Flashback Friday Is Remembering These Films for Black History Month

Flashback Friday Is Remembering These Films for Black History Month

It's Black History Month and yer boy Hank here loves movies, so for Flashback Friday I thought we'd take a look at influential, or forgotten, films that focus on queer Black experiences. From the historical to the romantic to the documentarian, these films are as wide and varied as the Black community itself.

Rustin (2023)

Rustin tells the true tale of Martin Luther King's sort-of right-hand man Bayard Rustin as he and others create and plan the 1963 March on Washington for Civil Rights. The award-winning and much-heralded film stars out actor Colman Domingo and was directed by George C. Wolfe, also out and proud, best known for his theater work. It's a story we never heard of in our history classes and the very thing the current administration wants to stamp out for good. So learn our history!

Moonlight (2016)

When Moonlight won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture, it broke through two barriers. It was the first LGBTQ+-related film to win the award and the first film with an all-Black cast to win the award. Co-written by Tarell Alvin McCraney and based on his play Black Boys In Moonlight Look Blue, it tells the story of a young Black man in three sections, from boyhood to adolescence and finally adulthood as he struggles with who he is in his impoverished Miami world, his sexuality, and the abuse he suffered by bullies and his drug-addicted mother.

Inexeba (The Wound) (2017)

Set in the world of the male coming-of-age rites of the Xhosa people in South Africa, this drama from that same country looks at the relationship that forms between the closeted Xolani, a "caregiver" who travels to a remote area with men from his community to initiate a group of teen boys into manhood, and Kwanda, his novitiate, who turns out to be gay.

Naz and Maalik (2015)

Two Black teen Muslim boys hide their secret love even as the pressure builds around them in the FBI's "war on terror" surveillance of Mosques in their Bed-Stuy neighborhood. The film follows them on one ambling day in their lives as they go to school, go to prayers, and steal moments with each other. This was writer/director Jay Dockendorf's debut feature and won the Best LGBT Film at the Nashville Film Festival.

Tangerine (2015)

Hell hath no fury like a Black trans woman scorned in this multi-award-winning indie darling. When Sin-Dee is released from a sex worker-related one-month prison stint only to find out her pimp and BG cheated on her with a cis woman, her best friend Alexandra follows her on her Christmastime revenge trip through LA. Brash and true comedy ensues.

The Skinny (2012)

This light-hearted, sexy, dramatic comedy stars Jessie Smollet (yes, that Jessie Smollet) as he and four gay friends hit NYC for Pride. They laugh, they cry, they make bad decisions.

Black Is...Black Ain't (1994)

Gay documentarian Marlon Riggs's last film who finished this in time as he was dying of AIDS complications, this sweet gem of a film looks at the plethora of the Black experiences. He uses the backdrop of his Southern cooking traditions as a visual metaphor for the many flavors and ingredients that make up the Black community.

Portrait of Jason (1967)

This fascinating look at what it is to be Black and gay in 1960s America comes from director Shirley Clarke. She interviewed Aaron Payne, alias Jason Holliday, over a 12-hour period in which he smokes, drinks, and smokes pot, telling stories of being a hustler and cabaret performer during the Civil Rights era.

Paris is Burning (1990)

The film that fueled the hit groundbreaking show Pose, this early documentary about the NY underground ball circuit looks at queer POC culture, homelessness, access to health care, and all the phobias that went hand in hand with these fierce young Black and Latinx people. Director Jennie Livingston shines a light on the fabulous while also, many later contended, exploiting for her own personal gain their lives for her fame.

What films do you recommend during Black History Month?

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.