25 powerful movies to stream in honor of Black History Month, from 'Da 5 Bloods' to 'One Night in Miami'
Since George Floyd’s death last May and the Black Lives Matter protests that resulted, there has been a new emphasis on celebrating Black art and voices in America.
Many films by Black filmmakers and about Black stories have come out in the aftermath, primarily streaming or on demand in the wake of COVID but available to a larger audience. Some are playing big in the current awards season, some are smaller movies worth a watch. Some are documentaries that take a truthful look at systemic racism in this country. Some are very serious, others are pretty funny, a few are terrifying and most have something important to say. And while they're not all about Black history, each finds a way to amplify Black voices in a significant way.
Here are 25 recent movies well worth seeing during Black History Month:
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1. 'All In: The Fight for Democracy'
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in the 2020 election, is the central subject of the doc chronicling the history of voter suppression in this country.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
2. ‘Antebellum’
Janelle Monae plays both an enslaved woman on a Confederate plantation and also a successful sociologist in a twisty thriller tackling the echoes of America’s original sin.
Where to watch: Video on demand, Hulu
3. ‘Bad Hair’
Director Justin Simien’s 1989-set horror satire stars Elle Lorraine as an aspiring VJ who’s told her natural hair won’t help her career prospects but a new weave becomes an instrument of murderous magic.
Where to watch: Hulu
4. 'Billie'
Thanks to archived interviews done by late biographer Linda Lipnack Kuehl, Billie Holiday's life and work comes alive in a documentary that looks at the legendary jazz singer's cultural impact as well as her many vices.
Where to watch: Video on demand
5. ‘Black Box’
Mamoudou Athie stars in Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's sci-fi horror film as a young man stricken with amnesia after a tragic accident who struggles with his identity when he signs up for an experimental memory treatment.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
6. 'Charm City Kings'
The coming-of-age drama centers on a teenage boy (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) who wants to take after his late brother and join the same infamous crew of Baltimore dirt-bike riders, worrying his mom (Teyonah Parris).
Where to watch: HBO Max
7. 'Da 5 Bloods'
Spike Lee's Screen Actors Guild-nominated war film features four aging Black veterans (including Delroy Lindo) who return to Vietnam to recover lost treasure and the remains of their late squad leader (Chadwick Boseman).
Where to watch: Netflix
8. 'The Forty-Year-Old Version'
Writer/director Radha Blank also stars in her semi-autobiographical comedy about a New York playwright who, after struggling to break into the theater scene, decides to reinvent herself as a rapper.
Where to watch: Netflix
9. 'His House'
Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù and Wunmi Mosaku star in writer/director Remi Weekes' chiller as Sudanese refugees seeking asylum in England who discover old horrors reside in the walls of their new place.
Where to watch: Netflix
10. 'If Not Now, When?'
Meagan Good co-directs with Tamara Bass and stars as a mom forced to go to rehab and lean on her childhood friends (Bass, Mekia Cox and Meagan Holder) to take care of her teen daughter (Lexi Underwood).
Where to watch: Video on demand
11. 'Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey'
So what if it's technically a holiday movie? The uplifting fantasy musical spotlights Black inventors and female ingenuity with Forest Whitaker as a formerly famous toymaker and Madalen Mills as his spunky granddaughter.
Where to watch: Netflix
12. 'John Lewis: Good Trouble'
The documentary is a deep dive into the late Georgia congressman's history, from being a civil-rights leader alongside Martin Luther King Jr. to a political career spent fighting for Black voting rights.
Where to watch: Video on demand, HBO Max
13. 'Judas and the Black Messiah'
Daniel Kaluuya is the subject of Oscar talk for his stirring portrayal of Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton in the 1960s-set thriller, which delves into the FBI's efforts to undermine and destroy him.
Where to watch: HBO Max
14. 'Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom'
Chadwick Boseman's final performance is one of his absolute finest in the August Wilson adaptation, which casts Viola Davis as a fiery 1920s blues singer and Boseman as her self-centered cornet player.
Where to watch: Netflix
15. 'Miss Juneteenth'
A holiday celebrating emancipation is the backdrop to a heartfelt drama about a single Texas mom (Nicole Beharie) readying her rebellious daughter (Alexis Chikaeze) for the local beauty pageant she once won.
Where to watch: Video on demand
16. 'MLK/FBI'
The documentary reveals how the FBI engaged in full-on surveillance of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and used his extramarital affairs to discredit and embarrass him.
Where to watch: Video on demand
17. 'One Night in Miami'
Regina King scored a Golden Globe directing nomination for the ensemble drama featuring a lively conversation between famous friends Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir).
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
18. 'Safety'
Based on a true story, a Clemson freshman (Jay Reeves) risks his football scholarship having his little brother (Thaddeus J. Mixson) secretly live on campus with him while their drug-addicted mom goes to rehab.
Where to watch: Disney+
19. 'Small Axe'
Steve McQueen's five-film anthology is an expansive view of the West Indian community in London over multiple decades, featuring John Boyega as a 1980s cop and Letitia Wright as a Black Panther in a '60s-era legal fight.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
20. 'Soul'
"One Night in Miami" playwright Kemp Powers co-wrote the first Pixar film with a Black lead: a music teacher (voiced by Jamie Foxx) who learns what's important about living when he ventures to the afterlife.
Where to watch: Disney+
21. 'Spell'
A wealthy man (Omari Hardwick) flies his family to rural Appalachia for his father's funeral, and after the plane crashes, he's nursed back to health by a hoodoo practitioner (Loretta Devine) for a black magic ritual.
Where to watch: Video on demand
22. 'Sylvie’s Love'
In the throwback romance, a jazz saxophonist (Nnamdi Asomugha) works in a Harlem record store in 1957 and falls for a co-worker (Thompson), beginning a relationship filled with many obstacles.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
23. 'The 24th'
In the story of the Houston riot of 1917, Trai Byers co-writes and stars as a member of an all-Black Army regiment itching to fight Germans in World War I that instead battles racist cops and bigoted locals at home.
Where to watch: Video on demand
24. 'Time'
The documentary about mass incarceration of the poor and people of color chronicles a determined Louisiana businesswoman's two-decade struggle to free her husband after he's sentenced to 60 years in jail.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
25. 'Vampires vs. the Bronx'
In the horror comedy, three young New York pals (Jaden Michael, Gerald W. Jones III, Gregory Diaz IV) want to save their local bodega, though vampires have moved in under the guise of gentrification in order to rule the Bronx.
Where to watch: Netflix
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black History Month: 25 powerful films to stream honoring Black voices
