Black Film Archive
Created by samlowery.
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ABOUT THE SITE
Black Film Archive celebrates the rich, abundant history of Black cinema. We are an evolving archive dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made from 1898 to 1989 about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context.
HOW DOES BLACK FILM ARCHIVE DEFINE A BLACK FILM?
The films collected on Black Film Archive have something significant to say about the Black experience; speak to Black audiences; and/or have a Black star, writer, producer, or director. This criterion for selection is as broad and inclusive as possible, allowing the site to cover the widest range of what a Black film can be.
The films listed here should be considered in conversation with each other, as visions of Black being on film across time. They express what only film can: social, anthropological, and aesthetic looks at the changing face of Black expression (or white attitudes about Black expression, which are inescapable given the whiteness of decision-makers in the film industry).
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Maya S. Cade is the creator and curator of Black Film Archive and a scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress. She has been awarded special distinctions by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for the Archive. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Paris Review, Vulture, among other publications. She is the fall 2022 programmer in residence at Indiana University’s Cinema and was the fall 2021 research fellow at Indiana University's Black Film Center & Archive. Originally hailing from New Orleans, Maya is based in Brooklyn.
Black Film Archive is a resource Maya has been hoping to discover for as long as she can remember. In June 2020, she decided to start building it herself. Every word on Black Film Archive is thoroughly researched and lovingly written by her.
NOTES FROM THE ICHECKER
In keeping with the official iCheckMovies list for the Library of Congress, I listed the shorts of Rev. Solomon Sir Jones separately (Films 1-29) versus one title "Rev. S.S. Jones Home Movies" like on BFA.
As of January 2023, there are twelve BFA titles missing from my list because I could not track them down on either iCheckMovies or IMDB:
Foye Family Home Video #3
Wedding Reception
The Killing Floor
Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock
The Black Cop
Steel Drums in New York
Color Us Black!
Off the Pigs
Azz Izz Jazz
To Live As Free Men
Cheryl
America, They Loved You Madly; Interview with John Lewis.
Pssst, want to check out the Black Film Archive list in our new look?
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1 new
Change of Mind
1969, in 0 top lists Check -
2 new
The Black 6
1973 — a.k.a. The Black 6, in 0 top lists Check -
3 new
Amazing Grace
1974, in 0 top lists Check -
4 new
Soul in Cinema: Filming Shaft on Location
1971, in 0 top lists Check -
5 new
Together Brothers
1974, in 0 top lists Check -
6 new
Speeding Up Time
1971, in 0 top lists -
7 new
A.k.a. Cassius Clay
1970, in 0 top lists Check -
8 new
Hangup
1974, in 0 top lists Check -
9 new
Lost in the Stars
1974, in 0 top lists Check -
10 new
Enter the Dragon
1973, in 14 top lists Check -
11 new
Long zheng hu dou jing wu hun
1975 — a.k.a. The Black Dragon's Revenge, in 0 top lists Check -
12 new
Henry Browne, Farmer
1942, in 0 top lists Check -
13 new
La permission
1967 — a.k.a. The Story of a Three-Day Pass, in 1 top list Check -
14 new
Hidden Memories
1977, in 0 top lists Check -
15 new
A Minor Altercation
1977, in 0 top lists Check -
16 new
Lost Boundaries
1949, in 0 top lists Check -
17 new
Top of the Heap
1972, in 0 top lists Check -
18 new
The New Girl
1960, in 0 top lists -
19 new
Jazz on a Summer's Day
1959, in 2 top lists Check -
20 new
Baldwin's Nigger
1968, in 0 top lists Check -
21 new
Soul to Soul
1971, in 0 top lists Check -
22 new
Sepia Cinderella
1947, in 0 top lists Check -
23 new
The World, the Flesh and the Devil
1959, in 0 top lists Check -
24 new
Rain
1978, in 0 top lists Check -
25 new
Zonk!
1950, in 0 top lists Check -
26 new
The Negro Soldier
1944, in 1 top list Check -
27 new
The Great White Hope
1970, in 0 top lists Check -
28 new
Black Like Me
1964, in 0 top lists Check -
29 new
Dolemite
1975, in 2 top lists Check -
30 new
Fox Style
1973, in 0 top lists Check -
31 new
The Green Pastures
1936, in 0 top lists Check -
32 new
Norman... Is That You?
1976, in 0 top lists Check -
33 new
Varnette's World: A Study of a Young Artist
1979, in 0 top lists Check -
34 new
God's Step Children
1938, in 0 top lists Check -
35 new
The Black Network
1936, in 0 top lists Check -
36 new
Down Argentine Way
1940, in 1 top list Check -
37 new
A Woman Called Moses
1978, in 0 top lists Check -
38 new
In the Heat of the Night
1967, in 17 top lists Check -
39 new
Edge of the City
1957 — a.k.a. A Man Is Ten Feet Tall, in 2 top lists Check -
40 new
Porgy and Bess
1959, in 3 top lists Check -
41 new
Lilies of the Field
1963, in 3 top lists Check -
42 new
A Patch of Blue
1965, in 0 top lists Check -
43 new
Paris Blues
1961, in 0 top lists Check -
44 new
All the Young Men
1960, in 0 top lists Check -
45 new
Pressure Point
1962, in 0 top lists Check -
46 new
Something of Value
1957, in 0 top lists Check -
47 new
Good-bye, My Lady
1956, in 0 top lists Check -
48 new
Red Ball Express
1952, in 0 top lists Check -
49 new
Blackboard Jungle
1955, in 4 top lists Check -
50 new
The Bedford Incident
1965, in 2 top lists Check
Last updated on Jan 29, 2023; source