through the lens of a 20 something, self-conscious gay black man named Ronnie.
Jackson to Denzel Washington to Viola Davis, to newer talents like Zola star Taylour Paige and Creed’s Tessa Thompson, we’ve seen Black film evolve from a niche genre to a necessary component of Hollywood. It is the brainchild of openly gay film student Hunh Nguyn ng Khoa. In the past few years, we’ve seen Black creators push the boundaries of Black cinema into superhero and horror genres while also expanding on romantic comedies.
In 2021, in the midst of low theater turnouts and mid movie selections, Jeymes Samuel crafted The Harder They Fall, an awesome Western based on real Black cowboys and figures in the West, with Shawn Carter as an executive producer. Granted, the pool of gay movies I could identify with was smallthis was the 2000s, after allbut entertainment has gotten better since then. It’s hard to think of a better premise for a documentary than a gay porn shop run by a straight Jewish couple, but throw into the mix that their daughter is the. It’s one of many recent succes stories, including the Oscar win for Moonlight, or the legendary Spike Lee finally winning a non-honorary Oscar. It didn’t win, but Daniel Kaluuya took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Judas and the Black Messiah, which tells the tale of the man who helped set up the murder of Chairman Fred Hampton, made history as the first film with an all-Black production team to be nominated for an Oscar. This includes a wide range of various films, but it includes a large library of classics. This service works with libraries and universities throughout the US to provide streaming movies for members.
The last three decades specifically has seen amazing growth in the medium. If you have a library card, you need to be using Kanopy. So, why not tell more African American stories. It has been amazing to see the progression of Black creatives in cinema since. Movies such as Boyz N the Hood, Claudine, Shaft, New Jack City, City of God, Do the Right Thing, The Long Walk Home, and the recent superhero movie Black Panther have been highly successful. Later, Hattie McDaniel would become the first African American person to win an Academy Award, and 24 years after that, Sidney Poitier would win his, becoming the first African American man to win. Although the Lumière Brothers released the first motion picture in 1895, it took at least 30 years for the first Black person, Stepin Fetchit, to earn screen credit.