Today, as they have for more than a century, New Orleans jazz funerals and Sunday second line parades absorb the pain of death and the legacy of racism, soaring to the transcendent joy of rebirth. A violent storm and a parade shooting plunge clarinetist Dr. Michael White and culture carrier Deb “Big Red” Cotton into a search for the city’s soul.
AN OUTRAGE is a documentary film about lynching in the American South. Filmed on-location at lynching sites in six states and bolstered by the memories and perspectives of descendants, community activists, and scholars, this unusual historical documentary seeks to educate even as it serves as a hub for action to remember and reflect upon a long-hidden past.
After the killing of George Floyd, protests spread like wildfire throughout the US. On the eve of the 2020 presidential election, the Black Lives Matter movement demands to have a conversation with America. This short documentary offers an intimate glimpse into the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement in the capital of Texas, through the unique lens of a European black woman who has just moved to the US.
The world witnessed the murder of George Floyd, bringing millions of people out onto the streets around the planet in protest and turning many into first time activists. This is the story of one such activist.
Free the Vote is a documentary that depicts the past and present of just how unjust and racist it is to deny the right to vote to millions of people who are incarcerated.
Dating back to the racist Jim Crow Era, felony disfranchisement laws were created in the states after the Civil War as an intentional effort to weaken the political power of Black people who had been enslaved. That time was also when the abominable effort began to incarcerate Black people who were newly freed.
Black Marylanders account for over 13,000 of the nearly 18,000 Marylanders who are disenfranchised in Maryland. That means Black people make up 72% of those impacted by felony disenfranchisement laws in Maryland. This did not happen by accident.
Listen to people who were formerly incarcerated, who are currently incarcerated, politicians, and advocates who share their experience and dreams of a Maryland and country where the right to vote is restored for every citizen who is currently incarcerated.
Women who had troubled emotional relationships, but who still show deep affection for other people and for life. This is what connects the stories of Anair, Nega, Cenira, Janaina, and Márcia, but also the fact that they all live in the Jabaquara district, on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo.
Different stories about abandonment, loneliness, and violence are the starting point to delve into the characters and their intimate and complex worlds. These women revisit past traumas and relationships, but also the good fruits of the present and their plans for the future. Their lightheartedness and good spirits in dealing with daily life events counteract their personal dramas.
The film depicts social issues, but especially how these characters deal with emotions and feelings such as acceptance, self-love, and freedom.
The Woodstock of House details the triumph of disco music, attacked by mainstream America in the 1970s for being too black, too Latin, and too gay, and its mutation, development, and re-birth as House Music, by African American teenagers on the South Side of Chicago in an underground culture of marginalized, largely gay nightclub constituents. This is the untold story of the role of Chicago’s Chosen Few DJs in the creation and popularization of this international musical genre and the celebration of the 25th Annual Chosen Few Music Fest where 50,000 people of different races, ages, and sexual orientation come together in unity, peace, and love in one of the most challenging environments in the country.
“We haven’t been this divided since 1968.” Unfortunately, this has become a common refrain. This film goes back in time to 1968, an unmistakably divided time of student protest and racial unrest, to share the remarkable story of three racially segregated churches coming together in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Their decision to merge will surprise you. Their dedication to stay together will inspire you. This is a story of the possible that reminds us that even in dark, divided times, the opportunity and responsibility to come together — heart to heart and hand to hand — rests within each of us.
The uneventful life of a 39-year-old introvert becomes disrupted when she begins a steamy but contentious affair with a much younger man.
For years on Saturday night, white authorities in Enfield, N.C. blew a siren, warning Blacks to clear the downtown streets. This curfew was one of many demeaning practices used to keep the Black population separate and unequal. One fateful night, three days after the March on Washington, hundreds of Blacks on the streets of downtown Enfield refused to heed the blowing of the nine o’clock whistle.
The Nine O’clock Whistle tells the story of a dramatic cultural shift that rocked the segregated town of Enfield from 1963 to 1965 through the narratives of Willa Cofield, her former students, and current residents of the town. The video documents the racial indignities, segregation practices, and labor exploitation of the time.
The story offers a supreme example of how the civil rights grapevine grew from one small act of resistance in Enfield to envelope an entire region. The documentary brings hope, spirit and encouragement to those struggling to overcome entrenched, powerful, and oppressive forces.
A classic sci-fi story of a mute alien with the appearance of a black human who is chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem.
The critically acclaimed River City Drumbeat is a powerful, immersive story of music, love, and legacies, as told by the members of a Black youth drum corps in Louisville, Kentucky. When the founder steps down, a young alum whose life was saved by the drumline rises to mentor the next generation in the face of systemic injustices.
A look at the history of black horror films and the role of African Americans in the film genre from the very beginning.
Artist Hamilton Glass challenges 30 artists from different cultural backgrounds to collaborate on 16 murals in Richmond, VA about race, status and experiences. In real-time footage and testimonial, the film shows how the artists got to know each other through difficult conversations, how working together ultimately opened their eyes and their hearts to the differences between all of us, and how these murals became a symbol of hope for the future for a community in pain.
A bigoted insurance agent wakes up one morning to find himself with darker skin. He now finds himself victim to the racial abuse he once perpetrated while his friends and family shun him, and must learn to accept his new pigmentation. TRIBUTE TO LATE MELVIN VAN PEEBLES
INVISIBLE HISTORY: MIDDLE FLORIDA’S HIDDEN ROOTS sheds light on the little-known history of plantations and the enslaved in North Florida. The film seeks to advance a sense of place and identity for hundreds of thousands of African Americans by exploring the invisible history of slavery in Leon County.
Craft beer generates tens of billions of dollars annually for the US economy. Despite beer’s Egyptian and African heritage, these traditions have been mostly forgotten and are rarely found in American brewing culture. Today, Black-owned breweries make up less than 1% of the nearly 9,000 breweries in operation. Eager to shift the historical perception of who makes and drinks beer, Black brewers, brand owners and influencers across the country are reshaping the craft beer industry and the future of America’s favorite adult beverage.
Crime thriller, directed by local filmmaker Will Mauricette.
Fed up with tirelessly working day in and day out just to provide for their families and have nothing to show for it, two friends, CJ and Speedy, begin to explore different ways to bring in more money and bring it in quickly. After a failed attempt, a desperate CJ becomes increasingly more motivated to switch their strategy up, even if it becomes unlawful and may put one of their lives in jeopardy. With CJ and Speedy now rolling in cash flow, a well-known affiliated gang member Brickz starts to become envious seeing one’s success that isn’t his own. In this fast-paced, drama-filled thriller, gang member Brickz will try to stop them by any means necessary. In a series of tragic events, CJ and Speedy realize that escaping this life they are now invested in won’t be that easy.
WARNING: MATURE SUBJECT MATTER
100 Years From Mississippi is a 60 minute documentary on the life of Mamie Lang Kirkland, a 111-year old African American woman who experienced and survived racial terrorism, segregation, bigotry and bias and yet continued to have hope, joy and love of life, full of the certainty that we can do better.
