Category: African-American cinema

Miguel Sandoval, Spike Lee, and Ossie Davis

Spike Lee’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ on Prime Video

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, African-American cinema, African-American filmmakers, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, drama, DVD, Essential Viewing, National Film Registry, socially aware cinema, Streaming Movies, SVOD 12/25/202101/02/2022 Sean Axmaker

Spike Lee’s vibrant, vital, thoroughly accomplished third feature is a provocative and intelligent exploration of race and racism that opens with a call to action and ends with a ferocious cry in the face of injustice.

Justin Simien's satire Dear White People on Amazon Prime

‘Dear White People’ – a sharp social satire on Hulu

!Featured, African-American cinema, American Independent Cinema, Blu-ray, DVD, Film Independent Spirit Awards, Have You Seen...?, Hulu, satire, Streaming Movies, Sundance Winner, SVOD, young adult 07/21/202107/21/2021 Sean Axmaker

Dear White People (2014), the feature debut of director / writer Justin Simien, is a sharp, smart, ambitious satire of race, racism, privilege, prejudice, and power at an Ivy League college that has drawn comparisons to Spike Lee. It’s a fitting comparison. Simien uses humor and provocation to explore issues of race and race relationships […]

What to stream: ‘Them’ on Amazon Prime, ‘Exterminate All the Brutes’ on HBO Max, ‘Thunder Force’ on Netflix

!Featured, Acorn TV, African-American cinema, Amazon Prime Video, AMC+, BritBox, Criterion Channel, Disney+, Documentary, drama, HBO Max, historical, Hulu, MHz, Netflix, Streaming TV, What to Stream 04/09/202104/09/2021 Sean Axmaker

Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …   A Black family is terrorized when they move into an all-white neighborhood in 1950s Los Angeles in “Them” (not rated). The first season of the anthology series plays out over ten days […]

Denzel Washington and Viola Davis star in the Oscar-winning film

Oscar-winner ‘Fences’ on Peacock

!Featured, Academy Award, African-American cinema, BAFTA winner, based on a play, Blu-ray, drama, DVD, Peacock, stage adaptation, Streaming Movies, SVOD 04/01/202104/01/2021 Sean Axmaker

Fences (2016) – Denzel Washington and Viola Davis earned Tony Awards for their performances in the 2010 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s play “Fences,” the story of a working class African-American family in 1950s Pittsburgh. With the blessing of Wilson’s widow (the playwright passed away in 2005), Washington brought the play to the big screen, […]

‘The Killing Floor’ – integrating the union on Criterion Channel and free on Hoopla

!Featured, African-American cinema, American Independent Cinema, based on a true story, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, Free, Have You Seen...?, historical, Hoopla, Politics, socially aware cinema, Streaming Movies, Sundance Winner, SVOD 03/03/202103/03/2021 Sean Axmaker

The Killing Floor (1984) is the slaughterhouse of the Chicago stockyards where Mississippi sharecropper Frank Custer (played by Damien Leake) finds work when he heads north for better opportunities during World War I. Working his way up to better-paying work as a butcher, he brings his wife (Alfre Woodard) and kids to Chicago, but he […]

What to stream: ‘One Night in Miami’ on Amazon, ‘WandaVision’ on Disney+, ‘Crack’ and ‘Night Stalker’ docs on Netflix

!Featured, African-American cinema, African-American filmmakers, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, based on a play, Criterion Channel, Directed by Women, HBO Max, historical, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Shudder, Starz, Streaming Movies, Sundance Now, SVOD, What to Stream 01/15/202101/15/2021 Sean Axmaker

Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …   In 1964, four legends met up on the night that Cassius Clay became heavyweight champion of the world. “One Night in Miami” (2020, R) imagines what transpired that night between Malcolm X […]

Janelle Monáe, Taraji P. Henson, and Octavia Spencer in the true story directed by Theodore Melfi

‘Hidden Figures’ on Disney+

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, African-American cinema, biographical, Blu-ray, Disney+, drama, DVD, historical, Streaming Movies, SVOD 09/29/202009/29/2020 Sean Axmaker

Hidden Figures (2016), a Hollywood drama based on the true stories of three African-American women who were essential yet unseen and uncelebrated members of the team that put the first Americans in space, is terrific drama, eye-opening history, and a great lesson for Hollywood. This movie headlined by three African-American actresses was the number one […]