Obscure Black, African Cinema
This is not a definitive list of blacks in cinema. I've selected movies that are obscure or forgotten and deserve some sunshine. Although I do love some bad blacksploitation, you won't find much here. They're all on my Cheesy, Campy list. Some of the older movies can be found on YT.
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- DirectorMichael RoemerStarsIvan DixonAbbey LincolnJulius HarrisA black man and his school-teacher wife face discriminatory challenges in 1960s America.
- DirectorCharles LaneStarsCharles LaneNicole AlysiaTom AlpernNearly silent comedy filmed in black and white follows a street artist (Charles Lane), who rescues a baby after her father was murdered. The artist then sets off to find the mother, but has to first learn how to care for the child. Ultimately he ends up in a horse drawn chase of the murderers.
- DirectorSidney MeyersStarsGary MerrillDonald ThompsonClarence CooperA documentary account of the rehabilitation at the Wiltwyck School of an emotionally disturbed Black boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.Don't be fooled. This is not a doc. You can find it on YT. Have your tissue ready.
- DirectorCharles BurnettStarsHenry G. SandersKaycee MooreCharles BracySet in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.Again, it's not a doc?! Really?
- DirectorJohn ConeyStarsSun RaRaymond JohnsonChristopher BrooksIn an effort to bring unity and equality to African-Americans, an interstellar traveler and musician lands on earth and duels with an evil overlord for the souls of people.
- DirectorEdo BertoglioStarsJean Michel BasquiatJohn LurieRichard WeigandAfter being released from the hospital, the artist Jean Michel Basquiat wanders around Manhattan trying to sell art to make money and find a place to stay.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsMbissine Thérèse DiopAnne-Marie JelinekRobert FontaineA black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
- DirectorJohn CassavetesStarsBen CarruthersLelia GoldoniHugh HurdCassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City.
- DirectorWendell B. Harris Jr.StarsTimothy AlvaroRenauld BailleuxWilliam BallengerDetroiter William Douglas Street poses as a Harvard doctor, Time reporter, African exchange student.
- DirectorBarry JenkinsStarsWyatt CenacTracey HegginsJohn ThurgoodTwenty-four hours in the tentative relationship of two young San Franciscans also dealing with the conundrum of being a minority in a rapidly gentrifying city.
- DirectorHubert CornfieldStarsSidney PoitierBobby DarinPeter FalkA black prison psychiatrist is assigned the distasteful task of helping a paranoid American Nazi charged with sedition.
- DirectorHal AshbyStarsBeau BridgesLee GrantDiana SandsAt the age of 29, Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert it into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind. He's grown fond of the black tenants and particularly of Fanny (Diana Sands), the wife of a black radical; he's maybe fallen in love with Lanie (Marki Bey), a mixed race girl; he's lost interest in redecorating his home. Joyce (Lee Grant), his mother has not relinquished this interest and in one of the film's most hilarious sequences gives her MasterCharge card to Marge (Pearl Bailey), a black tenant and appoints her decorator.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsRobert De NiroAllen GarfieldLara ParkerA Vietnam vet moves into an apartment and peers through other people's windows across the street, meets one of the women, and discovers Black theater.
- DirectorLarry CohenStarsYaphet KottoAndrew DugganJoyce Van PattenWhen a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMansour DioufAmi DiakhateMamadou Mahourédia GueyeDramaan is the most popular man in Colobane, but when a woman from his past, now exorbitantly wealthy, returns to the town, things begin to change.
- DirectorShirley ClarkeStarsJason HollidayShirley ClarkeCarl LeeBlack gay prostitute Jason Holliday is rigorously interviewed on his story and character, revealing nuanced truths about life and art.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsFousseyni SissokoGoundo GuisséBalla Moussa KeitaFinye tackles the generation gap in post-colonial West Africa. Its heroine is the pot smoking daughter of a provincial military governor who falls in love with a fellow university student, the descendent of one of Mali's chiefs.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsBrigitte MiraEl Hedi ben SalemBarbara ValentinA lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
- DirectorAvie LuthraStarsSihle DlaminiJayashree BasavarajJames NgcoboA 10-year-old South African orphan leaves his Zulu village to make his own life in the city... only to find no one will help him, except a formidable Indian woman.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsIssiaka KaneAoua SangareNiamanto SanogoA young man with magical powers journeys to his uncle to request help in fighting his sorcerer father.
- DirectorEuzhan PalcyStarsGarry CadenatDarling LégitimusDouta SeckSet in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rules, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy.
- DirectorGavin HoodStarsPresley ChweneyagaeMothusi MaganoIsrael Matseke-ZuluSix days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader.
- DirectorKasi LemmonsStarsSamuel L. JacksonJurnee SmollettMeagan GoodWhat did little Eve see--and how will it haunt her? Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it's the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.
- DirectorMichael SchultzStarsGlynn TurmanLawrence Hilton-JacobsGarrett MorrisIn 1964 on Chicago's Near-North Side, the lives of four carefree high school seniors and best friends, including an aspiring playwright and an all-city basketball champion, takes a tragic turn.