LibGuides: The Healing Collective Resource Library: Films

Films, Television and Web-series

Moving image allows for a greater reach of representation and exposure of Black feminist practices. These films and shows provide relief from the daily traumas endured, in the form of entertainment. Julia Roxanne Wallace, creator of the Black Feminist Film School describes the process: “To name oneself a Black Feminist Filmmaker is to embrace this responsibility [of realizing collective well-being] which also means becoming a mediator between worlds to strengthen the drain and threatened life-force of the community.”

Webseries

Brown Girls Webseries
‘Brown Girls’ is an intimate story of the lives of two young women of color. Leila is a South Asian-American writer just now owning her queerness. Patricia is a sex-positive Black-American musician who is struggling to commit to anything: job, art and relationships. While the two women come from completely different backgrounds, their friendship is ultimately what they lean on to get through the messiness of their mid-twenties.
195 Lewis
195 LEWIS is a dramedy series about a group of women navigating the realities of being Black, queer, and poly in New York City. Directed by Chanelle Aponte Pearson.

Films

Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash and is the first feature film directed by an African-American woman distributed theatrically in the United States Set in 1902, it tells the story of three generations of Gullah (also known as Geechee) women in the Peazant family on Saint Helena Island as they prepare to migrate to the North on the mainland.
The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 feature film by filmmaker Cheryl Dunye about Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the period. It was the first feature film directed by a black lesbian.
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(The link leads to Kanopy, which is database only accessible on Bennington College campus.)
Illusions
Illusions is a 1982 film written and directed by Julie Dash. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.

Television Series

Chewing Gum
Chewing Gum is a British television sitcom set in London. It was written by and stars Michaela Coel, alongside the cast of Robert Lonsdale, Susan Wokoma, Danielle Walters and Tanya Franks. The show features 24-year-old shop assistant Tracey Gordon, a restricted, religious virgin, who wants to have sex and learn more about the world. The show won the BAFTA for Best Female Performance In A Comedy Programme and Breakthrough Talent for Michaela Coel for her work on the show.