Black TV Shows and Movies to Watch This Juneteenth

“Love & Basketball” (2000)

UCLA grad Gina Prince-Bythewood ran track in college. At the center of her first feature, developed at the Sundance Institute’s directing and writing lab and produced by Spike Lee, she put into romantic conflict two L.A. athletes, who are childhood sweethearts (Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps). Over the years, as they play basketball through high school, college and into the professional leagues, they wrestle with complicated issues of love and friendship, competitiveness and gender identity, as they date other people and struggle with making it in the sport they adore. The sports romance broke out its two leads and writer-director, scoring over $27 million at the domestic box office. —AT

“Ali” (2001)

With Will Smith playing the iconic and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, the stakes were high for him to deliver a career-defining performance, and boy did he ever. With Michael Mann’s direction, Smith showcased a different range of acting from the action-packed films we had previously seen him in. Embodying Cassius Clay meant charting his deepening religious beliefs, plus mixing politics and sports with some marital woes. Smith packed on the pounds, unleashed some great boxing moves, and displayed a level of emotional pull that compelled audiences to see him as The Greatest.

The drama was also aided by the performances of Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Jeffrey Wright, and Smith’s wife, Jada Pinnkett Smith, in their only film together (outside of that “Men in Black 3” cameo). Smith received his first Oscar nod for Best Actor, and rightly so. While films such as “The Fighter,” “Rocky,” “The Champ,” and more recently “Creed” have their fair share of fans, “Ali” ranks alongside “Raging Bull” as one of the few satisfying boxing biopics. —WM

“Training Day” (2001)

When “Training Day” came out, Denzel Washington didn’t have much left to prove, beyond winning a Best Actor Oscar (he had a supporting trophy for “Glory”). His 1999 performance in “Hurricane” had been overlooked, but then came his four collaborations with Antoine Fuqua. In the first, urban classic “Training Day,” Washington reinvented his persona. As corrupt Detective Alonzo Harris, he finds himself paired with a new partner, Officer Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke). During their drives through crime-ridden pockets of Los Angeles, Hoyt sees the dirty underworld that Harris loves, and is reluctant to join. He doesn’t know if Harris is his friend or foe. Fuqua made sure this wasn’t your ordinary buddy-buddy action-thriller cop film. In the most memorable scene, Harris proclaims, “King Kong ain’t got shit on me!” We hadn’t seen Washington play the bad guy before, and with his ferocious, dominating, and charismatic performance, the Oscar was his. —WM

“Hustle & Flow” (2005)

When “Hustle & Flow” first premiered at Sundance in 2005, no one knew what to expect. We had a new director (Craig Brewer) on the scene with Terrence Howard — after over 30 films to his credit — finally attempting to break out in a lead role. Most of the rap films we had seen at the time were set either in New York or LA, but this entertaining story takes place in the South, specifically Memphis, Tennessee. 

Howard, sporting a James Brown perm, plays an aspiring drug dealer and pimp named Djay looking to change his game and become a rapper. With Anthony Anderson acting as his producer/sound man and Taraji P. Henson, Taryn Manning, and Paula Jai Parker as his backup singers, Djay has to deal with the daily grinds of making ends meet while putting together a demo for his hopeful meeting with a local legend who made it out of the hood. Along with a song (“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”) that won the Academy Award and Howard’s show-stopping performance — which netted him a Best Actor nod — “Hustle & Flow” certainly is among the emotional, uplifting feel good films that folks love to watch more than once. —WM

“Precious” (2009)

When discussing comedians who became dramatic actors, Oscar winners Robin Williams and Jamie Foxx come to mind, as do nominees Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. But none had a more extreme transformation than Mo’Nique for “Precious.” Based on Sapphire’s 1996 novel “Push” and directed by Lee Daniels, the film cast her as Mary, a hellish Harlem mother who sexually abuses her illiterate teen daughter (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe). Always-bullied Precious has lived a life of continuous trauma, culminating when she learns that her father has given her HIV. But through the kindness of a teacher (Paula Patton), social worker (Mariah Carey), and hospital employee (Lenny Kravitz), she begins to acquire her own agency, eventually severing ties with Mary to become a responsible parent herself.

The jarring film’s production team included Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, each vocal survivors of sexual assault. Mo’Nique won an Academy Award, while a thriving television career (“The Big C,” “American Horror Story,” “Empire”) awaited Sidibe. Today, her self-possessed characters are rarely ever the victims. —JM

“Treme” (2010-2013)

Created by Eric Ellis Overmeyer and David Simon, “Treme” follows a group of New Orleans residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The series boasted an all-star cast including Wendell Pierce, who’d worked with Simon previously on “The Wire,” John Goodman, Khandi Alexander, and Steve Zahn to name a few and was groundbreaking for its portrayal of New Orleans and its citizens. The series was nominated for six Emmy awards over its lifetime (running from 2010-2013) and ultimately won for its Sound Mixing. —KL 

“Pariah” (2011)

Dee Rees’ first feature is a gracefully rendered coming-of-age story that draws inspiration from her own. Humming with the electricity of repressed sexuality finally unbridled, “Pariah” follows teenage Alike (Adepero Oduye) on a journey towards queerness and masculine gender expression. We witness Alike quietly change out of her baseball hat and t-shirt on the train home to Brooklyn, donning a girly sweater in order to calm her parents’ suspicions (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell). We melt alongside her as she lights up with the first tingles of love, seeing herself as desirable for the first time through the sparkling eyes of Bina (Aasha Davis). Cinematographer Bradford Young (“Arrival”) films Alike’s first nights out at the club in rich, saturated colors. The movie pulses with the rhythm of first love and the cost of self-discovery. “Pariah” was slightly ahead of its time, but as Rees’ star continues to rise, it has finally gotten its due. —JD

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012)

The brilliant, original four-hankie dystopian family drama from New Orleans newcomer Benh Zeitlin far surpassed any expectations for a scruffy $1.5 million effort from an unknown film collective, cast and crew, even after it took home the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. The actors were mostly non-pros who workshopped their roles. Nine-year-old discovery Quvenzhane Wallis’s winning personality carries the film as Hushpuppy and earned an Oscar nomination; Dwight Henry was working as a baker before playing her father. No one could have predicted that a movie about the end of the world, shot in a chaotic run-and-gun cinema verite style with handheld digital cameras on a constantly flooding abandoned delta island below the New Orleans levees — complete with homemade non-CGI special effects like the film’s titular Aurochs — would score four Oscar nods, including director (knocking out Ben Affleck), adapted screenplay and picture. Yet again, a rooted homegrown story conjured up emotions that were universal. —AT

“Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” (2012)

In October 1970, Angela Davis was arrested in New York City, accused of supplying weapons to Jonathan Jackson, who took hostages in a courtroom, whom he hoped to exchange for his brother George Jackson, an alleged Black radical imprisoned at San Quentin. In the subsequent shootout with police, Jonathan Jackson was killed, along with Judge Harold Haley and two inmates. Davis, who had championed the cause of organizing Black prisoners and was friends (later became romantically involved) with George Jackson, was indicted in the crime. But she went into hiding, becoming one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. She was eventually apprehended and her trial drew international attention. Shola Lynch’s “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” relives those eventful, uncertain, transformative early years of Davis’ life. In the film, the legendary radical activist speaks for the first time about her imprisonment, which became a flashpoint in an unrelenting Black liberation struggle and turned her into a revolutionary icon. —TO

“12 Years a Slave” (2013)

“12 Years a Slave” is powerful and excruciating to watch at the same time. Steve McQueen’s vision of 19th century slavery, emboldened by first-rate performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Solomon Northup), Lupita N’yongo (Patsey), and Micheal Fassbender (Edwin Epps) allowed audiences to witness the degradation of humanity that couples institutionalized oppression. Solomon Northup’s story of adduction and bondage is especially painful today; modern African American viewers can’t help but think, “Is this what would happen to me? Would I attempt to escape? Or would I, like Solomon, eventually bend to my oppressors and try to forget myself as a means of self-preservation?”

The slow dismantling of will is just like a wound, one that throbs with the pain until it eventually heals. Watching Solomon and Patsy fester in the pain Epps inflicts on them leaves little room for solace, but the healing balm of Solomon’s eventual liberation eventually remove the sting. Though not a film many revisit, the final moments — when Solomon reunites with his family — is one that will reverberate for ages. —JC

“Fruitvale Station” (2013)

This Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winner opens security footage of the real Oscar Grant — shot in the back and killed by a police officer in an Oakland, Calif. train station in 2009 — and closes with a clip of his now-fatherless daughter. For his first full-length film, writer-director Ryan Coogler cast Michael B. Jordan as the slain 22-year-old. The role was complicated, not just because there were surviving relatives to think of, and mounting statistics about how Black men fared worse in the criminal justice system than their white counterparts, if they even made it to a court room. In the film, Grant is full of flaws. He’s been to jail, he’s cheated on his girlfriend, he’s been fired from the grocery store where he works. But he’s young, dynamic, and, aware of his family responsibilities, trying to make good choices. That’s how he wound up riding the BART on the last night of his life: it was New Year’s Eve, and he didn’t want to drink and drive. “Fruitvale Station” offers no social remedies, but by recreating Grant’s final hours, it actualizes him as a man, not just a rallying cry. —JM

“Black-ish” (2014-2022)

Running on ABC from 2014 to 2022, “Black-ish” has examined numerous issues with regards to family in general and being a Black family in particular. Their Season 4 premiere actually examined the history of Juneteenth itself. Appropriately named “Juneteenth,” the episode sees family patriarch Dre (Anthony Anderson), irked by a historically inaccurate Columbus Day play at his kids school, enlist the help of Aloe Blacc to create a song celebrating Juneteenth. —KL  

“Dear White People” (2014)

Tessa Thompson, lately of Marvel tentpoles (“Thor: Love and Thunder”), spent almost a decade as a working actor before filming her breakout role in “Dear White People” (2014): writer-director Justin Simien’s Sundance award-winning film that inspired the namesake Netflix series (appearing later on this list). As Sam White, an acerbic Black college student/author who unnerves the white administration with her radio show; she broadcasts missives such as, “The minimum requirement of Black friends needed to not seem racist has just been raised to two,” and, “Dating a Black person to piss off your parents is a form of racism.”

But her narrative is just one of several that forces members of the Winchester University community (and viewers) to question internalized angst about how they are perceived by strangers. Like “Atlanta,” the film explores how two members of the same race can have vastly different experiences depending on how dark their skin is, as well as why certain people can say and act one way, but not others. The racially-tinged hostilities build to a squirm-inducing party where the white school president’s son invites all attendees to wear blackface. —JM

“Selma” (2014)

Ava DuVernay picked up a camera for the first time at the age of 32. By 40, she was onset with Oprah Winfrey, directing her and David Oyelowo in the Martin Luther King biopic “Selma.” Though this may seem a meteoric rise, one can’t help but assume if her race and gender had been different, her talent would have her holding a few Oscars (she did get nominated, for documentary “13th”), and helming a Star Wars or Marvel-type franchise. Nevertheless, “Selma” catapulted her into the stratosphere of modern filmmakers.

The most impressive thing about “Selma” is its transformative nature. It turned King into a man with complexities and flaws that are often glossed over in hagiographic Hollywood biopics. More than that, it transformed DuVernay into one of the most talented directors of our time. As Spike Lee did with “Malcolm X,” DuVernay forced the audience to look at King from all angles — a luminary whose politics still ignite the Black community, but also a man, with personal failings and moments of ungoverned indiscretion. It must have been a daunting challenge to embody all of that, but Oyelowo cleared it with room to spare. When April Reign tweeted in 2015, “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair,’” she was making a joke that went viral — but the Academy’s snub of both DuVernay and Oyelowo was anything but funny. The ensuing firestorm sent shockwaves throughout the industry, which still reverberate to this day. —JC

“Tangerine” (2015)

Sean Baker’s audacious farce following a day in the life of two trans girls working the streets of downtown Los Angeles is infinitely re-watchable and required viewing if you somehow missed it in 2015. Baker earned major points for casting actual trans women in the lead, and it paid off. Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriquez saturate the film in such authentic flavor, it’s enough to make one swear off professional actors altogether. Shot entirely on iPhone (with the help of an anamorphic adapter), “Tangerine” made waves when it premiered at Sundance in 2015. It looks great, but it’s the raw intimacy Baker captured on camera that made “Tangerine” an instant queer classic. —JD

“13th” (2016)

Ava DuVernay’s documentary could serve as the second in a trilogy on the history and legacy of racial injustice in the United States — “Selma” would be the first, and limited series “When They See Us” (2019) would be the third. Exploring the intersection of race and justice in the United States from a historical perspective, “13th” makes a direct connection between slavery and mass incarceration. That historical link operates as a bridge between the harsh truths uncovered in Sam Pollard’s eye-opening 2012 documentary “Slavery By Another Name” and Angela Davis’ 1997 tome “The Prison Industrial Complex.” —TO

“Atlanta” (2016-2022)

Premiering in 2016, Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” was one of the most audacious and interesting series of its time (though the stretch between seasons often felt interminable). In 2016 the series premiered its episode focused on Juneteenth. Directed by Janicza Bravo, the episode follows Glover’s character of Earn and Zazie Beetz’s Van as they attend a Juneteenth-centric party at the house of an upscale interracial couples home. Suffice it to say a lot of awkward conversations ensue that provoke in the way “Atlanta” usually does. —KL  

“Fences” (2016)

For his third directorial outing (after “The Debaters” and “Antwone Fisher”), Denzel Washington skirted the hazards of “opening up” a play by chasing honest emotions. The two-time acting Oscar-winner took on the film adaptation of August Wilson’s ’50s Pittsburgh family drama “Fences” both as director and disgruntled former baseball player Troy Maxson, rejoining his fellow Tony-winning 2010 Broadway revival costar Viola Davis as his beleaguered wife Rose. Washington told Davis two things on the Pittsburgh location: “Don’t forget the love,” and “Trust me.” So Davis went big, letting Troy have it when he tells his wife of 18 years that he has been unfaithful. Debuting film actor Jovan Adepo (“The Leftovers”) shines in a key scene as high school football player Cory, who is crushed when his father tells him to quit the team and take back his job at a grocery store. “How come you ain’t never liked me?” he asks his father. “Liked you?” responds Troy. “Who the hell say I got to like you?” —AT

“The Get Down” (2016-2017)

It’s Baz Luhrmann’s one-season wonder about the rise of hip-hop in 1970s New York: a tender romance, exhilarating musical, and passionate piece of history, all at once. The music is reason enough to check out all 11 episodes, but don’t sleep on the cast: “The Get Down” helped put Justice Smith and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on Hollywood’s radar, while veteran stars like Jimmy Smits, David Diggs, Giancarlo Esposito, Ron Cephas Jones, Billy Porter, and Renée Elise Goldsberry all embraced Baz Luhrmann’s swirling world of genre-bending beats, bringing each character in the ecstatic production to heart-pounding life. —BT

“Hidden Figures” (2016)

The top-earning Best Picture nominee of 2017 ($236 million), “Hidden Figures” presented three brilliant Black women who just wanted to do their jobs. And they did: their expertise at a NASA field center helped send the first Americans into orbit, an extra-amazing feat since each was hobbled by segregation laws still in effect in the early ’60s. Mathematician Katherine Goble (Taraji P. Henson) had to trek a half-mile to use the bathroom at work; Dorothy Vaughan was reprimanded for conducting research in a library’s whites-only section; and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) went to court seeking enrollment in an off-limits engineering program.

Rated PG, the film aimed to be widely accessible, including a love story (between Henson and her previous “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” co-star Mahershala Ali), friendship excursions, historical context, and countdown drama. Budgeted at just $25 million, writer-director-producer Theodore Melfi delivered the first live-action, non-franchise film in six years that featured multiple female leads and registered successive victories at the weekend box office (its predecessor: “The Help”). The source material was Margot Lee Shetterly’s eponymous book, optioned before publication by 20th Century Fox. Beyond acknowledging the accomplishments of this trio and their peers, and the continued need for women in STEM jobs, “Hidden Figures” produced perhaps the most scholarly Barbie doll to ever sell out. —JM

“Moonlight” (2016)

It’s impossible to overstate the significance of “Moonlight” — as a cinematic masterpiece, as inspiration to independent filmmakers like Barry Jenkins, but primarily for Black gay men — who deserve so many more examples of profound art that mirrors their experience. (For now, the best queer film of the 21st century will have to do). “Moonlight” was about so much more than representation, but it landed like a shot of adrenaline into the awards season release schedule because there are far too many stories we’ve heard a million times and far too many left woefully unexplored. Adapted from a short play by Tarrell Alvin McRaney, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” Jenkins’ triptych film explores a young Black boy’s identity at three crucial stages.

Jenkins has said he wasn’t interested in making a film about his Miami childhood, but McCraney’s play allowed him to tell the story at an emotional distance through the lens of queerness. “Moonlight” is emotionally wrought, finely tuned, and beautifully executed. Perhaps its biggest triumph is the extent to which Jenkins was able to poignantly render a queer story by placing himself inside another’s experience. With any luck, more filmmakers of all stripes can emulate this success story, and “Moonlight” portends good things for the future of queer cinema. —JD

“Get Out” (2017)

From its clever premise to the bloodshed of its Grand Guignol finale, Jordan Peele’s sledgehammer of a response to the illusion of a “post-racial” America felt like a direct provocation that was somehow detonated across the entire country at once. It helped, of course, that “Get Out” was released just a few short months after the 2016 election, as the film’s timeliness helped it to assume even greater levels of urgency; and, for Black audiences, new degrees of knowing catharsis. They were treated to a movie that was effectively “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (the other Black man who got away!) for a new generation. There was some concern for whether white audiences would be able to identify with a movie in which every white character was utterly evil and dies gruesomely. But audiences of all shades were more than ready. America has long found it awkward to talk about race, but it certainly was not awkward to talk about “Get Out.” —TO

“Dear White People” (2017-2021)

“America needs to have a national conversation about race,” is a cliched cris de coeur, given that it’s never happened, and probably never will. Justin Simien’s series, based on his critically-acclaimed 2014 feature debut of the same name, tries, diving headfirst into the complexities of race in America, even though it’s not always successful. But the attempt is more than admirable. Following the lives of a diverse group of college students (most of them Black), contending with microaggressions and outright racism at a fictional, predominantly white Ivy League school, it skewers the mythical idea of a “post-racial” America that many bought into after the election of Obama. Its biting humor and candor likely won’t be for the easily flustered. —TO

“Mudbound” (2017)

In one early scene in Virgil Williams and Dee Rees’ sprawling adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s post-World War II southern novel, Ronsel Jackson (“Straight Outta Compton” star Jason Mitchell) leaves home to join the Army as his mother Florence (Mary J. Blige) turns her back as he departs. Rees was inspired by her paternal grandmother, who thought it bad luck to watch someone going away. Looking to her grandmother’s diaries, writer-director Rees shifted the script’s focus from the white family of Memphis imports Henry and Laura McAllan (Jason Clarke and Carey Mulligan) to a balanced two-family drama with “Pariah” star Rob Morgan and a reluctantly makeup-free Blige as the parents whose family has worked the land for generations. Rees embraced the book’s multiple narrators, lacing the two families into a complex tapestry. For a period epic of scale and scope, the $11.8 million budget was tight — especially when it had to accommodate two days in Hungary, complete with tanks and airplanes. The rest of the 26-day shoot was filmed on location in Louisiana. The film earned four Oscar nominations including Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song, and the first ever for a woman cinematographer, Rachel Morrison. —AT

“Time: The Kalief Browder Story” (2017)

The American justice system absolutely failed 16-year-old Kalief Browder, a Black teen who spent three years in Rikers Island, awaiting a trial that never came to be, after being arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack — an accusation that was never proven. He spent two of those years in solitary confinement, which is as inhumane as any sort of imprisonment can get. The case was never prosecuted, the charges were ultimately dropped, and after he was finally released, the young man died by suicide. His story and the questions it raised are central to this six-part documentary series that reviews the case exhaustively, to make a statement about the long history of tragic trials of Black men who enter a criminal justice system in desperate need of reform. —TO

“Black Panther” (2018)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe films generally range from “not bad” to “quite good,” but “Black Panther” is one of the few in the series likely to be remembered as genuinely groundbreaking. Besides being the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars — and besides featuring one of the final performances of the great Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer two years after the film’s debut — “Black Panther” is the rare blockbuster that leans into the thorny questions raised by its story. The plot sees T’Challa (Boseman), the super-powered king of the sheltered African nation of Wakanda, reckoning with the revolutionary outsider Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), who thinks the country’s copious resources should be widely shared. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther” features an eclectic cast of characters, elaborate art direction, and memorable action sequences, all put in service to what turns out to be an impassioned debate over the benefits and drawbacks of isolationism. —NM

“Pose” (2018-2021)

This ensemble drama about the world of New York’s ballroom subculture from the late ‘80s to early ‘90s made IndieWire’s list of the Most Essential LGBTQ TV of the 21st Century. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez leads the series as Blanca, the leader of House Evangelista who guides the other members through personal crises and the evolving HIV crisis. It’s groundbreaking work in terms of trans representation on TV; “Pose” featured five trans women of color (Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar, and Angelica Ross) in central roles, and gives them the opportunity to be kind, mean, messy, magnificent, and most importantly, human. The show’s exploration into ballroom culture and Black life is unapologetic and uninterested in hand-holding straight, white audiences, and its portrayal of how the queer community navigated the AIDS crisis is alternatively heartbreaking and life-affirming. —WC

“Rafiki” (2018)

Making waves when it was initially banned in its home country, this tender queer romance pulses with bright colors and the electric butterflies of young love. “Rafiki” follows two teens, Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), who crush on each other despite their families’ political rivalry. When love blossoms between them, they must contend with small-town busybodies and the judgment of their conservative society. Boasting nuanced performances from the two charismatic newcomers, Wanuri Kahiu’s assured debut feature is an important reminder of the struggle many still face to live out and proud. The first Kenyan film to play Cannes, Kahiu won a landmark court case that earned the film an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run, chipping away at Kenyan anti-LGBT legislation in the process. “Rafiki” is political filmmaking at its most crucial. —JD

“Sorry to Bother You” (2018)

Potentially the strangest entry on this list, Boots Riley’s directorial debut “Sorry to Bother You” is, in its director’s words, an “absurdist dark comedy with aspects of magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing.” And yet, that really only scratches the surface of what this movie’s about. Filled with an incredibly talented cast led by Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson, the film centers around Stanfield’s Cash, a young Black telemarketer who adopts a white accent to succeed at his job. This is before the film becomes a parable of corporate greed, a biting commentary on income inequality and modern-day slavery, and a wild absurdist romp along the boulevard of genetic manipulation. In the end, however, what makes this film so special is Riley’s uniquely singular vision. It’s no exaggeration to state that there is no other movie quite like “Sorry to Bother You.” —LAG

“Watchmen” (2019)

HBO’s adaptation of “Watchmen” was opening up audiences’ eyes from its first episode, detailing the 1921 Tulsa race massacre that is now the subject of a few documentaries being released this year. From that point the Regina King-starring series examined everything from the creation of superheroes and why they tend to be overwhelmingly white, to the subject of police brutality. The series would go on to win 11 Primetime Emmys.—KL  

“When They See Us” (2019)

Much like the Kalief Browder story, the so-called “Central Park Five” was another judicial travesty, although its ending wasn’t as tragic. Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana Jr. were victims of the same morally bankrupt system. New York City’s criminal justice apparatus implemented a desperate scheme to ensure that the crime was solved swiftly, regardless of evidence, and these five boys became unwitting pawns in service of that end. Convicted long before the trial by a city blinded by fear and equally weighed with racial conflict, they were the children of Reagan’s “welfare queens” in the early 1980s, who became “wilding” youth later in the decade, and eventually Hillary Clinton’s “super-predators” in the early 1990s. These are all terms that belong to a library of racialized dog whistles that evoked moral panic, thrust back into the spotlight during the Obama and Trump presidential years. —TO

“Miss Juneteenth” (2020)

Writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples’ feature directorial debut, “Miss Juneteenth,” follows a working-class African American single mother, and former beauty queen, named Turquoise (Nicole Beharie), who wants nothing more than for her daughter to also wear the crown. Offering an atypical perspective of a beauty pageant, the film unfolds against the background of the Miss Juneteenth procession, named after the Juneteenth holiday. For many young Black women, the Miss Juneteenth pageant is their version of the more recognized Miss America, and the film foregrounds this narrative from the POV of a woman rarely given as much screen consideration. A rare feature film written and directed by a Black woman, telling a Black woman’s story, “Miss Juneteenth” is at once familiar as a story about mothers and daughters, but it also feels fresh and authentic. It breaks stereotypes and instead presents Black women who are attempting to liberate themselves and move towards a greater self-awareness. —TO

“High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America” (2021)

The series observes American history through the lens of the evolution of African American cuisine, or what’s more commonly referred to as “soul food.” This century has witnessed a growing selection of art that serves as correctives to the “American Narrative” by amplifying the contributions of people of color. An example would be a film like “Hidden Figures” (2016). “High on the Hog” does the same in documentary series form, centering a key aspect of Black cultural identity (cuisine) as a foundation of American history that emerged on the African continent, and, because of the transatlantic slave trade, would eventually blend with Western culinary traditions to become what is appreciated widely today. It’s a fresh perspective, as well as a nuanced exploration of the generally unacknowledged contributions of Africans in America. —TO

“Descendant” (2022)

How best should we remember the dead? The critical African American history retold in Margaret Brown’s imperative film, “Descendant,” an unblinking investigation combining local stories with “Erin Brockovich” flair, seeks to answer that question. Because for the many Black folks living in Africatown, Alabama, where the last slave ship made landfall, remembering is what they do best. 

Read IndieWire’s complete review of Descendant by Robert Daniels.

“Nanny” (2022)

The watery misery of Nikyatu Jusu’s soul-stirring feature debut comes in literal waves. A trickle of water felt in a dream soon spills into sinking tragedy as Senegalese immigrant Aisha (Anna Diop, purposeful and ferocious) gets sucked down an understated spiral of suspense, dread, and dark magic in New York City. “Nanny” quickly lets us know something is wrong in Aisha’s new world, where she babysits for a toxic family helmed by the manipulative Amy (a razor-sharp Michelle Monaghan) and her lecherous husband Adam (Morgan Spector).

But the subsequent steady creep proves the ideal pace for Jusu to build up to her final-act heartbreaker. Aisha’s romance with the handsome Mailk (Sinqua Walls) and her longing for her son Lamine (Jahleel Kamara) back in Senegal, are the weights that submerge us in the pain of this singular final girl a woman ultimately drowned in the devastation of a terror she can’t see coming. —AF

“The Woman King” (2022)

“The Woman King,” while based on a lesser-known segment of West African history during a decidedly fraught time in history, makes for a hell of a time at the movies, a seemingly “niche” topic with great appeal, the sort of battle-heavy feature that will likely engender plenty of hoots and hollers. And if it seems a bit Hollywood-ized, complete with glossy twists and a touch of the soap operatic to boot, perhaps that’s part of what makes it so special. You’ve never seen a movie about this that looks, well, so funnily familiar. If that’s what it took to get made, so be it. In this climate, in this world, stories like this are too precious and special to stay hidden. Bring them into the light. —KE