07 Feb 1984
Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.

African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

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07 Feb 1984
A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.

04 Jul 1954

Film commissioned by the Chicago-based publisher of Negro Digest, Ebony, Tan, and Jet to encourage advertisers to reach out to African American consumers. The Secret of Selling the Negro depicts the lives, activities, and consumer behavior of African American professionals, students, and housewives. A Business Screen reviewer noted that the film focused on the “bright positive” aspects of the “new Negro family.” The sponsor issued a companion booklet offering the “do’s and don’ts of selling to the Negro.”

23 Jan 2025

An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone – the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic Sly Stone – that captures the band's reign while shedding light on the burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.

16 Dec 2023

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

28 Jul 2023

Four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City break down the walls of their profession.

29 Apr 2009

Returning to the island that her father left 50 years earlier, the filmmaker goes back in time to retrace the history of her name.

25 Jun 2021

The intimate journey and unpublished backstory of BeBe Zahara Benet – a charismatic drag performer originally from Cameroon, and the very first winner of the culture-changing phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race. With over a decade of unprecedented access, we observe BeBe’s struggles with celebrity, authenticity, success, and failure.

01 Jan 1995

This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien's "The Attendant" and Jocelyn Taylor's "Bodily Functions", this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.

16 Aug 2019

Summer 2017, a string of brutal police killings of young African American men has sent shockwaves throughout the country. A Black community in the American South tries to cope with the lingering effects of the past and navigate their place in a country that is not on their side. Meanwhile, the Black Panthers prepare a large-scale protest against police brutality.

22 May 2018

From adoption and homelessness to navigating relationships and overcoming self-harm, the four transmen in MAN MADE all have something else in common: they are all bodybuilders. Through the lens of FTMFitCon, the world’s only FTM bodybuilding competition, we delve into the lives of Dominic, Rese, Mason, and Kennie as they define what it means to be a man while contextualizing that definition through the social, racial, and economic realities of their lives. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about stepping on stage and being seen for everything they are.

26 Jul 1974

An educational video exploring drug addiction, including footage of real-life addicts going through rehab therapy.

17 Mar 2023

An inspiring love story about a self-described “poor, gay, black man from North Philly” on his historic run for the United States Senate. But this race is about more than taking on the political competition. It’s about taking on an entire system.

01 Feb 2026

Pata Seca (1828), a man whose back bore the whip marks of his enslavers , whose eyes held the haunted memory of being forced to breed over 200 slave children in order to sustain his master’s plantation. Men broken but unbowed, transformed from field hands into soldiers from the civil war to Vietnam. This documentary weaves together authentic narratives from the 1800s, accompanied by original images and footage, highlighting the significant influence that Black men in uniform had in Hollywood and addressing ongoing relevant issues to date.

21 Feb 2023

An oral history documentary of people of color at Miami University during its Public Ivy period—from 1970 to the early 2000s.

30 Jun 1952

An African-American family in Georgia works to save money for a power saw. Includes depictions of timber harvest techniques and process. Film made in 1952 by the United States Information Service and intended for foreign audiences.

27 Apr 2014

James Brown changed the face of American music forever. Abandoned by his parents at an early age, James Brown was a self-made man who became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, not just through his music, but also as a social activist. Charting his journey from rhythm and blues to funk, MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN features rare and previously unseen footage, photographs and interviews, chronicling the musical ascension of “the hardest working man in show business,” from his first hit, “Please, Please, Please,” in 1956, to his iconic performances at the Apollo Theater, the T.A.M.I. Show, the Paris Olympia and more.

31 Jan 2016

Chronicles over four centuries of African American influence on the development of the modern-day United States. Before Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, St. Augustine, FL had built a multicultural colony of free and enslaved men and women. This small colony would eventually set the stage for the first Underground Railroad in the late 1600s. Then, 300 years later, be the epicenter of events that would lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

21 Jan 2016

A documentary that approaches polyamory from the intimate point of view of an Afro-American family who decided to live an authentic life without denying the option of diversity in their love and family.

01 Jan 2019

When the immigrants came to America, their cultures entered the "great melting pot." In Michigan's Upper Peninsula Finnish immigrants mixed their musical traditions with many other cultures, creating a sound that was unique to the "Copper Country."

10 Nov 2019

Maurice Hines -- actor, director, singer, and choreographer -- navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines.