Girl Tribe Recommends: 10 Movies to Celebrate Black Culture

By Khushi Bhatt

 

With February just passing us and the need for every month to be Black history month we thought it would be an awesome idea to bring to you our favorite shows that celebrate black culture so you can commemorate all year round. While viewing, mind that these shows should be used to celebrate, reflect and learn from different inventors and artists mentioned in all of the programs. With racism and sovereignty still in the air, we here at girl tribe believe that it is essential to recognize these problems and stand in solidarity with them. Without further ado, here are the top 10 shows to celebrate black culture! Happy watching. 

 

Dear White People

Based on the acclaimed film of the same name, this Netflix-original series follows a group of students of color at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college. The students are faced with a landscape of cultural bias, social injustice, misguided activism and slippery politics. Through an absurdist lens, the series uses irony, self-deprecation, brutal honesty and humor to highlight issues that still plague today’s”post-racial” society. 

 

 

 

The Black Church, this is our story, this is our song.

The documentary reveals how Black people have worshipped and, through their spiritual journeys, improvised ways to bring their faith traditions from Africa to the New World, while translating them into a form of Christianity that was not only truly their own, but a redemptive force for a nation whose original sin was found in their ancestors’ enslavement across the Middle Passage.

 

 

When they see us

In 1989 a jogger was assaulted and raped in New York’s Central Park, and five young people were subsequently charged with the crime. The quintet, labeled the Central Park Five, maintained its innocence and spent years fighting the convictions, hoping to be exonerated. This limited series spans a quarter of a century, from when the teens are first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, going through their exoneration in 2002 and ultimately the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014.

 

 

 

Hidden Figures

Three brilliant African-American women at NASA — Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) — serve as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world.

 

 

 

Watchmen

Based on the celebrated graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the exciting and dark “Watchmen” takes place in Tulsa, Okla., 34 years after the original story. After a white supremacist attack on the local police department, which leaves only two surviving cops on the beat, laws are passed that allow the cops to hide their identities behind masks. One of these cops, Angela Abar, adopts the identity of Sister Night and fights racists while dealing with the decades-long legacy of the vigilantes.

 

Unsung presents “music and the movement”

Music is a significant part of Black culture and history, from songs that helped navigate the Underground Railroad to those that provided commentary on racial injustice.

 

 

 

 

Black-ish

Dre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) has it all – a great job, beautiful wife Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), four kids and a big home in a classy neighbourhood – but as a black man, he begins to question whether all his success has brought too much cultural assimilation for his family. With the help of his father (Laurence Fishburne), Dre begins to try to create a sense of ethnic identity for the members of his family that will allow them to honour their background while preparing them to embrace the future.

 

 

 

Moonlight

A look at three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. His epic journey to manhood is guided by the kindness, support and love of the community that helps raise him.

 

 

 

See you yesterday

Two teenage science prodigies spend every spare minute working on their latest homemade invention: backpacks that enable time travel. When one of their older brothers is killed, they put their unfinished project to the test to save him.

 

 

 

13th

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

 

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