African American Movies

The untold true story: The rise and fall of the greatest funk band ever, Parliament Funkadelic.

Aundrey Burno, a black youth looking down the wrong end of a murder charge -- for which a conviction could result in a lifetime in prison -- appears...

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...

Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The...

To many African Americans, soul food is sacrament, ritual, and a key expression of cultural identity. But does this traditional cuisine do more harm...

This production was originally staged for the Pepsico Summerfare Festival, The International Performing Arts Festival of the State University of New...

In California's Bay Area, a painful memory lingers of the Port Chicago disaster of WWII, when hundreds of the Navy's first Black Sailors perished,...

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

“The Singer: A Montford Point Marine” tells the story of Henry Charles Johnson, one of the first African Americans in the U.S. Marine...

Based on Kwame Onwuachi's memoir which tells his unprecedented journey from childhood in the Bronx with a mostly single mother to opening a...

Comedy short (only fragments remain at LoC)

Summaries Shorty's wife throws him out of the house for lying around reading detective thrillers and letting his boss Pigmeat get away with not...

Two brothers, separated by time and prison bars, reestablish contact. Inspired by James Baldwin's short story, 'Sonny's Blues.'

A look at three U.S. cities, which were part of many communities that violently forced African American families to flee in post-reconstruction...

A 1975 documentary short about how children perceive themselves in terms of their surroundings, family, and ethnicity.

This 1979 documentary depicts the daily life of gangs in the South Bronx. It deals primarily with two African American and Puerto Rican gangs known...

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

A shell-shocked black soldier is cared for by a miner and his daughter when he wanders into their camp, and makes a fresh start in life with the aid...

Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at...

Four African American families relate their experiences with adoption.