A Week of Movie Recommendations: Black Films by Black Directors
Ever since shelter in place began in March, on my Facebook page, I have been recommending a film daily. Several people have asked if I could compile those recommendations. So this begins a series of recommendations where each day I recommend a movie based on a theme.
Today I am beginning a week of recommendations of films by Black filmmakers. During this uncertain time of social action and anger, I feel that we, who are not part of the Black community, must listen to the anger; that we must listen to the anguish, because this specific anger and anguish is not something that I have had to live with. I have not had to fear for my life when a police officer stops me or even when I was approach by police during protests.
For too long in Hollywood, films about African American experiences were made by White directors with a White protagonist. Many of these movies in the past three decades (I won't try to say that for so many of them before then) were made with good intentions, but had the consequence of furthering a troubling narrative and also disallowing the Black community to tell its own story. And it is a story that we all need to listen to. An example of one of these films is "Mississippi Burning" about the FBI investigation into the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, all civil rights activists in 1964. Rather than making a film about the sacrifice of these young men or about how their deaths made the Black community recoil, but also stand up, it instead follows the White savior, FBI officer Ward, who comes in and saves the day. Of course, the film has some incredible nuance in how it tackles the idea of change in a White controlled south, but it still lacks the potent narrative of the community who was most affected by these acts of terrorism.
Before I begin with the 7 days of recommendation, here is a long list of suggested films to continue seeing as well as the 7 I go into below.
"Do The Right Thing" ****
"Malcom X" ****
"Chi-Raq" ****
"Crooklyn" ***
"He Got Game" *** 1/2
"Bamboozled" ***
"BlacKkKlandsman" *** 1/2
"She's Gotta Have it" (both the film and TV show) ***
"Creed" ****
"Black Panther" ****
"13th" ****
"Medicine for Melancholy" ***
"Moonlight" ****
"If Beale Street Could Talk" ****
"Eve’s Bayou" ****
"Harriet" ** 1/2
"Hunger" ***
"12 Years a Slave" ****
"Widows" *** 1/2
"Get Out" ****
"Us" ****
"Friday" ***
"Straight Outta Compton" ****
"Menace II Society" *** 1/2
"Antwone Fisher" *** 1/2
"The Great Debaters" ***
"4 Little Girls" ****
"When the Levees Broke" ****
"Sweet Sweet Songs of Baadassss!" ***
"Baadasss!" ****
"Pariah" ***
"OJ Simpson: Made in America" ****
"Love and Basketball" ***
"The Learning Tree" ***
"The Watermelon Woman" ***
"I am not Your Negro" ****
"Dear White People" (the film and TV Show) *** 1/2
Black Films by Black Directors
Day 1 Movie Recommendation
For today's film recommendation, which is meant for myself to revisit, to listen and to learn, as well as to celebrate the Black community, I am selecting Denzel Washington's incredible adaptation of August Wilson's play:
"Fences" ****
If Hollywood is hard for black filmmakers to break into, an even more difficult art has been theater. Certainly there are great Black playwrights at work today: Susie Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, Anna Deavere Smith, and others. But, theater during the rise of Broadway, has turned to being a rather upper class supported art form, which necessarily means, mainly white. Given the expense of attending the theater, theaters "believed" that plays that reflected their audience' experiences would be the only profitable way to make theater. History has proven them wrong.
August Wilson, one of the great American writers, burst onto the scene with "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in 1982. It was the first work in one of the greatest, and most ambitious, American art projects. Wilson created a "centennial" series: 1 play for every decade of African American history during the 20th century.
All of these works should be required reading. Wilson wanted to illuminate and celebrate the African American community, which he saw as being forged by surviving slavery; giving their community an element of endurance, but also, being haunted by the remnants of slavery. He also wanted to tell a story too often not told in either the classroom or in the public sphere of art.
"Fences" is his most celebrated work. The story takes place as all of his plays do in the Pittsburgh's Hill District (except Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) in the 1950s. Following fighting in WWII, many black soldiers returned home to fight racism even though they fought for American freedom during the war. Most did not and could not take advantage of the GI Bill, which made the ever growing disparity between the white middle class and black middle class grow larger. Another great film that tackles this is Dee Rees' "Mudbound". In "Fences," our main character is Troy; a man who has done time in prison, but who has turned his life around with the help of his wife, Rose. They have a relatively stable life, but like all Americans, Troy desires more.
In one of the great scenes, Troy reveals to his wife that he has been having an affair and now has fathered a child with another woman. In order to "explain" himself, he talks about the burden of being a black man in our society. Listen to how he explains it with a baseball analogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwciN4lL85s
Troy explains the concept that there is not a level playing field. Being poor might mean that you start out with a strike, but being poor black, you start out with two strikes against you and you know that the third strike is coming. That is something that I never have experienced. I wasn't born with two strikes against me. Going to prison was not something that I consciously ever had to deal with. I could have made a decision, a mistake, and thrown all of that away, true, but I didn't have that weight on me.
Then, Rose speaks. She speaks of the African American woman's experience, which is even less written about than the Black man's experience. Rose is the heart of this movie. People judge African American split families. They judge single family households. But we don't stop to step into the shoes of those who carry such burdens on a daily basis. I continually return to Father Boyle's famous quotation about how we look at those on the margins of our society. We ought not to judge someone based on how they carry their burden, but instead be in awe of how many burdens they carry.
Watch the way Denzel as director uses fences to show how closed off this community is from the outside world because those fences have been built by our society. How fences are what hold us back. They make us say this is mine and that is yours.
I recommend all 10 plays by August Wilson. I have had the great joy of seeing 8 of those ten plays in theaters. I hope that like "Fences" there will be an August Wilson revolution in cinema and that all ten of his works will be brought to the screen. Not because they work better as films than plays, not at all, but because the access to theater is limited compared to the streaming of films. I would also love if these plays were just streamed as well. Either way, let's get his works out there so that we can listen and hopefully through listening, step into someone else's experience, and through that, form empathy.
Day 2 Movie recommendation
Continuing recommendations for African-American films, today we turn to a true American independent director, Charles Burnett.
Charles has had a busy career, always continuing making films whether they be shorts, documentaries, or feature length narrative films, even though none of his films have ever brought him the success of more famous Black filmmakers like Spike Lee or John Singleton.
"To Sleep With Anger" ****
Tonally, "To Sleep With Anger" is a very strange film. It has a great sense of humor as well as searing family drama with a little African-American mysticism mixed in. There is both a rising tension of a horror film and the documentary quality of documenting the mundane daily life.
The family at the center of the film live in Los Angeles. Their ancestry traces back to slavery in the south, specifically Louisiana, when, the mother and father of the family, decide to try and leave the past behind by relocating to Los Angeles, the City of Angels.
Before it was popular, this family raised chickens for the family dinners in Los Angeles and one of the mundane routines we see is the caring of the chickens. Family is everything and life rotates around Gospel music and celebrations even though they are obviously poor and the house is too small for a family of this size.
Then, there is a knock on the door. An old friend from New Orleans, Harry (played brilliantly by Danny Glover in one of his best performances arrives). He is the life of the party. Everyone is so happy to see their dear friend. But, he brings the past with him. He at first represents everything that the Black community carries with them such as broken families dating back to slavery.
Soon things begin to fall apart. The father of the family, Gideon, is arguing with his son, Baby Brother (Richard Brooks), about his path in life. Baby Brother becomes defiant. Fueled by alcohol and Harry's encouragement of a free life, Baby Brother refuses to be part of the family any longer. Then, Gideon suddenly falls ill. Without health care or really without being able to figure out what is wrong with him, Gideon is home hospitalized. In one of the great visuals of the movie. they have no place for Gideon, so the living room of the small cramped house is cleared so they can place the bed in the living room. He lays there in a coma of sorts. The family itself is ill.
Things really begin to fall apart. It is at this point that we begin to understand the influence Harry is having on everyone. He gets under people's skin and encourages Chaos. Perhaps, like the Joker, is a an agent of Chaos. He also seems to practice a form of voo-doo.
Finally, the movie comes into crystal clear focus when the mother, realizing what is happening, asks the question to Harry, "I have to know who I have in my house," and his response says it all, "You invited me." There is an old belief that the devil cannot enter your house unless invited in. Indeed, Harry is the devil himself.
How he is defeated and what happens is a joyous comic event. The image of what happens to him, juxtaposed against the father in the living room is hysterical. The end trumpeting song is both a return to the angels, gospel music, and family.
One of the cultural elements that is so fascinating is African-American mysticism which is a combination of African folklore, Christianity, and customs and rituals built in slavery. It is an element of the story that I did not recognize the first time I saw it and has only come from learning more through the works of others great African American artists. Like August Wilson's works, "To Sleep With Anger" is a celebration of survival. It places the emphasis for survival on the Black family, faith, embracing the culture's spiritual past, and music as a means of expression
Available for rent on youtube!
Day 3 Movie Recommendation
During these difficult and uncertain times, it is important to remember that for the Black community, these are not isolated incidents. That the anger and pain, the discrimination, the racial profiling are daily oppression.
A movie that I rewatched last night that spoke to these same feelings is Ryan Coogler's film:
"Fruitvale Station" ****
In 2008, Oscar Grant was killed by police at an Oakland bart station. Coogler chose for his first feature film to make a film about the life of Oscar Grant and the day that ending with being murdered.
The begins with the actual video of Oscar Grant being shot by Officer Johannes Mehserle who was found not guilty in a federal trial. When I first saw the movie I said, "I was at first horrified that Ryan Coogler would begin the film with the actual footage of Oscar Grant being killed. I thought it was manipulation, but when the film ended and the tears were rolling down my eyes, I realized he had earned using that footage at the beginning of the film." I still believe that, but now I go further. The videos of George Floyd being murdered and Oscar Grant being murdered are necessary viewings for people like myself. As horrific as they are, as painful, as denigrating to human dignity, I need to watch them as this is a reality that I have not experienced or feared because of my privilege.
The story of Oscar Grant (brilliantly portrayed by Michael B Jordan), and it is a story, but one based on Oscar's life and also Ryan Coogler's own life experiences growing up black in America, begins on the last day of the year. Oscar has had a hard life. He has been involved with drugs. He has a child with his off and on again girlfriend. Today, he decides to turn his life around and in a great scene he takes his briefcase of drugs down to the ocean where he stares at the ocean in silence thinking before throwing them in the ocean.
This is important because Oscar Grant is not being portrayed as a saint, but a regular young man who has made some mistakes.
There is an incredibly important sequence in a grocery store where a young white woman is trying to buy fish for a fish fry. Oscar, who is there because he is being let go from his job, steps in and offers to find out. He is met with eyes of suspicion, just because he is black. He recognizes that look because he has seen ti before. Rather than confronting the racism head on, he wisely dials his grandmother and allows the young woman to speak to his grandmother to find out which fish she should by. It is a moment of growth from the young woman who realizes that her unconscious bias caused her to react a certain way. This is obviously not a one time occurrence for Oscar, but rather, a daily reminder of his place in society.
The film plays as the tragedy that it is. A man who was trying to turn his life around has his life ended that night. The police violated Oscar's rights according to the investigation and judgement in a civil suite where they forcibly removed him from the Bart train, mistaking him for another man and giving his race, judging that the complaint had to be against him. They then violated his rights by attacking him, claiming he was resisting arrest, when the video shows nothing of the sort. Then he is shot.
This is why I said that George Floyd's death was unfortunately not surprising. We need to stop and listen to the stories of Black Americans who have to fear for their lives on a daily basis. Watching this film and other stories by Black filmmakers about their community and life experiences is a very small start. But it is a start, a small step.
Day 4 Movie Recommendation
Continuing my recommendation of Black films by Black filmmakers as a small step towards listening to the Black community's life experiences and story as a means to understand our own privileged, and then, turn that understanding to being an ally, we turn to a movie that came out last year that surprisingly didn't get more press.
"Queen & Slim" *** 1/2
Melina Matsoukas sets the film's premise on an experience that the Black community knows all to well: a police stop. I have been stopped by the police while driving and most of the time get by with a warning. I appreciate the interaction, but have no idea of the fear that comes with getting stopped. I might fear a ticket, but not for my life.
"Queen & Slim" tells the story of the two central characters who go out on a tinder date. It's not a good date. When Slim prays before the meal, you can see Queen barely repress a rolling of the eyes. They have no chemistry. On the drive home, they have that previously mentioned police stop. The cop, racist and trigger-happy, demands that Slim get out of the car and begins to get physical with him, shoving him up against the car. Queen gets out of the car and tries to film the whole thing, with the Officer telling her to get back into the car. Slim ends up defending himself and in the scuffle, the officer ends up shot. Dead.
The two then run. They throw their phones in the river and drive south. They hope to get to Cuba. They know that they will not get a fair trial.
First, the film acts as a modern day underground railroad. The two are trying to escape oppression and freedom is another country. What a sad statement about America.
Some critics positively compared the film to "Bonnie and Clyde", but the comparison isn't accurate. Yes, both of the two titular characters in "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Queen & Slim" become folk-heroes of the community, but that's where the similarities end. It is actually a great study for us in difference of how White and Black people are viewed.
Bonnie and Clyde were criminals. They robbed banks and they were unrepentant for the actions, perhaps until they realize the consequences coming. Even though they were criminals, people saw them, both in the film and in real life, as fed up Americans who were taking it to the man or the establishment. Interesting how differently the protesters today are viewed.
On the other hand, Queen and Slim did not commit a crime. It was self defense. Now, that would be hard to prove in our current court system, but they were never intentionally criminal in the beginning. If these two became headline figures in the press, America would label them cop killers and treat them as such. Interesting compared to how Bonnie and Clyde are viewed.
The Black community comes to Queen and Slim's aid as they flee south. There is an irony of returning South here. Along the way, the two discover each others true selves and fall in love. Perhaps it's simply because of a shared experience, but either way, the two actors do a great job portraying their passionate love, especially Jodie Turner-Smith in her first film.
The title is important: "Queen & Slim". It suggests that their personas have taken over their identity and that they are symbols. Also the use of the "&" instead of "and" is interesting. Robert Altman used the "&" to great effect in "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" suggesting an enterprise rather than a relationship. It adds to the idea of the symbol of the two.
Day 5 Movie Recommendation
Continuing with my selection of movies from Black filmmakers so I can listen and learn from their experiences, I turn to a film that confused me as a youth. This film is not a traditional film in any sense. I believe I first saw it when I was in 8th grade and dismissed it as nonsensical. God I was an idiot... and naive... still am naive, but I am trying to grow.
"Daughters of the Dust" *** 1/2
An obsession of several famous authors is the past being alive in the present day. For some it is a curse. Faulkner once said, "The past is not dead. It is not even past". Eugene O'Niel said, "There is no future or present, only the past, happening over and over again, now". In Toni Morison's novel, "Beloved", the past plays such a presence on all of the characters. Ghosts haunt them. August Wilson often has stories about the past and its influence on the present.
For the Black community, the past is a difficult subject. It is a reminder of centuries of slavery and oppression. It is also a story of endurance and survival. In "Daughter's in the Dust", the past is very much alive, although it is in a generally positive light.
On island off the shore of South Carolina, there is a community of freed slaves. They survived slavery keeping the traditions of the Ibo tribe they are from before they were stolen and chained and brought to a foreign land. The film takes place during a moment of transition. The last day of the year 1902 when members of the family come together to celebrate their past and say goodbye to several members who will leave to journey north.
This moment is an important moment in Black history. The failure of reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow is causing a mass movement North where prejudice and hatred, they hoped they were leaving behind, awaited them.
The films is mystical in how the past is present and also future. It is narrator by a daughter not yet born in the future who is reflecting upon how the past is alive. Ancestors long since deceased are present. They speak in a mixtures of English, French, African languages representing a mixture of their history. Sometimes they are subtitled, other times they are not, but what they are saying is so often not the point. The movie works as a song, or meditation, as a history of emotions.
It is a rare and beautiful work. Made in pieces over years due to lack of funding, the film never the less is beautifully shot, capturing the beauty of an enduring culture.
It also is a testament to women and the nature of the storyteller and record keeper in traditional Black culture.
Day 6 and 7 Movie Recommendations
For the last two films I am going to select, I turn to a film that introduced the great director, John Singleton (RIP), to the world, and a short I had never seen until last night.
The Criterion collection has a channel that streams films that you can sign up for and they have curated a collection of early films by black filmmakers. It is great and also truly sad because I had seen so few of them. One of them that really caught my attention is "Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life".
Today's two recommendations: the short "Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life" **** and "Boyz n the Hood" ****
"Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life" is available on youtube, but beautifully restored on the Criterion Channel. It is the "story" of Duke Ellington composing and playing his "Symphony in Black".
The film is split into two four sections: "Laborers", "Triangle: Dance, Jealousy, Blues", "A Hymn of Sorrow" and "Harlem Rhythm". The film ingeniously plays with editing for a film made in 1935, a time when flashbacks or dream sequences were unusual. It begins with Ellington receiving a note reminding him of his impending deadline. He then works at a piano composing the song we are listening to. The shot then dissolves to him playing in a concert hall. Is he dreaming? Are we in the future watching the completion? As he plays, the camera dissolves to other images. Are these occurring at the same time? If this is a dream, are these the images that are evoking the music that Ellington is writing? The kaleidoscope creates a wonderful montage of African American life.
The "Laborers" shows Blacks working in the shadows, underground, unseen. Perhaps trapped. "Triangle" happens in three parts. The first Dance shows a couple dancing in a window. The shot suggests someone is looking up at them, perhaps this is the woman who introduced in the next part of the short 'Jealousy' as she is having a relationship with the man who is dancing with another woman. Watch again though, how the two are dancing inside. They are not filmed at a club. The shot outside the window is a reminder that they are trapped. Sure they are celebrating, but the graphic connection to the previous segment is powerful. Billie Holiday is then introduced as the woman who is scorned. She sings her blues. Beautiful.
The third segment continues this theme of isolation and being trapped. "The Hymn of Sorrow" shows old Black men and a Black preacher all trapped by the darkness. Again, something that society refuses to see or look at. Finally, there is a shift, a transition. The last piece is different from the rest perhaps suggesting that despite all this suffering the community goes on.
"Boyz n the Hood" ****
John Singleton had a killer story in "Boyz n the Hood" that he couldn't get funding to make. He eventually through will alone prevailed, making one of the most important American films.
A lot has been written about gangs and a mythos around them has grown. Things like "gang initiations" and forming families, etc. Father Gregg Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation program in the world, probably understands gangs as well as anyone who is not a part of one. He has a famous saying "that people say that gang members are running to a gang looking for something, but that's not true. Every gang member I've ever met is running away from something" (paraphrasing).
Tre's life is hard, but he is a bright young man and has a strict, but good intention-ed father, played by Lawrence Fishbourne. His father grew up on these streets and knows that they are violent, but he also works in real-estate and knows that when housing prices drop and jobs leave that people run from the systematic inequities, hoping for some control over their lives.
The journey that happens on this block is heartbreaking reality of the truth that violence begets violence. That when people feel powerless about their lives, they try to control what they can.
"Symphony in Black" Film: youtube.com/watch?v=LPD-8-l68L4
"Boyz n the Hood" Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4sKiGkzKJo
