50 relatively unknown movies from Black cinema history

John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Black writers, actors, producers, and directors have been involved in Hollywood from the very beginning of the American film industry some 125 years ago. Often, their contributions have been restricted, with early Black actors landing only bit parts and Black crewmembers being kept out of the unions used by the major studios. But this exclusion didn’t deter Black creatives; they simply chose their own stories to tell, creating studios of their own to produce them. Early directors like Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams worked entirely independently of the established system, while their later counterparts, like Spike Lee and Julie Dash, were granted entrance into the system (though it was somewhat limited). Whether they worked in tandem with or apart from the Hollywood institution, many Black directors found their work was not promoted, championed, and preserved like that of their white counterparts. They either lacked the money to do it themselves, or studios refused to allocate the funds needed to maintain the films. As a result, a large swath of Black films have been lost or remain largely unknown to general audiences. Using culture critic Elvis Mitchell’s 2022 film history documentary “Is That Black Enough for You?!?” as a jumping-off point, Stacker compiled a list of 50 significantly lesser-seen films from Black movie history. Both features and shorts were considered. Any one of the movies on our list would make excellent Black History Month viewing. You may also like: 100 best international movies of all time Body and Soul (1925) Micheaux Film – Director: Oscar Micheaux – Runtime: 102 minutes Legendary performer Paul Robeson made his onscreen debut as the two lead characters in this silent film about a convict masquerading as a preacher and his upstanding twin brother. The entire cast of “Body and Soul,” save one actor, is Black, which meant that when the film debuted, it really didn’t reach mainstream audiences. A version of the movie can occasionally be caught on cable networks or the Criterion Channel, but the original nine-reel cut (which was challenged by censors at nearly every turn) has been lost to time. Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage (1928) Carl Van Vechten // Library of Congress – Director: Zora Neale Hurston – Runtime: 4 minutes Zora Neale Hurston is best known for her spectacular 1937 novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” but that wasn’t her only artistic contribution to the Black canon. As an anthropology student at Columbia University, Hurston shot numerous ethnographic films in rural Black communities throughout Alabama and Florida. These collections have led some to consider her the first Black female filmmaker. Hellbound Train (1930) James Gist and Eloyce Gist – Directors: Eloyce Gist, James Gist – Runtime: 50 minutes Less feature film, more cinematic sermon, “Hellbound Train” was the work of two traveling preachers armed with 16mm cameras. The silent film introduces viewers to the sins of the Jazz Age (drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, gambling, secular music, etc.) through a devil-led tour of a multicar train where riders in each section engage in different immoral behaviors. Production values are admittedly low–the final shot is a model train being thrown into an over-the-top bonfire– but its surrealist tone paved the way for many of the other films on this list. Birthright (1939) Micheaux Film – Director: Oscar Micheaux – Runtime: 74 minutes Oscar Micheaux made two versions of “Birthright”–a silent 1924 version now lost and this 1939 talkie whose first 20 minutes have vanished into the annals of history. Both films tell the same story of an idealistic young man who returns to his hometown to establish a Black school, only to be met with racism and resistance from both the Black and white communities. At the time of its release, the movie faced backlash from some Black viewers who accused it of portraying their culture and communities in the same degrading way as white filmmakers. Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940) Zora Neale Hurston – Director: Zora Neale Hurston – Runtime: 42 minutes Another Zora Neale Hurston film, “Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940,” is a documentary that captures the religious services of the Gullah people in the coastal region of the state. Audio recordings of the services were made at the same time as the footage, and in 2005 archivists began working on synching the two up. You may also like: 50 best WWII movies of all time The Blood of Jesus (1941) Amergro Films – Director: Spencer Williams – Runtime: 57 minutes Spencer Williams, best known for portraying Andy in the early ’50s TV series “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” directed this religious epic about a young woman whose soul is stuck at the crossroads of heaven and hell after her life is cut short. Populated with amateur actors and scored with rousing gospel music, the morality project was thought to be lost until the 1980s, when a handful of prints were discovered in a warehouse near Tyler, Texas. An iconic scene near the end of the film, of Christ being crucified and his blood dripping onto the face of our main character, has been cited as a major influence by several modern-day Black filmmakers. Juke Joint (1947) Sack Amusement Enterprises – Director: Spencer Williams – Runtime: 68 minutes The last film Spencer Williams ever directed, “Juke Joint” follows two con men who pose as Hollywood actors, agree to prepare a young woman for a local beauty pageant, and unwittingly become involved in some over-the-top family drama. Filmed primarily in Texas, the movie was believed to be lost until the early ’80s, when a print (minus the first 10 minutes) was discovered in the same Tyler, Texas, warehouse containing “The Blood of Jesus.” The Betrayal (1948) Micheaux Film – Director: Oscar Micheaux – Runtime: 183 minutes A convoluted love story following a white-passing woman who discovers she’s Black, a successful Black farmer, and a young woman whose happiness is ruined by her jealous father, “The Betrayal” was the last film Oscar Micheaux directed before his death in 1951. The movie was the first all-Black picture to have a major theatrical release–it premiered on Broadway as “The Greatest Negro Photo-Play of All Time”–but was widely panned by critics. As a result, it was not preserved and is now believed to be completely lost. Black Girl (1966) Filmi Domirev – Director: Ousmane Sembène – Runtime: 65 minutes A critique of colonialism, “Black Girl” follows a young Senegalese woman who moves to France seeking freedom only to find the country–and her position in it–to be something of a prison. Described as a “radical political statement,” the film is also thought to be the genesis of sub-Saharan African filmmaking. The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967) O.P.E.R.A. – Director: Melvin Van Peebles – Runtime: 87 minutes “The Story of a Three-Day Pass” is an edgy romantic drama about a Black soldier stationed in France who falls in love with a white store clerk during his three-day leave. Their budding relationship breaks miscegenation laws, costing the soldier his recently earned promotion. Shot entirely in France, the movie delves into the psychological tension that can come from interracial relationships and examines culture’s conflicting attitudes toward Black people. You may also like: 50 best movies about the Vietnam War Oh, Sun (1967) Grey Films – Director: Med Hondo – Runtime: 98 minutes In “Oh, Sun,” a man leaves his native Mauritania to pursue better opportunities in Paris, only to find that racism and discrimination in the mostly white country leave him worse off than before. The African film was considered lost until 2017, when, with the help of Hollywood powerhouse Martin Scorsese and his Film Foundation, it was restored and screened during the Cannes Film Festival. Mandabi (1968) Filmi Domirev – Director: Ousmane Sembene – Runtime: 92 minutes Believed to be the first film made in an African language (Wolof, the most popular tongue in Senegal), “Mandabi” tells the story of a Senegalese man who finds his world turned upside down after receiving a money order from a relative working in Paris. The critically acclaimed film is an adaptation of a novella written by the director Ousmane Sembene. The Learning Tree (1969) Winger – Director: Gordon Parks – Runtime: 107 minutes Gordon Parks was the first Black director to ever make a movie with a major Hollywood studio. His debut, “The Learning Tree,” is an autobiographical coming-of-age story about a teenager growing up in rural Kansas during the 1920s. The powerful film can be rented on Amazon Prime, but have the tissues handy because the emotional storyline is sure to get the best of even the most stoic viewer. Buck and the Preacher (1972) Columbia Pictures // Getty Images – Directors: Sidney Poitier – Runtime: 102 minutes Sidney Poitier, in his directorial debut, and Harry Belafonte team up to turn the Western genre on its head in this buddy comedy, Black Power movie about an upstanding cowboy and a con artist who work together to deliver a caravan of recently emancipated individuals to their new home out west. Though not an immediate success, the film eventually found its audience. The Final Comedown (1972)