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Home , Aldis Hodge, Alex Wheatle, Alfre Woodard, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins, I Am Not Your Negro

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I do apologize that I do not have any Canadian listed but also wanted to provide a list of films selected by the National Film Board that portray the multi-layered lives of Canada’s diverse Black communities. Explore the NFB’s collection of films by distinguished Black filmmakers, creators, and allies. (Link below) Black Communities in Canada: A Rich History - NFB

Film Info – data gathered from TIFF or IMBd AFC Input – Personal review of the film (Nelia Pacheco Chair/Programmer, AFC) Synopsis – this info was gathered from different sources such as; TIFF, IMBd, Film Reviews etc. FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS FILM SUGGESTIONS TO CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH I am very biased towards the Director Small Axe is based on the real-life experiences of 's West Director: Steve McQueen Steve McQueen, his films are very Indian community and is set between 1969 and 1982 UK, 2020 personal and gorgeous to watch. I 1st – MANGROVE 2hr 7min: English cannot recommend this series Mangrove tells this true story of Nine, who 5 Part Series: ENOUGH, it was fantastic and the clashed with London police in 1970. The trial that followed was

stories are a must see. After listening to the first judicial acknowledgment of behaviour motivated by Principal Cast: Gary Beadle, , interviews/discussions with Steve racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police Sheyi Cole Kenyah Sandy, Amarah-Jae St. McQueen about this project you see his 2nd – LOVERS ROCK 1hr 10 min: Aubyn and many more.., A single evening at a house party in 1980s West London sets the passion and what this production meant to him, it is a series of “love letters” to his scene, developing intertwined relationships against a Category: TV Mini background of violence, romance and music. Series/Biography/Drama/Feature Film heritage and to the West Indian Communities who immigrated to the UK 3rd – RED, WHITE and BLUE 1hr 20min: Spotlights the true story of Leroy Logan, who at a young age Available: AMAZON PRIME during this time period. saw his father assaulted by two policemen, motivating him to – Based on true events, this 5 part series join the Metropolitan Police and change their racist attitudes Small Axe - Season 1 - IMDb is in their own right a feature film, but from within. the positive is you do not have to 4th - 1hr 6min:

FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS watch all 5 consecutively they are not Alex Wheatle follows the true story of award-winning writer, linked to each other. Five completely Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole), from a young boy through his early different films and stories. adult years. Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finally finds not only a sense of community for the first time in , but his identity and ability to grow his passion for music and DJing. When he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he confronts his past and sees a path to healing. 5th –EDUCATION 1hr: Education is the coming of age story of 12-year-old Kingsley (Kenyah Sandy), who has a fascination for astronauts and rockets. When Kingsley is pulled to the headmaster's office for being disruptive in class, he discovers he's being sent to a school for those with "special needs." Distracted by working two jobs, his parents (Sharlene Whyte, Daniel Francis) are unaware of the unofficial segregation policy at play, preventing many Black children from receiving the education they deserve, until a group of West Indian women take matters into their own hands. This is really an incredible piece of work! Biographical epic of Malcolm X, the legendary African American Director: In addition the back story on how Spike leader. Born Malcolm Little, his father (a Garveyite Baptist USA, 1992 Lee fought to have a Black Director, and minister) was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm became a English how he managed to get the additional gangster, and while in jail discovered the Nation of Islam 3H 22 minutes financing (as the budget was way off writings of Elijah Muhammad. He preaches the teachings when track) to complete it is admiral in itself. let out of jail, but later on goes on a pilgrimage to the city of Principal Cast: Denzel Mecca, there he converts to the original Islamic religion and Washington, , Delroy Great film to provide education and becomes a Sunni Muslim and changes his name to El-Hajj Malik Lindo awareness of the Civil Rights Movement. Al-Shabazz. He is assassinated on February 21, 1965 and dies a Muslim martyr. Category: Biography/Drama/Feature Film Available: CRAVE/HBO CANADA

Malcolm X (1992) - IMDb FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? Nina Simone is one of my favourite artists On stage Nina Simone was known for expression, which Director: Lisa Garbus and what I love about her and her music enthralled audiences and attracted life-long fans. But amid the USA, 2013 is that she demands your attention to her violent, haunting, and senseless day-to-day of the civil rights era English craft and her music. You just can’t have in 1960s America, Simone struggled to reconcile her artistic 1H 42 minutes her playing is the background – as identity and ambition with her devotion to a movement. Culled mentioned above her power demands from hours of autobiographical tapes, this new film unveils the Stars: Nina Simone, Lisa Simone your complete attention. unmitigated ego of a brilliant artist and the absurdities of her Kelly, Roger Nupie time. At the height of her fame Simone walked away from her Her story is heart breaking, and again the family, country, career and fans, to move to Liberia and give Category: courage that it took for her to fight and performing. The story of her life leading up to that event poses Documentary/Biography/Music speak her truth while also dealing with the question, 'how does royalty stomp around in the mud and the consequences (black listed for her still walk with grace her utterly free, uninhibited musical Available: support of the Black Panthers) during the

Civil Rights Movement is honourable What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) - IMDb CLEMENCY I screened this film at TIFF back in the Fall Under the skilled guidance of writer-director Chinonye Chukwu, Director: Chinonye Chukwu of 2019 – the acting is fantastic but the ( Grind, ) provides a USA, 2019 subject matter is heavy and the pace of layered, nuanced portrait of a beleaguered prison warden — a English the film was slow at many points. performance that was a key part of why the film won a Grand 113 minutes Jury Prize at the 2019 . Warden Principal Cast: Alfre Woodard, Richard That said, I certainly feel the subject Bernadine Williams (Woodard) is a professional. She arrives at Schiff, matter is relevant and worth the time to work every day to watch over death-row prisoners until they , , Richard view. face execution or receive a rare, last-minute clemency. She Gunn, takes her job seriously, doing her best to offer dignity to the Danielle Brooks men left isolated in her prison to contemplate what they did — or didn’t do. Even when a lethal injection procedure goes wrong Category: Feature Film and throws the inmate’s family into grief-stricken chaos, Bernadinenever loses her cool. But when she goes home at Available: CRAVE /HBO Canada night, she feels it. Her husband Jonathan, played by Wendell

Pierce (television’s The Wire, Treme), is a School teacher still Clemency (2019) - IMDb deeply in love with a wife who is growing harder and more distant. Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge) is the next prisoner in line, and a complex man to reach. As his lawyer (Richard Schiff ) FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS fights to prove Woods’ innocence before time runs out, Bernadine struggles to maintain the neutral calm that defines her job but threatens to destroy her marriage. LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN I have not screened this film as yet but Director Joe Talbot’s debut feature is an ode to the city of San FRANCISCO the reviews are very positive. Francisco, rooted in the real-life experiences of his childhood Director: Joe Talbot best friend, Jimmie Fails. Though Fails is a non-actor, no one USA, 2019 else could give a more genuine and heart-felt performance than English he could — so Talbot cast him in the lead role. The Last Black 120 minutes Man in San Francisco tells a story of the city through the eyes of Principal Cast: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan a fictionalized version of Jimmie, who is obsessed by the idea of Majors, Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold, reclaiming the Victorian house in Fillmore that his grandfather built. This house is where he grew up, and was the last real home he had before his family broke apart. Jimmie spends most Category: Feature Film of his time hanging out with his best friend, aspiring playwright Montgomery (Jonathan Majors, Out of Blue, ), Available: CRAVE /HBO Canada haunting the neighbour-hoods they knew as children and watching old black-and-white movies at the small house they The Last Black Man in San Francisco share with Montgomery’s nearly-blind grandfather (Danny (2019) - IMDb Glover, The Old Man and the Gun, The Color Purple).Jimmie also visits and fixes up the house his grandfather built to keep it from falling into disrepair, much to the annoyance of its current owners. Unexpectedly, the house is one day left empty and an estate dispute ensues. Jimmie and Montgomery seize the opportunity to move in and live out a make-believe home life — but their dream can’t last forever. This is a story about transformation, friendship, resilience, and what it means to belong to a community. And though the film is not directly about gentrification, that’s so much a part of the day-to-day reality of San Franciscans that the force of it can’t be ignored.

FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK I have not screened this film but I am a Director ’ ambitious follow-up to his Oscar-winning Director: Barry Jenkins huge supporter of Barry Jenkins and have Film Circuit favourite Moonlight adapts ’s USA, 2018 also love the writings of James Baldwin poignant novel about a woman fighting to free her falsely English accused husband from prison before the birth of their child. In 117 minutes his third feature, Jenkins draws deeply and faithfully from Principal Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan Baldwin, whose profound insight into African Americans’ James, unique place in society serves as inspiration for this gorgeous tone poem on love and justice. Tish (newcomer KiKi Layne) is only 19, but she’s been forced to grow up fast. She’s pregnant Category: Feature Film by Fonny, the man she loves, but Fonny is going to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. As the film begins, Tish must break the Available: RENT/AMAZON PRIME news to her family, and his. Tish’s mother — played with heartbreaking depth by Regina King (television’s American If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) - Crime, Ray), who recently won the Oscar for Best Supporting IMDb Actress for her performance — soon must decide how far she will go to secure her daughter’s future. As Fonny, (Race, Selma) gives a career-best performance of both grit and grace as a young man deeply in love but furious at what has befallen him. Jenkins reveals the layers of conflicting motivations in a filmmaking style that approaches music, dipping into Baldwin’s elevated language and following his characters with unabashed devotion, fully capturing the texture of 1970s New York. If Beale Street Could Talk is without doubt a romance, but it’s stronger than that because it refuses to indulge fantasy. Infused with Moonlight’s deep lyricism and ’s flirtatious spark, Jenkins’ latest shows him to be our most clear-eyed chronicler of love. THE HATE U GIVE I have not screened this film but I did Starr Carter lives in the predominantly black suburb of Garden Director: George Tillman Jr. read the book, written by Author Angie Heights. She also attends an affluent, predominantly white USA, 2018 Thomas who just released the prequel private school, where she dates a popular white student English CONCRETE ROSE to THE HATE U GIVE – named Chris and plays for the basketball team. One weekend, 2hr 13 minutes very relevant during these challenging Starr attends a local house party and runs into a childhood Principal Cast: Amandla times. friend named Khalil, who ends up offering her a ride home, FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby which she accepts. On the way home, Khalil is pulled over by a white police officer Category: Feature Film for a random vehicle check. He is asked to get out of the car, Available: RENT/BUY/YouTube which he does, but when he opens the driver-side door again to check on Starr, the police officer shoots and kills him, thinking a The Hate U Give (2018) - IMDb hairbrush in his hand is a weapon. The media takes on Khalil's story. Khalil is portrayed as a drug-

dealing gang member, while the police officer who shot him is

portrayed as a good, decorated cop who had a genuine fear for his life. At first, Starr chooses not to speak up, and she doesn't even tell her school friends, Hailey and Maya—or her boyfriend Chris—that she was with Khalil on the night of his death. TH 13 This documentary was an education in The film begins with the idea that 25 percent of the people in Director: Ava DuVernay itself for anyone who is interested in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the U.S. USA, 2016 trying to understand both the culture Although the U.S. has just 5% of the world's population. "13th" English 1hr 40 minutes conflict as well as and the prison system charts the explosive growth in America's prison population; in Stars: Melina Abdullah, Michelle in the US. 1970, there were about 200,000 prisoners; today, the prison population is more than 2 million. The documentary touches on Alexander, The situation in our prison system here in chattel ; D. W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation"; Canada is not much different when it ; the civil rights movement; the Civil Rights Act of Category: Documentary comes to our Indigenous population. 1964; Richard M. Nixon; and Ronald Reagan's declaration of the Available: NETFLIX war on drugs and much more.

13th (2016) - IMDb FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS ONE NIGHT IN I have not screened this film. Fresh on the heels of her Academy Award for If Beale Street Director: Regina King Could Talk and her acclaimed lead performance in the USA, 2020 Watchmen television series, Regina King makes her feature English directing debut with a drama that draws entertainment and 110 minutes activism, fame and principle, together on one fabled evening. Principal Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli One Night in Miami imagines a night in February 1964, when Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr. real-life friends Cassius Clay, , Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X gather to celebrate Clay’s win over Sonny Liston, Category: Feature Film which made him the heavyweight champion of the world. Triumphant and playful, Clay (Eli Goree) — who’d soon take the Available: AMAZON PRIME name Muhammad Ali — is looking to party, but both he and football star Brown know that’s only a temporary escape from One Night in Miami (2020) - IMDb the civil rights abuses that limit the lives of even celebrated

Black Americans. In one potent early scene, Brown, played by Aldis Hodge (Clemency), visits the home of a white benefactor (Beau Bridges) and gets a harsh reminder of just where he stands. When Clay and Brown are joined at a swank Miami motel by the sober-minded Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and the flashy pop star Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), the four men begin with banter but soon root down to the hard questions facing them. Should successful Black entertainers speak out against racism? How best can Black celebrities serve the Black community? Are money and fame reward enough for humiliation? Working with Kemp Powers to bring his original stage play to the screen, King and her actors attack these conversations with the urgency, depth, and humour the subject still demands today. FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS SELMA Another great film for anyone wishing to The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three- Director: Ava DuVernay further educate themselves on the month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a USA, 2014 American Civil Rights movement in the US dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of English back in the 60’s. The film is very powerful violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery 2h 8 minutes and evokes many emotions. culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act Principal Cast: , Carmen of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights Ejogo, movement. Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Category: Biography/Drama/Feature and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change Film that forever altered history.

Available: NETFLIX

Selma (2014) - IMDb 12 YEARS A SLAVE Another Film by Steve McQueen – I just Based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival Director: Steve McQueen love what he creates and his messaging. and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon USA, 2013 Slavery was and continues to be a Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted English horrendous system. This film really shows and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty personified by a malevolent 2H 14 minutes you how a “free slave” really was not slave owner, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon much different than a “slave”, struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the Principal Cast: , Michael twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance Kenneth Williams, His other works such as THE HUNGER, meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life. SHAME and SMALL AXE (listed above) are Category: Biography/Drama/Feature so powerful. Film This film also offers some small insight Available: RENT/BUY/YouTube into Canada and the Underground

Railroad. 12 Years a Slave (2013) - IMDb FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS MOONLIGHT Barry Jenkins in my opinion is one of the Along with 's Get Out, the second feature from Director: Barry Jenkins greatest Directors of today. His films are Barry Jenkins was one of the defining American films of the USA, 2016 very powerful and MOONLIGHT is decade: plunging directly into the nexus of race, class, and English certainly on my top 10 list. Again, visually sexuality that both structures contemporary Western society 111 minutes his films are gorgeous and this film left and keeps it in a constant state of chaos and violence, Jenkins Writers: Barry Jenkins me quite depleted. The back story to combats it through tenderness, beauty, and formal daring as a (screenplay by), Tarell Alvin McCraney how this film was made adds so much to complement to Peele's subversive, genre-movie savvy. Principal Cast: , Naomie the final product. Proceeding in three distinct movements, Moonlight traces the Harris, Trevante Rhodes literal and figurative growth of its protagonist, Chiron, as he progresses from a troubled child (Alex Hibbert) to a sexually Category: Feature Film confused teenager () to a buff, jail-tatted drug dealer (Trevante Rhodes) who finds that he still yearns for his Available: RENT/BUY/YouTube high-school love. Winner of the for Best

Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor Moonlight (2016) - IMDb (for Mahershala Ali, in his star-making turn as Chiron's childhood father figure), Moonlight is "[a] heartbreaker of a film*,+ filled with miracles.… This film is, without a doubt, the reason we go to the movies" (Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out London) HIDDEN FIGURES This film was just an eye opener again to As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, Director: Theodore Melfi the continued challenges that Black NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American USA, 2016 people, especially Black Women, faced female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of English and continue to experience. the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the 2H 7 minutes unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known It is a really feel good film and one to as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly Principal Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia celebrate the accomplishments of Black rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest Spencer, Janelle Monáe Women/People that we so rarely see. minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his Category: Biography/Drama/Feature safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Film Gobels Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything Available: CRAVE/HBO Canada ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented

them in U.S. history as true American heroes. Hidden Figures (2016) - IMDb FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS FENCES Denzel and Viola are magic together in Troy Maxson makes his living as a sanitation worker in 1950s Director: this film that was originally introduced as Pittsburgh. Maxson once dreamed of becoming a professional Writers: August Wilson a stage play also in which both also baseball player, but was deemed too old when the major USA, 2016 starred. leagues began admitting black athletes. Bitter over his missed English opportunity, Troy creates further tension in his family when he 2H 19 minutes August Wilson’s story of the struggles of a squashes his son's chance to meet a college football recruiter. Black Family in the 50’s, and also the Principal Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola acceptance of not meeting one’s dreams Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson is really a thing of beauty.

Category: Drama/Feature Film Again, the acting in spectacular.

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Fences (2016) - IMDb STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON Not sure there is a better film in my In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and Director: F. Gary Grey opinion hi-lighting how words and music hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the USA, 2015 allowed a group of individuals to have most dangerous place in America into the most powerful English their voices heard while surviving in one weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all 2H 27 minutes of the most threating areas of the US, as began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these well as achieving the success that they cultural rebels-armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado Principal Cast: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey did. and raw talent-stood up to the authorities that meant to keep Hawkins, Jason Mitchell them down and formed the world's most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and Category: Biography/Drama/Feature exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution Film that is still reverberating today.

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Straight Outta Compton (2015) - IMDb FILM TITEL and INFO AFC Input SYNOPSIS I have not screened this film as yet. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent Director: describing his next project, "." The book USA, 2016 James Baldwin showed great courage is was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and English using his voice and his writings to bring assassinations of three of his close friends: , 1H 33 minutes awareness to the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, James manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Baldwin never finished.

Category: Documentary

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I Am Not Your Negro (2016) - IMDb