In May 2016, Slate writers Aisha Harris, now with NPR, and Dan Kois, with contributions from many incredible Black filmmakers, critics, directors, and scholars, decided to highlight Black Film Canon with a list of “the 50 greatest movies by Black directors”. In the introduction to their original list, they emphasized that they wanted to “showcase Black film makers who 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 non-Black directors.”
Of the 50 films, the oldest film on the list was ‘Within Our Gates’ (Oscar Micheaux, 1920), an early exploration of racism and racial violence, and the newest film was ‘O.J.: Made in America’ (Ezra Edelman, 2016), ESPN’s documentary on O.J. Simpson and his broader place in American culture. In between, they highlighted everything from a beloved 90s film ‘Friday’, showcasing life in a fictional South Central Los Angeles neighborhood, to ‘Hollywood Shuffle’, Robert Townsend’s film about racial stereotypes in film and television, and ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song’ by Melvin Van Peebles, one of if not the earliest Blaxploitation film.
The Forty-Year-Old Version (Source: Netflix)
In setting out to update the list, Harris and Kois wanted to recognize the incredible works made by Black filmmakers, showcasing progress and momentum in Hollywood with such films as ‘Moonlight’, ‘Get Out’, and ‘The 40-Year-Old Version’ highlighting, all significant triumphs by Black directors, but Harris and Kois also recognized the need to do more and to keep highlighting Black film canon. In their latest update, they include the three films just mentioned, as well as ‘Eleven P.M.’, a rare 1920s “race film”, ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse’, featuring Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’, showcasing her 2018 Coachella appearance, and many more incredible films.
After publishing the new list, Harris and Kois went on to NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour, a podcast co-hosted by Harris, to explore the list further, and highlight 5 of the many films on this new Black film canon list.
To see the full list of films, and a the full list of voters, visit Slate.com
