertwines with the story of African American life, as seen through photographs ranging from antebellum weddings and 1960s protest marches, to portraits of contemporary black celebrities.

Comprised of found footage and sound bites, Let the fire burn describes the conflict between the Black Power group MOVE and the people and city government of Philadelphia, culminating in the armed standoff of May 13, 1985, in which one police officer and eleven MOVE members were killed, ending when Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the row house that served as MOVE headquarters.

et Freedom Sing powerfully retells one of the greatest stories in American history, the Civil Rights Movement, in a compelling new way... through the singers and songwriters who fought for change through their music. This amazing DVD chronicles the power of lyrics and songs that helped move a generation during turbulent times, bringing change to our country.

In 1997, actor Morgan Freeman, a resident of the small town of Charleston, Miss., offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School under one condition: the prom must be racially integrated. His offer was ignored. In 2008 he offered again, and the offer was accepted, changing the tradition of two separate proms for blacks and whites that had endured since the high school was integrated in 1970.

In an experimental amalgam of rap music, street poetry, documentary film, and dance, a gay African-American man expresses what it is like to be gay and black in the United States.

"I have a dream" contains King's entire inspirational speech in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. This video also includes a newsreel and documentary footage from the 1963 march plus footage from the rally on the twentieth anniversary of the original march.

Documents the concert held on the anniversary of 1965 Watts Riot, and had 100,000 in attendance. Narrator: Richard Pryor; introductory speaker: Jesse Jackson; with various performers.

When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, AL to the forefront of America's concern.

Tells the story of black South African freedom music and the central role it played against apartheid. Specifically considers the music that sustained and galvanized blacks for more than 40 years. Focuses on the struggle's spiritural dimension named for the Xhosa word for "power". An uplifting story of human courage, resolve and triumph.

Elementary genocide exposes the socially engineered mechanism created by our government and utilizing the public school system to label elementary aged African American males as work for hire targets within the US penal system.

Through in-depth interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from his films, Spike Lee talks about the ideas, influences, motivations, struggles and successes behind his work. "I have been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I am still bankable."

This film reveals a self-perpetuating system of inequity in which internal factors play out in external structures: institutions, policy and law. Designed for dialogue and learning, Cracking the codes : the system of racial inequity works to disentangle internal beliefs within, as it builds skills to recognize and address the external drivers of inequity.

This documentary profiles the life and career of saxophone player and jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Coleman, a pioneer in the "free jazz" era of the 1960s and a Pulitzer Prize winner

Broken on All Sides dissects the War on Drugs and "tough on crime" movement and offers hope for change, exploring possible reforms and solutions to ending mass incarceration.

A compelling combination of storytelling and science, this series uses genealogy, oral histories, family stories and DNA to trace roots of several accomplished African Americans down through American history and back to Africa.

This documentary follows the 1972 campaign waged by Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for a major party's nomination for United States President. Chisholm first made her mark on American political history when, in 1968, she became the first African-American woman elected to Congress, representing New York.

This film profiles Chester Burnett, better known as the Howlin' Wolf. It includes an incredible compendium of never-before-seen footage, live footage, rare Shindig footage presented by Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, interviews with bandmates and family and more.

In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored -- cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change.

A lyrical and poetic consideration of the life of revered Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes ; Isaac Julien invokes Hughes as a black gay cultural icon, against an impressionistic, atmospheric setting that parallels a Harlem speakeasy of the 1920s with a 1980s London underground nightclub.

A frank and honest look at black identity in America. Uses incisive storytelling and commentary from prominent black intellectuals, including Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, and Cornel West. Meant to stir provocative debate and add reinforcement to a bold vision for a humanity that embraces all people. Explodes the myth that black America is monolithic.

Flappers, Prohibition, speakeasies, and the booming stock market—the uproarious “Jazz Age”—sets the tone for this episode, and the story of jazz becomes the story of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and of two extraordinary artists whose lives and music span almost three quarters of a century—-Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich culture of Latin America and the Caribbean. The six nations featured in this four-part series are Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru.

Explores one the of most influential theorists of the anti-colonial movement, as it follows Fanon from his birth in 1925 on the French island of Martinique through his medical training in France, then to Algeria where he joined the liberation struggle.

This portrait of Jason Holliday, a black gay prostitute who dreams of a career as a nightclub performer. As he reminisces about his life, Holliday discusses his homosexuality and the gay subcultures in San Francisco and New York and impersonating female entertainers and movie personalities such as Mae West, Butterfly McQueen, and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the wind.

In 1964, three civil rights activists go missing in Mississippi. The bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are found months later, and the three Klansman accused of murdering them are put on trial. All three are found not guilty, including Edgar Ray Killen who openly flaunts his involvement in the killings for years after the trial.

A cluster of neighborhoods lies in the heart of Southern California, streets that form a grid between concrete ribbons of freeway. Nearly a quarter of its young men will end up in prison. Many others will end up dead. These neighborhoods in South Los Angeles are home to two of the most infamous African-American gangs, the Crips and the Bloods.

Trouble the Water takes audiences on an insider's view of Katrina with a devastating portrait of the hurricane's aftermath. It's not only about the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, but about the underlying issues that remained when the flood waters receded - failing public schools, record high levels of incarceration, poverty, structural racism and lack of government accountability.

The first comprehensive look at Stax Records, the greatest soul label of all time. Provides first-hand accounts of what really happened on the streets and behind studio doors from celebrated musicians such as Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Mavis Staples, as well as label president Al Bell, Rev. Jesse Jackson and others.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson returns home to the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1990 to review his life and career. Archival footage and interviews with Wilson, former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, Rob Penny, fellow writers, and others provide insights into the African American experience, from the Great Black Migration to more recent times.

The story of the Funk Brothers, the group of musicians that played on every single hit Motown record from the label's beginnings to 1972. Inspired by the book "Standing in the shadows of Motown" by Allan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky.

The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations are felt today.

When a 15-year-old black male is arrested for the murder of Mary Ann Stephens, everyone involved in the case--from investigators to journalists--is ready to condemn him, except for his public defence lawyer, Patrick McGuiness. A true tale of murder and injustice.

races the history of a burial song of the Mende people brought by slaves to the rice plantations of the Southeast coast of the United States over two hundred years ago, and preserved among the Gullah people there. In the 1930s a pioneering Black linguist, Lorenzo Turner, recognized its origin, and in the 1990s scholars Joe Opala and Cynthia Schmidt discovered that the song was still remembered in a remote village in Sierra Leone.

Malcolm X" shows a boy reared in segregation-era Detroit who turned to a life of crime -- until he saw the light of Islam behind bars. After he rejected his former identity and adopted the moniker "Malcolm X," the newly-born social leader channeled his rage into educating Black America about its vital, though suppressed, history.

A four-part series offering the first comprehensive look at race relations in America between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement presenting the context in which the laws of segregation known as the "Jim Crow" system originated and developed.

Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher, moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful interests to stand up for their rights.

Perhaps best known as a photojournalist, Parks was also a novelist, poet, musician, and filmmaker. This video offers commentary on every facet of this man's remarkable career, concentrating on the motivation and techniques he used in creating his best-known work, his portraits of American poverty and racial tension.

A biography of Emmett Louis Till, an African-American teenager who was murdered for whistling at a white women in Mississippi in 1955. Chronicles director Beauchamp's decade-long effort to determine the true identities of Till's killers.

Records and relates the lives of the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama, who for more than 150 years have made quilts reflecting their history and daily lives. Having worked in isolation for generations and continuing to inhabit the remote plantation land their parents once slaved, they have received unexpected attention from the artistic world.