13th (2016) Director: Ava Duvernay While an obvious pick from director Ava Duvernay for this list would be her 2014 film Selmaa great film following Martin Luther King's 1965 fight to pass Civil Rights legislationDeggans instead recommends Duvernay's 2016 Netflix documentary 13th, which examines the 13th amendment and mass incarceration. "That talks about sort of all these issues about policing, and black bodies that we are negotiating right now ," he says. Stream 13th Here See the original post on Youtube Rakim@Youtube
When They See Us (2019) Director: Ava Duvernay Telling the true story of the unfairly-convicted Central Park Five, Duvernay's When They See Us was a critical darling in 2019, winning two Primetime Emmys in the process. The four-part limited series tells the story of five young men coerced by the justice system into admitting to a rape that they did not commit. And as Deggans describes, it presents a reality all too familiar today. "It's an illustration of the nightmare that the Floyd family is living now," he says. "And so many families have lived, where your young man of color is just out in the world being themselves. And then all of a sudden, the white-dominated criminal justice system decides to blame them for something, and their life is destroyed, if even if they survive it." Stream When They See Us Here See the original post on Youtube Netflix@Youtube
Fruitvale Station (2013) Director: Ryan Coogler Coogler burst onto the scene in 2013 with Fruitvale Station, which also marked the movie star birth of Michael B. Jordan, then best known for his TV roles in The Wire and Friday Night Lights. The movie tells the once-again familiar story of Oscar Grant, the Oakland, California father who was killed by police on New Year's Day, 2009. Stream Fruitvale Station Here See the original post on Youtube moviepilotIndie@Youtube
Black Panther (2018) Director: Ryan Coogler And if Fruitvale Station marked Cooger's arrival to the scene, his release of Black Panther five years later marked his arrival as a full-on maestro of cinema, putting all the sensibilities he showed off into the big, blockbuster package of one of Marvel's very best origin stories. Deggans likes to pair the two Coogler films together, looking at one in the context of the other. "Fruitvale Station is the racism of Western institutions overcoming a black man," he says. "Black Panther is the story of black people overcoming those racist institutions, and creating their own worlds, and then realizing they can't be apart from the world. They have to figure out a way to be a part of it again." Stream Black Panther Here See the original post on Youtube FilmClips4K@Youtube
In the Heat of the Night (1967) Director: Norman Jewison After six list entries from three of our most celebrated modern-day black filmmakers, Deggans suggests throwing it back to 1967's mystery In The Heat of the Night, which was a starring vehicle for Sidney Poitier. Poitier plays a Philadelphia detective who finds himself in Mississipi looking to solve a murder case; and given that it was 1967, and in the south, there's not exactly a mutual respect between Poitier and the parties he finds himself facing. In one scene, Poitier is subtly accusing a wealthiest-guy-in-town type of a crime, and the guy slaps Poitier right in the face. Poitier, in turn, slaps him right back. "To see a movie where a smart, upstanding black man takes no shit from a white man and slaps him right back at that time was great," Deggans says. "That was not something that you saw." Stream In The Heat of the Night Here See the original post on Youtube lucylovesonline@Youtube
O.J.: Made in America (2016) Director: Ezra Edelman Is it a movie? Is it TV? It doesn't matter (although it did win the Academy Award Best Feature Documentary)OJ: Made in America is straight-up compelling. A 10-hour documentary four years before The Last Dance, director Ezra Edelman's piece looks at how O.J. Simpson negotiated race from day one, and the history of what led to an acquittal in his infamous double-murder case. Deggans contextualizes the story by outlining the history behind the police in Los Angeles. Black people from the south had heard that out west, there was less segregation, more room to relax and live. But as soon as a migration happened, the white people who were there got so freaked out that the police became militarized in a hurry, becoming just as bad as anywhereif not worse (with the Rodney King situation of 1992 putting an exclamation point on the whole situation). Made in America, with it's 10-hour runtime, has the time to fully look at all of this, and paint the full picture that led to the O.J. Simpson story that everyone knows by now, of course, ending with the lack of convictions for murders that were in all likelihood committed. "It's an illustration of how these decades of policing can really distort justice," he says. "Not just in how black people are policed by white institutions, but also it invalidates the institution, when it actually has a righteous crime that it has to pursue." Stream O.J.: Made In America Here See the original post on Youtube IDFA@Youtube
American Crime Story: The People vs O.J. Simpson Creators: Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski Not long before O.J.: Made in America aired on ESPN (and had its limited run in theaters, qualifying it for the Oscar it eventually won), the first season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series, American Crime Story aired, telling the story of Simpson's trial to an audience either reframing and remembering the landmark moment in culture, or perhaps, for some younger viewers, learning about it for the first time. Where Made in America takes a complete look at what made Simpson the person, ThePeople vs. O.J. Simpson spends the majority of its time looking at the murder trial itself. And once again, it makes the case of the faultiness and warts that are inherent in a constantly broken system. "When you get to the point where you need credibility with the community to actually go after somebody who deserves to be prosecuted, you don't have it," Deggans says. "And the whole process is polluted." And that brings a whole different layer into the system's malfunctions today. "The lesson is that it's not just about making sure that the George Floyd's of the world survive," he adds, "but it's about making sure that when the system actually needs to prosecute somebody, they have the moral authority to do it. Stream The People vs. O.J. Simpson Here See the original post on Youtube Exceptional Scenes@Youtube
Oz (1997-2003) Creator: Tom Fontana As HBO's first hour-long drama, Oz was revolutionary to television in a number of ways. And even though it's been off the air for 17 years, the themes present in this show about the system of incarceration are more relevant than ever. The show not only looks at how a lack of education, opportunity, and resources can wind up landing people in prison, but the fact that by creating that system, there are people who also wind up stuck in an almost-nearly-as-bad system where they're forced to stand guard to watch them. "If you create this society where a cast of people is forgotten about, and discarded, the people who wind up having to guard those peopletheir lives suck, too," Deggans says. "And they're almost as discarded as the people who are in prison." Stream Oz Here See the original post on Youtube HBO@Youtube
The Wire (2002-2008) Creator: David Simon What can be said about The Wire that hasn't already been said? Somehow, still a lot. HBO's all-time series about the tragedy of broken cop and criminal systems is constantly relevant, and once again stands through as a piece of art that can stand to teach it's audiences as well. "One of the main messages of The Wire is that it doesn't matter how experienced, or good, or well-meaning a police officer is, because the system of policing is so fucked up, that he will never beat it." Deggans says. And that thesis that The Wire presents does a marvelous job of taking the TV or film tropethe righteous, "good" cop who comes in and defeats the corrupt systemand turns it on its head, instead showing the negligence and various levels of bureaucracy that beat any good intentions down into submission. "The only way you can really win the war on drugs, or take down criminal syndicates that are ruling these poor communities in Baltimore is by changing the system," Deggans says. "And no one has has any willingness to challenge the system because the people who have power to change the system a) don't give a shit about the people who are victimized, and b) are making too much money." Stream The Wire Here See the original post on Youtube HBO@Youtube
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005) Director: Michel Gondry Deggans noted that while the above recommendations are all incredible relevant and important right now, they can also be depressing and difficult to take in. Which is why it's important to also look at art like Dave Chappelle's Block Party, a concert-film documentary of the time Chappelle held a huge party in Philadelphia and invited all of his favorite music acts, including Kanye West, Common, and Erykah Badu, with The Roots playing as everyone's backing band. Bonus? Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) directed. For the purposes of a story, the movie focuses on Chappelle pulling the party together. How he booked the acts; how he bussed people from his home in Ohio out to see the show in Philly. The performances, by the time it gets there, are broken upbut if you get your hands on the DVD or digital iTunes version, you'll have access to the full performance and more in-depth interviews with artists like Dead Prez and Mos Def, who further explain the politics that goes into their art. "You get a little bit of social consciousness too," Deggans says, "But but there's also a lot of great music and there's a lot of great music that is saying something important." Stream Dave Chappelle's Block Party Here See the original post on Youtube YouTube Movies@Youtube
Amazing Grace (2018) Director: Sydney Pollack Another feel-good entry on the list is Amazing Grace, the Aretha Franklin concert documentary based around the live recording of her 1972 album of the same name. It was not released back then due to technical difficulties, and was in the can until a Warner Bros. producer tried to fix it up in 2007. It wasn't properly released until late 2018, when Franklin's family put in some calls after her death at age 76. The concert, to put it in simple terms, was a big deal. Recorded over two nights, James Cleveland worked as Franklin's musical director, and the likes of Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts were spotted in the crowd during the live performance. movie, as Deggans, is about the power of black church. "There's a lot of songs that are religious songs, but could also be considered civil rights anthems and songs about the power of black people's spirit. And to hear Aretha Franklin in her prime. singing these songs is just spine-tingling," Deggans says. "And whenever the day gets to be too much, to put something like this on reminds you of the power of black culture and black artists and, and reminds you about all these religious values that have powered black church and powered the civil rights activists and protestslike, this is what we're fighting for. This is the fuel that feeds that fire." Stream Amazing Grace Here See the original post on Youtube StudiocanalUK@Youtube
