Film is a uniquely transcendent artistic medium, because it allows storytellers to intimately portray a lived experience for a wide audience of people across time, identity, and place. The greatest films have the ability to expand our perception and empathy, to teach and inform, and—ultimately, hopefully—to inspire us to real action. The following works by Black filmmakers all hold this power. Though they are just a piece of the expansive repertoire of films that portray Black life and the many arms of systemic racism in America, the following titles are some of the most important films to add to your continual viewing list. Time Director Garrett Bradley’s documentary examines the personal side of the prison industrial complex from a Black feminist point of view, telling the story of Sibil Fox Richardson as she fights for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence for robbery. With Time, Bradley became the first Black woman to win the directing award in the U.S. documentary competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. In a conversation with Bradley, Ava DuVernay said, “You can’t just watch 13th, you have to watch Time… and by the time you watch them both, I don’t feel you could come away and justify why this system exists in the way it does.” Watch Now Queen & Slim In her feature directorial debut, the award-winning director of Beyoncé’s “Formation” video, Melina Moutsakas, stunningly tells the story of two strangers (Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith), whose… Click below to read the full story from Esquire
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