On this final day of Black History Month, we’re highlighting
some relevant movies. The New York Times recently published a list of their “essential movies from the 20th century that convey the larger history of
black Americans in cinema.” Below are some of the films from this list that you have access to via the JMU Libraries collections. You’ll also find brief
excerpts of the commentary on each film, by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott, chief
film critics for the New York Times. The full commentary and the full list of
movies are in the New York Times story, 28 Days, 28 Films for Black History
Month.
Available on DVD (ask for these films at the Carrier Ask the
Library Desk):
Within Our
Gates, directed by Oscar Micheaux, 1920 – a “stunning rejoinder to white
supremacy”
Imitation of
Life, directed by John M. Stahl, 1934 – a “classic weepie… decidedly and at
times uncomfortably a product of its segregated moment”
Stormy
Weather, directed by Andrew L. Stone, 1943 – “one of two films made in 1943
with all-black casts… A skit performed in blackface by the African-American
comedy duo Flournoy Miller and Johnny Lee in the film may disturb viewers
today, but it’s a reminder of the complicated history of minstrel performance —
by whites and blacks — in American entertainment.”
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm,
Take One, directed by William Greaves, 1968 – an “unclassifiable hybrid of
documentary, backstage comedy and avant-garde prank… mischievously eloquent on
the struggles of the black artist in a supposedly liberal society”
The Learning
Tree, directed by Gordon Parks, 1969 – “with this film… Parks became the first
African-American director of a major studio production.”
She’s Gotta
Have It, directed by Spike Lee, 1986 – “The sexual politics may look a little
problematic in hindsight, but Spike Lee’s debut feature, a shoestring
production that helped to ignite both the indie boom and the African-American
new wave of the late ’80s and early ’90s, remains a loving, lovely portrait of
black bohemia.”
Tongues
Untied, directed by Marlon Riggs, 1989 – a “passionate, angry mix of
documentary, memoir and poetry that was shown on PBS is a milestone in both New
Black and New Queer cinema…”
Daughters of
the Dust, directed by Julie Dash, 1991 – “Beyoncé’s visual album, “Lemonade,”
sparked the latest revival of interest in this masterpiece, a ravishingly
beautiful work of historical reconstruction and feminist imagination.”
Malcom X,
directed by Spike Lee, 1992 – an “electrifying epic, which traces the arc of
20th-century America through a single extraordinary life”
Devil in a
Blue Dress, directed by Carl Franklin, 1999 – “offers up a rich vision of
African-American life… almost entirely absent from Hollywood’s fantasies past
(and often present)”
The
Watermelon Woman, directed by Cheryl Dunye, 1996 – a “reminder that the impulse
to tell new stories is often entwined with the longing to honor lost or
neglected traditions”
Available as a streaming movie via the JMU Libraries website
(click the film title to see your streaming options):
Shadows,
directed by John Cassavetes, 1959 - “Cassavetes’s electric debut feature is a
landmark independent film about three black siblings”
Ganja &
Hess, directed by Bill Gunn, 1973 – a film “about vampires, but it’s less a
horror film than a sensual, scholarly, magic-realist exploration of black
history and black desire.”
Killer of
Sheep, directed by Charles Burnett, 1977 – “One of the essential films of
American cinema… sings a song of love, family, brutalizing despair and
ineffable, persistent human dignity.”
Losing
Ground, directed by Kathleen Collins, 1982 – “Identity — aesthetic, racial,
sexual — is among the themes that wend through this film”