The Forgotten Black Canon

55 movies  

<i>Chameleon Street</i> won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance but was never picked up for distribution. <i>Daughters of the Dust</i> received praise but languished until <i>Lemonade</i> referenced it. <i>Ganja & Hess</i> was acclaimed at Cannes, yet edited beyond recognition for its video releases. <i>Within our Gates</i> was presumed lost for decades. <i>Drylongso</i> was only released 25 years after its festival run.

Well-rated black-directed films from last millenium. <b>Maximum</b> 50k viewers on Letterboxd.

Movie

Young Soul Rebels (1991)
Young Soul Rebels WikiData IMDb TMDB
Isaac Julien actor: Valentine Nonyela / Mo Sesay …
other title: La radio pirata
Two disc jockeys have a friend's murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.

Movie

Alma's Rainbow (1994)
Alma's Rainbow IMDb TMDB
Ayoka Chenzira actor: Kim Weston-Moran / Victoria Gabrielle Platt …
The teenage daughter of a Brooklyn beauty-parlor owner blossoms under the influence of her recently-returned show-biz aunt.

Movie

Welcome II the Terrordome (1995)
Welcome II the Terrordome IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Ngozi Onwurah actor: Suzette Llewellyn / Saffron Burrows …
other title: 欢迎来到恐怖穹顶
Spike and his sister Anjela live in the Terrordome, a huge ghetto that all the blacks have been forced to live in. Jodie, Spike's pregnant white girlfriend, ran away from an abusive white boyfriend who, after seeing her with Spike, sets up a trap for her. Spike's 11-year old nephew Hector dies as a result of this trap, and Anjela, finding the body of her son, goes on a police-killing rampage. Her apprehension sets off tension between Spike and his brother-in-law, as a race war broods inside the Terrordome.

Movie

Chocolate Babies (1996)
Chocolate Babies WikiData IMDb TMDB Skybridge
Stephen Winter actor: Dudley Findlay Jr. / Jon Kit Lee …
Welcome to the front lines of AIDS activism, where the latest enemy raids are being run by a band of unlikely warriors: two drag queens, an HIV-positive man with tiny gemstones dotting his bald head, and his HIV-positive sister.

Movie

Naked Acts (1998)
Naked Acts WikiData IMDb TMDB
An aspiring actress has lost considerable weight to land her first movie role, but what the director didn’t tell her was that it includes a nude scene. Reluctant to do it, she embarks on a personal journey that unveils secrets once hidden under her weight, as she discovers emotional nudity is just as revealing as taking her clothes off.

Movie

Tree of Blood (1996)
Po di sangui WikiData IMDb TMDB Skybridge
other title: Po di sangui / Po di Sangui …
Done in the style of an African folk tale, this film, a collaboration between European and African countries, is said to be among the most elaborate, high tech film in African film. Exquisitely photographed and filled with archetypal figures to create a poetic look at nature's revenge against those who would exploit her. It is set in the forest village of Amanha Lundju, a place where the birth of children is celebrated by the planting of a tree. The trees are considered spiritual twins. But for every tree planted, the rapacious state destroys many more for firewood and lumber.

Movie

Eve's Bayou (1997)
Eve's Bayou
Kasi Lemmons actor: Jurnee Smollett / Meagan Good …
other title: La baia di Eva / Eve's Bayou - Im Bann der Lügen …
Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.

Movie

Love Jones (1997)
Love Jones WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Lovejones
Darius Lovehall is a young black poet in Chicago who starts dating Nina Moseley, a beautiful and talented photographer. While trying to figure out if they've got a "love thing" or are just "kicking it," they hang out with their friends, talking about love and sex. Then Nina tests the strength of Darius' feelings and sets a chain of romantic complications into motion.

Movie

Drylongso (1999)
Drylongso WikiData IMDb TMDB
Cauleen Smith actor: Toby Smith / April Barnett …
A young woman in a photography class begins taking pictures of black men out of fear they will soon be extinct.

Movie

The Wood (1999)
The Wood WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Noivo em Pânico / Le bois …
In the panicky, uncertain hours before his wedding, a groom with prenuptial jitters and his two best friends reminisce about growing up together in the middle-class African-American neighborhood of Inglewood, California. Flashing back to the twenty-something trio's childhood exploits, the memories capture the mood and nostalgia of the '80s era.
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