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Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Directed by Johan Grimonprez • Documentary • 2024 • Belgium, France, Netherlands • English, French, Dutch, Russian with English subtitles
Featuring Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Dizzy GillespieThis 2025 Oscar® nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Sundance award winner tells the story of t...
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Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
Directed by Francesco Zippel • Documentary • 2021 • US, France • English
Featuring Chuck D, John Singleton, Morgan FreemanOscar Micheaux was the most influential African American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century, a self-taught artist who funded, produced, and released more than 4...
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Body and Soul
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • Drama • 1925 • US • Silent with English intertitles
Starring Paul Robeson, Marshall Rodgers, Lawrence ChenaultThis bold and controversial film by pioneer independent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux follows the path of an escaped convict who poses as a pastor in a small s...
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Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts
Directed by Jeffrey Wolf • Documentary • 2018 • US • English
Featuring Russell G. Jones, Sharon Washington, Jason Samuels SmithThis illuminating documentary tells the incredible story of Bill Traylor, a former slave who turned to drawing at age 85, creating colorful, strikingly modernist work ...
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Ganja & Hess
Directed by Bill Gunn • Horror • 1973 • US • English
Starring Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill GunnFlirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and horror, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent film is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American ide...
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Test Pattern
Directed by Shatara Michelle Ford • Drama • 2020 • US • English
Starring Brittany S. Hall, Will Brill, Gail BeanPart psychological horror, part realist drama, this exhilarating debut feature from Shatara Michelle Ford follows an interracial couple whose relationship is put to the test after a B...
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Native Son
Directed by Pierre Chenal • Drama • 1951 • Argentina • English
Starring Richard Wright, Jean Wallace, Gloria MadisonA new restoration of the 1951 film version of Richard Wright's novel, "Native Son" exposes the injustices of urban African-American life through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, played ...
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Jazz on a Summer's Day
Directed by Bert Stern • Documentary • 1959 • US • English
Featuring Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, Anita O'DayFilmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and directed by renowned photographer Bert Stern, this film features intimate performances by an all-star line-up of musical legends includin...
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Tey
Directed by Alain Gomis • Drama • 2012 • France, Senegal • French, Wolof with English subtitles
Starring Saul Williams, Djolof Mbengu, Anisia UzeymanIn a village outside Dakar, the gods - or the stars, or destiny, have spoken: Satché must die by the end of the day. Directed by Alain Gomis and s...
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The Wound
Directed by John Trengove • Drama • 2017 • South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, France • Xhosa with English subtitles
Starring Mallory Wanecque, Timéo Mahaut, Johan HeldenberghShortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "The Wound" is an exploration of tradition and sexuali...
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Banel & Adama
Directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy • Drama • 2024 • Senegal, France, Mali, Qatar • Pulaar with English subtitles
Starring Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine SyBanel and Adama are fiercely in love. For them, nothing else exists except each other. But duty dictates that Adama accept the role of ...
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Trouble the Water
Directed by Carl Deal, Tia Lessin • Documentary • 2008 • US • English
Featuring Brian Nobles, Wink Rivers, Kimberly Rivers RobertsWinner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this powerful documentary is at once horrifying and exhilarating. “Trouble the Water” takes you inside ...
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Slam
Directed by Marc Levin • Drama • 1988 • US • English
Starring Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Bonz MaloneWinner of a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and a Caméra d'Or for Best First Feature at Cannes, "Slam" stars Saul Williams as a young Black performance poet who is imprisoned for a petty marijuana c...
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The Retrieval
Directed by Chris Eska • Drama • 2014 • US • English
Starring Ashton Sanders, Keston John, Tishuan ScottOn the outskirts of the Civil War, white bounty hunters send a young boy on a mission into the north to find a fugitive freed man by earning his trust and luring him back to the south. Groun...
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Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Directed by Matt Wolf • Documentary • 2019 • US • English
Featuring Marion Stokes, Anne Stokes Hochberg, Frank HollmanMatt Wolf’s documentary delves into the strange life of Marion Stokes, who obsessively and privately recorded American television news twenty-four hours a day. A civil rights-e...
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Lost in the Stars
Directed by Daniel Mann • Theatre • 1974 • US • English
Starring Brock Peters, Melba Moore, Raymond St. JacquesDaniel Mann ("The Rose Tattoo") transforms Alan Paton's novel of racial oppression “Cry the Beloved Country” into a tragic and beautiful film musical. Gilded by Maxwell Anderson's luci...
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King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis
Directed by Sidney Lumet, Joseph L. Mankiewicz • Documentary • 1970 • US • English
Featuring Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Belafonte, Ruby DeeNominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, this monumental film follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his rise from regional activist to worl...
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Downtown 81
Directed by Edo Bertoglio • Arthouse • 1981 • US • English
Starring Jean Michael Basquiat, Debbie Harry, Richard WeigandShot in New York City in the eighties and written by Warhol associate Glenn O’Brien, "Downtown 81" features graffiti innovator and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat moving through t...
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Murder in Harlem
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • Drama • 1935 • US • English
Starring Clarence Brooks, Dorothy Van Engle, Alec LovejoyOscar Micheaux’s remake of his own “The Gunsaulus Mystery” (1921) is based on the true-life murder of Mary Phagan. When a young woman is found dead in a factory office, a Black empl...
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Neptune Frost
Directed by Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman • Sci-Fi • 2021 • US, Rwanda • English, Kinyarwanda with English subtitles
Starring Cheryl Isheja, Elvis Ngabo, Diogene NtarindwaIn an otherworldly e-waste dump camp, an anti-colonialist hacking collective attempts a takeover of the authoritarian regime...
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When the Beat Drops
Directed by Jamal Sims • Documentary • 2018 • US • English
Featuring Anthony DavisDrop into the electric and subversive underground dance scene known as bucking. As voguing exploded out of the ballroom scene of NYC, bucking was boldly pioneered in the clubs of the Deep South as a new form of se...
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Makala
Directed by Emmanuel Gras • Documentary • 2018 • France • Swahili with English subtitles
Featuring Kabwita Kasongo, Lydie KasongoWinner of the 2017 Grand Prize and Golden Eye Special Mention for Best Documentary at International Critics Week in Cannes, "Makala" is Emmanuel Gras' powerful testa...