Black Lives
OVID.tv is proud to present a large selection of films about contemporary Black lives - from documentaries ranging in topics from Harlem's Apollo Theater and performer Okwui Okpokwasili to an allegorical fable by John Akomfrah.
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My Brooklyn
Directed by Kelly Anderson • Documentary • With Jamel Shabazz, Craig Steven Wilder, Kelly Anderson • 2012 • 76 minutes
My Brooklyn follows director Kelly Anderson's journey, as a Brooklyn gentrifier, to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood. The film documents the redevelopment of Ful...
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The Soul of the Bossales
Directed by François Perlier • Documentary • 2024 • 81 minutes
The “Bossales” were the African slaves who won the Haitian war of independence. This term now qualifies as a rebellious person, like the protagonists of the film. Charlotte, a human rights defender, Foukifoura, a satirical columnist,...
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In Motion: Amiri Baraka
Directed by St. Clair Bourne • Documentary • 1983 • 60 minutes
IN MOTION: AMIRI BARAKA profiles the outspoken representative - formerly LeRoi Jones - of the Black consciousness movement who has been a major figure on the American literary and political landscape for three decades. Set in Newark,...
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Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.
Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • Documentary • 2021 • 76 minutes
As we float through the streets of Lesotho, following a cross-bearing woman and an omnipresent figure wearing wings, a tumultuous history of sorrow and suffering between the motherland and its people unravels. The through lin...
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Young, Black and Gifted: Diversity at the Paris Opera
Directed by Virginie Plaut, Youcef Khemane • Documentary • 2025 • 58 minutes
At age 20, Guillaume Diop risked his career to sign a manifesto against racism at the Paris Opera. But just three years later, he was named a Danseur Étoile — a star dancer — in the Paris Opera Ballet, one of the world’...
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Taking Back Detroit
Directed by Stephen Lighthill • Documentary • 1980 • 55 minutes
In the 1970s and early 1980s Detroit was the setting for an unusual development in U.S. urban politics, as voters elected two socialists to citywide office. TAKING BACK DETROIT examines these people and their organization against th...
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With Peter Bradley
Movie
When filmmaker Alex Rappoport met then-79-year-old abstract artist Peter Bradley in early 2020, Bradley hadn't sold many paintings or had a major show in over four decades - yet he still painted every day in a shipping-container studio heated by a wood stove, no matter what the weather. Over time...
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Love & Diane
Directed by Jennifer Dworkin • Documentary • 2003 • 155 minutes
Jennifer Dworkin’s groundbreaking documentary LOVE & DIANE presents a searingly honest and moving examination of poverty, welfare and drug rehabilitation in the United States today. Filmed in New York City over a five-year period, D...
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Black Limbo
Directed by Lorenzo Benitez • Documentary • 2024 • 75 minutes
The secrets and impunity of the Franco dictatorship in the former Spanish Guinea continue to be present in the Spanish democracy. The Franco regime managed to hide its crimes and torture against the National Liberation Movement of Equ...
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Bless Their Little Hearts
Directed by Billy Woodberry • Drama • With Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore • 1983 • 80 minutes
Searching for steady work, Charlie (Nate Hardman) views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But selling a few catfish can’t sustain a family of five while his wife, Andais (Kaycee Moore)...
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Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace
Directed by Jeff Dupre • Documentary • With Kehinde Wiley • 2014 • 40 minutes
The artist behind Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, Kehinde Wiley is known for his vibrant, larger-than-life reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring young Black men. “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace” ...
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The Poets
Directed by Chivas DeVinck • Documentary • 2018 • 99 minutes
Syl Cheney-Coker (author of The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) and Niyi Osundare (recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria’s highest recognition for distinguished academic an...
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Trouble Sleep
Directed by Alain Kassanda • Documentary • 2020 • 41 minutes
Kassanda’s freewheeling urban portrait follows two young men, Fred and Akin, as they navigate the crowded roadways of Ibadan, Nigeria’s third largest city. Engineering graduate Fred is beginning a new job as a taxi driver, while Akin p...
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The Last Angel of History
Directed by John Akomfrah • Documentary • 1996 • 45 minutes
John Akomfrah, director of Seven Songs of Malcolm X, returns with an engaging and searing examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing c...
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Cane River
Directed by Horace B. Jenkins • Drama • With Tommye Myrick, Richard Romain, Carol Sutton • 1982 • 104 minutes
Written, produced, and directed by Emmy Award-winning documentarian, Horace B. Jenkins, and crafted by an entirely African American cast and crew, CANE RIVER is a racially-charged love s...
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Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Directed by Tamra Davis • Documentary • With Jean-Michel Basquiat • 2010 • 88 minutes
Centered on a rare interview that director and friend Tamra Davis shot with Jean-Michel Basquiat more than 20 years ago, this film chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the young artist. In the crime-ridden ...
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Bronx Gothic (Okwui Okpokwasili)
Directed by Andrew Rossi • Documentary • With Okwui Okpokwasili • 2017 • 91 minutes
From director Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside the New York Times, The First Monday in May) comes an electrifying portrait of writer and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and her acclaimed one-woman show, Bronx Gothic. R...
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Jamaica & Tamarindo: Afro Tradition In The Heart Of Mexico
Directed by Ebony Marie Bailey • Documentary • 2019 • 21 minutes
The Jamaica flower and tamarind are iconic ingredients in Mexico, but their history comes from a place much further away. Jamaica and Tamarindo: Afro Tradition in the Heart of Mexico explores African identity in Mexico City, an ide...
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On The Line: Where Sacrifice Begins
Directed by Mike Mascoll • Documentary • 2016 • 75 minutes
When you think of busing in Boston, chances are it’s about a dark episode in the city’s history that sparks images of violence, intolerance, and racial tension. And while most of the historical spotlight has been on forced busing to dese...
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The Forgotten Occupation: Jim Crow Goes to Haiti
Directed by Alain Martin • Documentary • With Alain Martin • 2025 • 90 minutes
What happens when the oppressor becomes your salvation? Through a letter to his grandfather, a Haitian filmmaker revisits the U.S. occupation of Haiti, unraveling the paradox of a man who longed for American rule and ...
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The Flashettes
Directed by Bonnie Friedman • Documentary • 1977 • 20 minutes
Focusing on their hopes and aspirations, this upbeat film movingly shows how the rigorous training helps to produce more than just muscle, but a positive self-identity and pride. Andre, a young man, returns to his community after coll...
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How to Tell You're a Douchebag
Directed by Tahir Jetter • Drama • With Charles Brice, DeWanda Wise • 2016 • 75 minutes
A controversial blogger in New York finds himself in hot water when he messes with the wrong woman.
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Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs)
Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1989 • 55 minutes
The seminal documentary on Black gay life, Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T. Riggs’ 1989 Tongues Untied uses poetry, personal testimony, rap and performance (featuring poet Essex Hemphill and others), to describe the homophobia and r...
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Softie
Directed by Sam Soko • Documentary • 2020 • 96 minutes
Boniface “Softie” Mwangi has long fought injustices in his country as a political activist. Now he’s taking the next step by running for office in a regional Kenyan election. From the moment Boniface decides to run, telling his wife, Njeri, ...