Black Studies

Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye (1966-) is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film The Watermelon Woman. 

The Watermelon Woman
The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye: 6 Short Films
A conversation with Barbara Hammer and Cheryl Dunye
Dykes, Camera, Action
Lavender Limelight: Spotlight on Lesbian Filmmakers
LGBTQ+ Cinema with Guest Cheryl Dunye

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay (born 1972) is an American director and producer. She won a directing award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her feature film Middle of Nowhere. She was the first black woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Selma (2014) and the first black female director to have her film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. She created, co-wrote, produced and directed the Netflix limited drama series When They See Us, which was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards. 

Middle of Nowhere
I Will Follow
Selma
Inside Cinema (BBC4)

Ousmane Sembène

Ousmane Sembène (1923 – 2007) was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The Los Angeles Times considered him one of the greatest authors of Africa and he has often been called the "father of African film". Sembène developed an interest in motion pictures in an attempt to reach an African popular audience, 80% of whom did not know French or have access to books in any language. His 1966 feature film, La Noire de…(Black Girl), was considered the first major film produced by an African filmmaker, winning a major prize at the 1967 Cannes international film festival.

Xala
Cinema in Senegal
Black Girl (DVD)

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien (1960-) creates multi-screen film installations that incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. Julien’s debut film Looking for Langston garnered the artist a cult following. The acclaimed 1989 documentary-drama explores author Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. Early works also include Young Soul Rebels (1991), awarded the Semaine de la Critique Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His 1996 film Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask has been conserved and restored by the British Film Institute.

Franz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask
This is not an AIDS advertisement
Black & White In Colour (BBC2, 1992)
Unforgettable: Stuart Hall and Isaac Julien (BBC Radio 4)
Looking for Langston (DVD)
Young Soul Rebels (DVD)

Steve McQueen

Sir Steve Rodney McQueen CBE (1969-) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and Turner Prize-winning artist. He is known for his award-winning film 12 Years a Slave (2013), an adaptation of Solomon Northup's 1853 slave narrative memoir. He also directed and co-wrote Hunger (2008), a historical drama about the 1981 Irish hunger strike; Shame (2011), a drama about an executive struggling with sex addiction; and Widows (2018), an adaptation of the British television series of the same name set in contemporary Chicago. In 2020, he released Small Axe, a collection of five films "set within London's West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early '80s".

12 Years A Slave
Hunger
Small Axe
Steve McQueen: Are You Sitting Uncomfortably?: A Culture Show Special (BBC2)
 

Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (1884 – 1951) was an author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Micheaux is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker, a prominent producer of race films, and has been described as "the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century". He produced both silent films and sound films.

Within Our Gates (1920)
Mr. Movie (Oscar Micheaux)
Oscar Micheaux: the Superhero of Black Filmmaking (Sky Arts)
Body & Soul: The Oscar Micheaux Story (BBC Radio 4)

Image: TradingCardsNPS - Oscar Micheaux, CC BY 2.0