Like all forms of art, filmmaking moves us on a deep level. When we’ve felt something shift in us by the time the credits roll, we know we’ve encountered a truth that’s changed us. Powerful movies do more than transport our imaginations, they transform us by calling on us to look at our lives differently.
While the crisis of racial injustice in this country has reached a public boiling point, change begins at a personal level. And storytelling can play a significant role in pushing us toward that. Movies introduce us to new people, struggles, and situations. They help us stand in other people’s shoes and imagine life from a different perspective. They can put a human face on this struggle for freedom and justice.
Watching the films listed below is a place to start. This list contains stories about what it means to live in a racist society — they demonstrate in a visceral way what it is to be a person of color in America. This is by no means a complete list, but it provides a glimpse into the kind of stories that can guide us.
Get Out
Find it on Amazon Prime
Burden
Find it on Hulu
BlacKkKlansman
Find it on Hulu or HBOGo
American History X
Find it on YouTube or Amazon Prime
12 Years a Slave
Find it on YouTube or Amazon Prime
42
Find it on YouTube or Amazon Prime
Detroit
Find it on Hulu
13th
Find it on Netflix
Just Mercy
Find it on Amazon Prime
Tangerine
Find it on Amazon Prime
Watchmen
Find it on HBO
Paris is Burning
Find it on YouTube
Clemency
Find it on Hulu and Amazon Prime
Do the Right Thing
Find it on YouTube and Amazon Prime
I Am Not Your Negro
Find it on YouTube and Amazon Prime
Moonlight
Find it on Netflix
American Son
Find it on Netflix
The Hurricane
Find it on Hulu or YouTube
Fruitvale Station
Find it on YouTube or Amazon Prime
Fences
Find it on YouTube or Amazon Prime
The Hate U Give
Find it on Hulu or YouTube
