In “Hollywood Black,” a four-part docuseries streaming on MGM+, director Justin Simien chronicles the vast and untold history of the Black experience in Hollywood. Inspired by historian Donald Bogle’s book by the same title, the series unearths parts of film history that don’t get taught in film school, and puts into historical, cultural, and societal contexts those performers (Sidney Poitier, Eddie Murphy) and films (“Do the Right Thing,” “Shaft”) that did break through to the mainstream. When Simien was a guest on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he talked about how he was inspired to make the series by his own recent discovery of films, filmmakers, and rich periods of Black cinema that he was previously unaware of and wasn’t taught in film school.
“I am so shocked because it’s not what you think, it’s not what you were conditioned to believe,” said Simien. “What you finally uncover is some of the work is so sophisticated, so brilliant, you can’t believe this was somehow erased or removed from the timeline.”
Simien is wary of calling the series “definitive,” a word he’s requested be removed from the descriptions of “Hollywood Black.” Instead, the series is a snapshot of himself and his fellow modern-day Black creators (Ava DuVernay, Lena Waithe, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Lakeith Stanfield, to name a few) in the process of learning about what they hadn’t been taught.
“I see some of these movies and discover some of these filmmakers, and I am in rapture, I am in awe,” said Simien. “We are in a lot of ways still rediscovering this history and that sense of discovery for me — I wanted to try to capture that as much as possible.”
In the series, Simien plays scenes for his peers from things he’s discovered. For example, in one powerful moment from the documentary, he introduces Ryan Coogler to Jules Dassin’s “Uptight” which blows away the “Black Panther” director, and his reaction is captured in real-time on camera.
To follow along with the series as you watch it on MGM+, or to make discoveries of your own, here are 54 films featured in “Hollywood Black.”
“Lime Kiln Club Field Day” (1913): The great Black silent clown Bert Williams, who influenced Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields, was able to make movies that supplied the racial stereotypes of minstrelsy that white audiences expected but transcended blackface to create stories with subtext that spoke to Black audiences. Williams shot “Lime Kiln Club Field Day,” his first feature film (two years before “The Birth of a Nation”), but the Biograph Company abandoned it, left unassembled and unfinished until re-discovered by the Museum of Modern Art in 2014.
“The Birth of a Nation” (1915): “It’s interesting that we are conditioned to talk about ‘Birth of a Nation’ as a masterpiece that happens to be racist,” said Simien. “In my view, no, it being racist was actually a clear reason for its success because Americans were so entertained by and used to going and paying whatever money to sit down for two hours by these black stereotypes.”
“Within Our Gates” (1920): Pioneering director Oscar Micheaux’s brilliant response to “The Birth of a Nation” set into motion three decades of what was referred to as “race films.” These were Black, independently produced films made by Black filmmakers for Black audiences during a time when cinemas were segregated.
“Stormy Weather” (1943): There’s a section of “Hollywood Black” on singer, dancer, and actress Lena Horne, and her incredible and groundbreaking transition from Cotton Club dancer to Hollywood star, epitomized by her glamorous turn in 20th Century Fox musical “Stormy Weather.”
“Imitation of Life” (1934): Directed by John M. Stahl, this is a rare 1930s Hollywood film that deals with complex issues of race in the story of a Black housekeeper (Louise Beavers) and her light-skinned daughter (Fredi Washington) who passes for white.
“The Emperor Jones” (1933): This pre-Code film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play, directed by Dudley Murphy, features an incredible performance by Paul Robeson, who, as the docuseries chronicles, was an actor of such presence and power he became one of Hollywood’s first Black stars.
“Show Boat” (1936): A musical adaptation of Edna Ferber’s novel by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, and directed by James Whale, the film (and its original Broadway version) spans generations (1880s to 1930s), tackles race relations, and features powerful performances from Black performers, including Hattie McDaniel and Robeson — whose iconic booming and bass-filled voice shines his incredible rendition of “Ol’ Man River.”
“Gone with the Wind” (1939): Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Oscar, for her supporting performance as the house servant Mammy. Seated at the very back of the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel, where the 1940 Academy Awards were held, McDaniel’s mere presence at the ceremony (let alone winning and giving a speech) was a radical moment for white Hollywood.
“Carmen Jones” (1954): Directed by Otto Preminger, the musical featured the rare combination of a Black cast — including Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, and Pearl Bailey –– in a big-budget Hollywood production, complete with top-notch art design, costumes, and the expensive bells and whistles of an eye-popping colorful CinemaScope studio film of the era.
“Lost Boundaries”(1949) and “Home of the Brave” (1949): After World War II, and the financial success of the “race films” — Black-produced films made for Black audiences — Hollywood started to absorb stories of the Black struggle but for a white audience, making the type of issue-driven film commonly referred to as “Problem Pictures.” Simien explained, “Hollywood recognizes, okay, ‘Black characters and Black subjects do generate a lot of profit, and we want that money. We don’t want them to have it in their own independent enclave anymore.” “Lost Boundaries” and “Home of the Brave” are two early examples of this.
“The Defiant Ones” (1958), “A Raisin in the Sun” (1961), “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967), and “In the Heat of the Night” (1967): Four so-called “Problem Pictures,” Hollywood’s attempt to address racial issues but in films made for white audiences, that featured Sidney Poitier, and subsequently able to push against the limitations of the genre. “The problem pictures that emerge eventually give rise to someone like Sidney Poitier,” said Simien. “Who became a big enough star to where he was able to wrest some control over the narratives that were being told.”
“Uptight” (1968): Co-written by the great Ruby Dee and set in Cleveland following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., “Uptight” is a realistic look at Black militancy in a story of a group of Black men plotting to steal guns from a warehouse in preparation for racial conflict. The ground-breaking film, that a nervous FBI closely monitored, is still eye-opening for today’s Black filmmakers, like Simien and Ryan Coogler (as seen in “Hollywood Black”), in how it honestly addresses issues of white fragility and allyship.
“Watermelon Man” (1970): Director Melvin Van Peebles‘ one and only Hollywood film is a successful and skewering satire about a racist white insurance salesman who wakes up Black one morning. The film was the first time an actor wore whiteface (the reverse of blackface), as actor Godfrey Cambridge would put on makeup to play the white version of his character and went without makeup for the Black version of the character.
“Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (1971): After the success of “Watermelon Man,” Van Peebles rejected a three-picture deal from Columbia, and pushed forward with his independent filmmaking career that would change the direction of Black cinema and is credited with kickstarting the blaxploitation genre. “Baadasssss Song” set a new template with raw and exciting filmmaking, stories that embraced both action and Black Power, and proved there was a market with original soundtracks (Earth, Wind & Fire) that could build interest in a film before it was even released.
“Shaft” (1971): Photographer-turned-director Gordon Parks picked up where “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” left off, with private detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) and a soundtrack (Isaac Hayes) that would become a resounding success, leading to multiple sequels and firmly establishing there was a substantial audience ready for blaxploitation films.
“Killer of Sheep”(1978): Against the backdrop of the prominence of blaxploitation films, there proved to be no room for quieter and poignant independent filmmaking by a master like director Charles Burnett. “Killer of Sheep” would not be given a proper release until 2007, at which point it was quickly recognized as a masterpiece, placing at number 43 on Sight & Sound’s 2022 list of the greatest films ever made and at number 26 on BBC Culture’s list of the 100 Greatest American Films.
“Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” (1968): Director William Greaves’ incredible film was light years ahead of its time. A documentary drama that predates “Real World” by decades, but sets a template for what Reality TV could have been. The project started off as a documentary about the making of fictional documentary “Over the Cliff,” but what Greaves’ three different camera crews end up capturing is white performers undermining and trying to steer control away from Greaves.
“The minute they are left alone, they are absolutely plotting to overthrow him, and the genius is that he used that footage in the film,” said Simien of “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm.” “It is so fresh because the thing is, as a Black filmmaker I often [wonder], ‘Am I being gaslit?’ I would often have the sense everyone’s being really nice to me and everyone seems really glad that I’m here, but I feel like they’re all plotting against me and somewhere in the back [of my head I’m wondering], ‘Am I paranoid?’”
“The Wiz” (1978): A musical re-imagining of the children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” with a Black cast, that included Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor, accompanied by music supervision from Quincy Jones, and song adaptation by Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross. The big-budget, colorful fantasy directed by Sidney Lumet left a lasting impression on Simien as a kid.
“Lady Sings the Blues” (1972) and “Mahogany” (1975): The Motown music label steps into the world of movie production with two films starring Diana Ross. “Lady Sings the Blues” is a biographical musical starring Ross as jazz singer Billie Holiday, which would go on to receive five Oscar nominations. Motown founder Berry Gordy stepped into the director chair himself on “Mahogany.” The film featured a soundtrack and single “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” that shot to the top of the Billboard charts.
“48 Hours” (1982): With his stand-up career, Eddie Murphy followed in the substantial footsteps of the great Richard Pryor, but when it came to his movie career Murphy did something Pryor was never able to do by finding a way to translate his comedy to the big screen and become a movie star. It all started with the buddy cop film “48 Hours, in which Murphy transcended the role of comedic sidekick to Nick Nolte’s lone wolf racist cop. “The genius of Eddie Murphy is he didn’t cater to the white characters, but he did it in a way that you loved him,” said Simien.
“Coming to America” (1988), “Harlem Nights” (1989), “Boomerang” (1992): Murphy’s success in the early-to-mid-‘80s led to him becoming a megastar with power. Part of how Murphy was able to keep things fresh and explore new ground was that he leveraged that success to pick and guide his own projects. Murphy wrote his own original stories and created new characters that expanded his star persona for “Coming to America,” ”Boomerang” (directed by Reginald Hudlin, who is also heavily featured in “Hollywood Black”), and “Harlem Nights,” in which Murphy stepped into the role of director.
“The Five Heartbeats” (1991): Starring and directed by Robert Townsend (“Hollywood Shuffle”), with a script co-written by Keenan Ivory Wayans (“In Living Color”), “The Five Heartbeats” tells the story of a fictional R&B group, that is loosely based on real-life acts The Dells, The Temptations, and The Four Tops.
“The Color Purple” (1985): Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s book is a film that has generated a great deal of conversation surrounding Black representation and what Black stories get told by Hollywood. It’s a conversation that is continued in “Hollywood Black.”
“Do the Right Thing” (1989): IndieWire’s number one film of the 1980s is unlike most of the films featured in “Hollywood Black” in the sense that it has gotten its due in terms of its place in film history. Still, Simien believes the influence of Spike Lee’s film is something we may still be underestimating.
“Spike should get even more credit because ‘Do The Right Thing’ is the movie that opens us up to these so called ‘street narratives’ that can be done in an artistic way, but also feel authentically Black, and also feel very hip-hop, and you see that kind of takeoff [in the ‘90s],” said Simien.
“Sidewalk Stories” (1989): Director Charles Lane’s quiet gem is the movie that spurred Simien to make “Hollywood Black,” largely because it was a film he only recently was even made aware of, despite the fact it premiered alongside “Do the Right Thing” at Cannes and was recognized at the time for its obvious artistic merit, but was then quickly forgotten.
“‘Sidewalk Stories’ really pissed me off when I saw it because it is so good, and it is brilliant in ways that I just didn’t expect or anticipate, and in ways that we awarded another film, “The Artist” (another black and white silent film that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture) for being later on. It’s tough to compare films in an artistic sense, but for me, it made so clear that we just are playing with different resource levels. We are playing in different arenas, and great artistic achievement for Black artists just doesn’t translate to the same kind of market relevance as it does for white artists,” said Simien. “It wasn’t that people didn’t recognize [the greatness of ‘Sidewalk Stories’], they knew it was brilliant. You see clips of Spike Lee at Cannes talking about how incredible that movie is. So people knew about it, but it just didn’t get distribution. It’s not loud Black people. It’s not hip-hop. It’s literally a silent film. It’s a little odd. It’s a little tender. It’s black-and-white. It’s all of these things that were not in vogue for Blackness at that time, and it just didn’t get the pop.”
“Daughters of the Dust” (1991): Simien sees parallels between the fate of Lane’s “Sidewalk Stories” and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” another Black masterpiece that did not fit culture’s limited sense of what a Black movie was at the time. And like Lane, Dash wasn’t able to keep making films after such an incredible cinematic achievement. Luckily, Dash’s brilliance was eventually recognized in a way Lane’s hasn’t.
Said Simien, “The thing about ‘Daughters of the Dust’ is that Julie Dash is someone who enough of us told the story, ‘Hey, you gotta see “Daughters of the Dust,’” to where she had a moment, especially when Beyonce is adapting some of those aesthetics for ‘Lemonade.’”
“The Watermelon Woman” (1996): Another independent Black film that broke the mold. Written and directed by Cheryl Dunye, the film created its own language and space for a Black lesbian character by tackling film history in an inventive way. The story of a video store clerk who becomes fascinated by an uncredited actress (“Watermelon Woman”) playing a mammy character in a 1930s film and sets off to shoot a documentary in search of the real story of the actress.
“Waiting to Exhale” (1995): Director Forest Whitaker’s adaptation of Terry McMillan’s book is a movie that left a cultural mark for so many Black women. The film’s financial success and soundtrack proved there was a deep need for romantic stories told about Black characters by Black storytellers.
“Love & Basketball” (2000): Number 28 on IndieWire’s recent look back of the best of the 2000s, director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love & Basketball” turned the court into a metaphor for romantic relationships, weaving an intimate relationship with an engaging sports drama.
“Boyz n the Hood” (1991): At only 22 years old, director John Singleton made a film that would breakthrough to become a cultural phenomenon and change the course of Black film in the 1990s by ushering in stories about urban violence that was mirrored by the mainstreaming of hip-hop.
“Menace II Society” (1993): As “Boyz n the Hood” launched a new genre, Hollywood saw dollar signs in these hard edged stories of urban street life. Allen and Albert Hughes’ film is one of those stories that was able to maintain the artistic merit and build off what Singleton started.
“Friday” (1995): A hilarious comedy that marked how the popularity of hip-hop was becoming mainstream, as rapper Ice Cube stars and produces a film directed by one of his favorite music video directors F. Gary Gray (“It Was a Good Day,” “Natural Born Killaz”).
“Just Another Girl on the I.R.T” (1992): A landmark independent film written and directed by Leslie Harris. The film is shot in a run-and-gun style as it tells the story of 17-year-old Black girl (Ariyan A. Johnson) who breaks the fourth wall, as Harris effortlessly moves through issues like teen pregnancy, racism, and poverty with incredible verve.
“Malcolm X” (1992) and “Training Day” (2001): There is no way to tell the story of Black film history and not spend time talking about the remarkable career and contribution of Denzel Washington, who picked up the mantle from Poitier to become both a powerful movie star and Academy Award winning actor who is considered one of the greatest ever.
“Monster’s Ball” (2001): Halle Berry’s Oscar for Best Actress was a groundbreaking and historical moment. Something Berry herself acknowledged in her memorable and emotional acceptance speech. Said Berry, “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. Thank you. I’m so honored. I’m so honored. And I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel for which His blessing might flow.”
“The Help” (2011): A divisive film. Popular and well-reviewed, but rejected by many as being problematic for being another film about race made for white people, rather than based on the lived experience of Black people.
“There’s always this dance between authentic Black culture and appropriated Black culture,” said Simien. “It’s who’s the audience and who’s making it, and that sort of dance you see throughout the timeline of cinema. You get to something like ‘The Help,’ and some people don’t get what the controversy is, and I think Black people get it immediately.”
“Pariah” (2011): Number 70 on IndieWire’s best of the decade, writer/director Dee Rees film is a seering feature debut. A coming-of-age story following the journey of a lesbian teenager (Adepero Oduye) toward queerness and masculine gender expression. A Sundance breakout hit with powerful raw images by cinematographer Bradford Young.
“12 Years a Slave” (2013): Director Steve McQueen’s film adaptation of an 1853 slave memoir by Solomon Northup is a powerful film that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and become a surprise box office success riding the word-of-mouth stemming from its overwhelmingly positive critical response and award season success.
“Fruitvale Station” (2013, directed by Ryan Coogler), “Selma” (2014, directed by Ava DuVernay), “Dear White People” (2014, directed by Simien), “Black Panther” (2018, directed by Coogler), “The Woman King” (2022, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood), “Get Out” (2017, directed by Jordan Peele), and “Moonlight” (2016, directed by Barry Jenkins): The fourth episode of “Hollywood Black” focuses on the 2000s, a time when the canvas slightly opens for Black filmmakers, who become less boxed in by a set of rules and genre expectations of what is a Black film. In the documentary, Simien poses the question, “What stories do we tell now that we have the choice?”
While on the podcast, Simien acknowledged it is an overly optimistic view of the state of Black Cinema, but with Coogler, Prince-Bythewood, and DuVernay as interview subjects, the filmmakers explore their experience making films that didn’t have to fit as neatly into a predefined set of expectations.
Episode 3 of “Hollywood Black” will stream on MGM+ August 25, followed by Episode 4 on September 1.
Look for IndieWire’s Toolkit episode with Justin Simien on Spotify, Apple, and other major podcast platforms later in the month.
