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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13 new
La permission
1967 — a.k.a. The Story of a Three-Day Pass, in 1 top list Check -
23 new
The World, the Flesh and the Devil
1959, in 0 top lists Check -
27 new
The Great White Hope
1970, in 0 top lists Check -
40 new
Porgy and Bess
1959, 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 -
65 new
Imitation of Life
1959, in 6 top lists Check -
74 new
Nothing But a Man
1964, in 5 top lists Check -
78 new
Aaron Loves Angela
1975, in 0 top lists Check -
97 new
Cooley High
1975, in 4 top lists Check -
100 new
Skin Game
1971, in 0 top lists Check -
109 new
A Raisin in the Sun
1961, in 3 top lists Check -
110 new
La sirène des tropiques
1927 — a.k.a. Siren of the Tropics, in 0 top lists Check -
119 new
Claudine
1974, in 2 top lists Check -
164 new
Carmen Jones
1954, in 7 top lists Check -
208 new
Zouzou
1934, in 1 top list Check -
245 new
Within Our Gates
1920, in 7 top lists Check -
259 new
Orfeu Negro
1959 — a.k.a. Black Orpheus, in 8 top lists Check -
261 new
The Exile
1931, in 1 top list Check -
327 new
Georgia, Georgia
1972, in 0 top lists Check
Last updated on Jan 29, 2023; source