The 50 Greatest Movies by Black Directors by Slate
"Despite everything, black filmmakers have produced art on screen that is just as daring, original, influential, and essential as the heralded works of Welles, Coppola, Antonioni, Kurosawa, and other nonblack directors. Films like Daughters of the Dust, Killer of Sheep, Tongues Untied, and Fruitvale Station deserve to be considered alongside the artistic masterpieces of the past century in cinema."
- Aisha Harris and Dan KoisWeight: 100
Films (50)
1. O.J.: Made in America
Directed by Ezra Edelman | Rated TV-MA | 467 min | 2016
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
3. Creed
Directed by Ryan Coogler | Rated PG-13 | 133 min | 2015
The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.
4. Selma
Directed by Ava DuVernay | Rated PG-13 | 128 min | 2014
A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
5. Timbuktu
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako | Rated PG-13 | 97 min | 2014
A cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.
6. 12 Years a Slave
Directed by Steve McQueen | Rated R | 134 min | 2013
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
7. Belle
Directed by Amma Asante | Rated PG | 100 min | 2013
The mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral is raised by her aristocratic great-uncle in 18th century England.
8. Fruitvale Station
Directed by Ryan Coogler | Rated R | 85 min | 2013
The story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.
9. Middle of Nowhere
Directed by Ava DuVernay | Rated R | 97 min | 2012
When her husband is sentenced to eight years in prison, Ruby drops out of medical school in order to focus on her husband's well-being while he's incarcerated - leading her on a journey of self-discovery in the process.
11. Night Catches Us
Directed by Tanya Hamilton | Rated R | 90 min | 2010
In 1976, complex political and emotional forces are set in motion when a young man returns to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age during the Black Power movement.
12. Medicine for Melancholy
Directed by Barry Jenkins | Rated N/A | 88 min | 2008
Twenty-four hours in the tentative relationship of two young San Franciscans also dealing with the conundrum of being a minority in a rapidly gentrifying city.
13. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
Directed by N/A | Rated TV-MA | 255 min | 2006
An examination of the U.S. government's role and its response to Hurricane Katrina.
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Directed by Darnell Martin | Rated N/A | 113 min | 2005
A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the morals of her small town. Based on the novel by Zora Neale Hurston.
16. Love & Basketball
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood | Rated PG-13 | 124 min | 2000
In 1981 in L.A., Monica moves in next door to Quincy. They're 11, and both want to play in the NBA, just like Quincy's dad. Their love-hate relationship lasts into high school, with ...
17. Eve's Bayou
Directed by Kasi Lemmons | Rated R | 109 min | 1997
The story is set in 1962 Louisiana. The Batiste family is headed by charming doctor Louis. Though he is married to beautiful Roz, he has a weakness for attractive female patients. One night...
18. The Watermelon Woman
Directed by Cheryl Dunye | 90 min | 1996
Cheryl is young, Black, and lesbian, working in Philadelphia with her best friend Tamara and consumed by a film project: to make a video about her search for a Black actress from Philly who...
19. Devil in a Blue Dress
Directed by Carl Franklin | Rated R | 102 min | 1995
An African-American man is hired to find a woman, and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal.
20. Friday
Directed by F. Gary Gray | Rated R | 91 min | 1995
Two homies, Smokey and Craig, smoke a dope dealer's weed and try to figure a way to get the $200 they owe to the dealer by 10 p.m. that same night.
21. Waiting to Exhale
Directed by Forest Whitaker | Rated R | 124 min | 1995
Based on Terry McMillan's novel, this film follows four very different African-American women and their relationships with the male gender.
23. I Like It Like That
Directed by Darnell Martin | Rated R | 104 min | 1994
Lisette and husband Chino face marital difficulties. She is fed up with the kids, while he has job troubles. His mother Rosaria hates Lisette and the neighborhood tramp has designs on Chino...
24. Sankofa
Directed by Haile Gerima | Rated N/A | 125 min | 1993
A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and ...
25. Juice
Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson | Rated R | 95 min | 1992
Four inner-city teenagers get caught up in the pursuit of power and happiness, which they refer to as "the juice".
26. Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
Directed by Leslie Harris | Rated R | 92 min | 1992
Chantel Mitchell (Ariyan Johnson), a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). ...
28. Boyz n the Hood
Directed by John Singleton | Rated R | 112 min | 1991
Follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence and future prospects.
29. Daughters of the Dust
Directed by Julie Dash | Rated TV-PG | 112 min | 1991
Languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last ...
30. House Party
Directed by Reginald Hudlin | Rated R | 100 min | 1990
Young Kid has been invited to a party at his friend Play's house. But after a fight at school, Kid's father grounds him. None the less, Kid sneaks out when his father falls asleep. But Kid ...
31. Mo' Better Blues
Directed by Spike Lee | Rated R | 130 min | 1990
Jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam makes questionable decisions in his professional and romantic lives.
32. To Sleep with Anger
Directed by Charles Burnett | Rated PG | 102 min | 1990
Harry Mention, an enigmatic drifter from the South, comes to visit an old acquaintance named Gideon, who now lives in South-Central Los Angeles. Harry's charming, down-home manner hides a ...
33. Do the Right Thing
Directed by Spike Lee | Rated R | 120 min | 1989
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
34. Tongues Untied
Directed by Marlon Riggs | Rated N/A | 55 min | 1989
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill ...
35. Hollywood Shuffle
Directed by Robert Townsend | Rated R | 78 min | 1987
An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
36. Black Shack Alley
Directed by Euzhan Palcy | Rated PG | 103 min | 1983
Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for ...
37. Ashes and Embers
Directed by Haile Gerima | Rated N/A | 120 min | 1982
A troubled Vietnam veteran hoping to forget the war and reconnect with American life struggles with disillusionment, self-worth, and cynicism.
38. Losing Ground
Directed by Kathleen Collins | Rated N/A | 86 min | 1982
A comedy-drama about a Black American female philosophy professor and her insensitive, philandering, and flamboyant artist husband who are having a marital crisis. When the wife goes off on...
39. Killer of Sheep
Directed by Charles Burnett | Rated N/A | 83 min | 1978
Stan works in drudgery at a slaughterhouse. His personal life is drab. Dissatisfaction and ennui keep him unresponsive to the needs of his adoring wife, and he must struggle against ...
40. Car Wash
Directed by Michael Schultz | Rated PG | 97 min | 1976
Car Wash is about a close-knit group of employees who one day have all manner of strange visitors coming onto their forecourt, including Richard Pryor as a preaching 'wonder-man' who is ...
41. Cooley High
Directed by Michael Schultz | Rated PG | 107 min | 1975
In 1964, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the ...
42. The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Directed by Ivan Dixon | Rated PG | 102 min | 1973
A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.
43. Touki Bouki
Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty | 85 min | 1973
Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
44. Super Fly
Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. | Rated R | 93 min | 1972
The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.
45. Shaft
Directed by Gordon Parks | Rated R | 100 min | 1971
Cool black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
46. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles | Rated R | 97 min | 1971
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
47. The Learning Tree
Directed by Gordon Parks | Rated M | 107 min | 1969
The story, set in Kansas during the 1920s, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood. The ...
48. Black Girl
Directed by Ousmane Sembene | 65 min | 1966
A black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
49. The Blood of Jesus
Directed by Spencer Williams | 57 min | 1941
An atheist accidentally shoots his Baptist wife. She dies and goes to a crossroads, where the devil tries to lead her astray.
50. Within Our Gates
Directed by Oscar Micheaux | Rated N/A | 79 min | 1920
Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black youths.