Interest in documentaries and movies that tell stories of the black experience is running high as protests over the police killing of George Floyd continue and as Americans aim to learn more about race.
In recent days, many scholars, film historians and writers, actors and directors have publicly criticized films and tv shows that depict the black experience in stereotypical or otherwise problematic ways and shows that are pro-police. On Tuesday HBO Max pulled the 1939 Civil War epic “Gone With the Wind,” which features portrayals of happy slaves, until it could add a disclaimer to the movie. Paramount Network canceled the long-running reality show “Cops” and the A&E Network pulled “Live PD” from its schedule.
“The Help,” a period drama released in 2011, recently rose to the top of Netflix’s most-viewed movies, exasperating some black film experts and moviegoers who consider it one in a long list of films featuring “white saviors.”
Meanwhile, some have been using social media to publicly call on networks, cable channels and streaming services, a number of which have published statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, to add more programming featuring black characters or telling black stories.
Last week on Twitter, Wyatt Cenac, a former “Daily Show” writer and correspondent, encouraged HBO to run marathons of documentaries that speak to this moment. “There are a lot of white people who feel shocked by this moment, but maybe they wouldn’t be so shocked if they were confronted with a marathon of Black and Brown voices who have been sharing stories about structural racism for decades,” said Mr. Cenac, who had his own late-night series, “Problem Areas,” on HBO from 2018 to 2019, in an email.
The American Film Institute’s AFI Movie Club, launched in late March with “The Wizard of Oz” as lockdowns were taking effect, said it recently pivoted to highlight films including “Do the Right Thing,” “Selma,” and “Just Mercy.”
We asked four film scholars to offer some recommendations on films that speak to the moment or illuminate black culture.
Donald Bogle: Film Historian
Mr. Bogle is the author of books including “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks,” and “Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers.”
“Nothing But a Man” (YouTube) The protagonist of this 1964 neorealist film is “an African-American man living in the South who has to come to grips not only with the culture that he finds suppresses him but he’s got to understand himself better if indeed he’s going to survive,” says Mr. Bogle.
Abbey Lincoln and Ivan Dixon in the 1964 film 'Nothing But a Man.'
Photo: Everett Collection“Boyz n the Hood” (Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Hulu, and others) What’s so interesting about this 1991 coming-of-age drama that takes place in Los Angeles’s gritty South Central, Mr. Bogle says, “is we see it’s almost all black and still there is the idea of these outside forces determining black lives. You hear the sound of helicopters overhead. There’s a sequence when Furious Styles [played by Laurence Fishburne] is talking about gentrification in neighborhoods.
Maori Karmael Holmes: Artistic Director, BlackStar Film Festival
Ms. Holmes is the founder of an annual event showcasing films by black, brown and indigenous people from around the world.
“Whose Streets?” (Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu) A 2017 documentary that follows the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., that resulted from the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014. Local activists made the film, which premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. “The film is really strong because of their position on the ground,” says Ms. Holmes. She adds the film will help “anyone who doesn’t understand what this current movement is about.”
“Always in Season” (PBS.org) This 2019 documentary examines lynching in America, as a mother seeks justice over the suspicious 2014 death of her teenage son. “It’s just really moving and done really well,” she says.
Claudia Lacy, the mother of Lennon Lacy who was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, N.C., is the subject of the documentary ‘Always in Season.’
Photo: Everett CollectionDr. Todd Boyd, Race in Pop Culture Scholar
Dr. Boyd is the professor of cinema and media studies at USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture
“In the Heat of the Night” (Amazon Prime Video)This 1967 crime drama takes place in the Deep South and stars Sidney Poitier as a black detective working with a white police department to solve a murder case. The moment of the film that sticks with Dr. Boyd is when Mr. Tibbs (played by Mr. Poitier) slaps a racist character after having been slapped himself. “He didn’t turn the other cheek,” says Dr. Boyd. “He fought back, which signaled in a lot of ways a shift from the politics of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement to a position that might have been more consistent with what Malcolm X was advocating, and what would eventually transpire after the assassination of King in ‘68.”
Sidney Poitier, left, and Rod Steiger in the 1967 film, 'In the Heat of the Night.’
Photo: Everett Collection“Dead Presidents” (VUDU, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube) This 1995 crime thriller was directed by the Hughes Brothers and looks at the experience of black Vietnam War soldiers. “It’s a story about not only black soldiers in Vietnam but what awaits them when they return home to America in the late ’60s, early ’70s. And it’s effective in demonstrating how that era shapes black history going forward into the ’80s and ’90s.”
Ina Diane Archer, Media Conservator
Media conservation and digitization specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
“Night of the Living Dead” (Tubi, YouTube, Google Play) This 1968 horror classic was striking for that period for having a black hero at its center. “But then the end of the film is extremely depressing and very much looks like media images from that time, of burning,” says Ms. Archer. “It’s so grim and frightening in the metaphor. It goes beyond being a horror film in that sense.”
“When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (Hulu, YouTube TV) Watch Spike Lee’s 2006 documentary on Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath “to see that this kind of breakdown and issues are not new at all,” says Ms. Archer. “It’s the same kind of systems, it’s just a different pandemic in a way.”
Spike Lee’s 'When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,' documents the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Photo: Everett CollectionWrite to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com
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