Black Lives

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.

Share
Black Lives
  • Marcus

    Directed by Patrick Savey • Documentary • With Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Miles Davis • 2014 • 97 minutes

    Patrick Savey plunges us into Marcus’s world, capturing the New York roots of the legendary bass player, following his path like the pebbles of Tom Thumb, as he meets mast...

  • Black Is the Color: A History of African American Art

    Directed by Jacques Goldstein • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    In 1969, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York mounted a major exhibit called “Harlem On My Mind.” There was just one thing wrong: the show had no work by African-American artists.

    The “Harlem on My Mind” fiasco is emblematic ...

  • 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...

  • An Apollo Legend

    Directed by Brian Storm • Documentary • 2008 • 18 minutes

    Decades before American Idol and America's Got Talent captured the attention of millons on TV, the world renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem started hosting its popular Amateur Night, which launched the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, James Bro...

  • Black is... Black Ain't (Marlon Riggs)

    Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1995 • 87 minutes

    Having grappled with the stereotypes imposed upon black people by white America, Riggs turned his attention to another fraught issue: the definitions of “blackness” that African-Americans impose on each other. Weaving together poetry, co...

  • 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,...

  • A Good Man (Bill T. Jones)

    Directed by Bob Hercules,Gordon Quinn • Documentary • With Nana Amoah,
    Bill T. Jones,
    Lindsay Jones • 2011 • 86 minutes

    A Good Man follows acclaimed director/choreographer Bill T. Jones (Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Still/Here, FELA!) as he and his company create their most ambitious work, ...

  • Let the Fire Burn

    Directed by Jason Osder • Documentary • 2013 • 95 minutes

    In the astonishingly gripping Let the Fire Burn, director Jason Osder has crafted that rarest of cinematic objects: a found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller. On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city ...

  • They Are We

    Directed by Emma Christopher, Ph.D. • Documentary • 2014 • 79 minutes

    THEY ARE WE is the story of a remarkable reunion, 170 or so years after a family was driven apart by the ravages of the transatlantic slave trade. In Central Cuba, proud members of the Ganga-Longoba, a small Afro-Cuban ethnic ...

  • The Fruitless Tree

    Directed by Aicha Macky • Documentary • 2016 • 52 minutes

    Married but childless, Aicha finds herself in a situation that is totally “out of the ordinary” in her country, Niger. Just like everywhere else in the world today, Niger also experiences problems with infertility.

    Relying on her pers...

  • Coconut Head Generation (Alain Kassanda)

    Directed by Alain Kassanda • Documentary • 2023 • 89 minutes

    At Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university, a student association hosts a documentary screening and discussion group. In a country where dissent is frequently punished, this Thursday Film Series becomes a space for conversation and impassi...

  • Street Fighting Men

    Directed by Andrew James • Documentary • With James "Jack Rabbit" Jackson, Deris Solomon, Minister Malik Shabazz, Derionna Watkins, Lorraine Ray • 2020 • 101 minutes

    In a rapidly changing America where mass inequality and dwindling opportunity have devastated the black working class, three men f...

  • Fate of a Salesman

    Directed by Ben Crosbie and Tessa Moran • Documentary • 2013 • 27 minutes

    Fate of a Salesman is an intimate portrait of a way of life on the verge of disappearing. In its 60th year of business, Men's Fashion Center in Washington, DC has come to represent identity, legacy and redemption for sales...

  • I'm Fine (Thanks For Asking)

    Directed by Kelley Kali, Angelique Molina • Drama • With Wesley Moss, Kelley Kali • 2021 • 86 minutes

    This is post-pandemic America and everyone is struggling to get by. In this exhilarating debut feature Danny, played by co-director Kelley Kali in a star-making performance alongside Deon Cole, ...

  • 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 ...

  • 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.

  • 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” ...

  • Fannie's Film

    Directed by Fronza Woods • Documentary • 1981 • 15 minutes

    In FANNIE'S FILM, a 65-year-old cleaning woman for a professional dancers' exercise studio performs her job while telling us in voiceover about her life, hopes, goals, and feelings. A challenge to mainstream media's ongoing stereotypes o...

  • Ornette: Made in America

    Directed by Shirley Clarke • Documentary • With Ornette Coleman, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer • 1985 • 85 minutes

    Returning in 1983 to his home in Fort Worth, Texas, documentary footage and dramatic scenes recall legendar...

  • Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed

    Directed by Shola Lynch • Documentary • With Shirley Chisholm, Amiri Baraka, Octavia Butler, Bobby Seale • 2004 • 77 minutes

    Recalling a watershed event in US politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman...

  • Portrait of Jason

    Directed by Shirley Clarke • Documentary • 1967 • 108 minutes

    On the night of December 2, 1966, Clarke and a tiny crew convened in her apartment at the Hotel Chelsea to make a film. There, for twelve straight hours they filmed the one-and-only Jason Holliday as he spun tales, sang, donned costum...

  • Killing Time

    Directed by Fronza Woods • Drama • 1979 • 9 minutes

    KILLING TIME, an offbeat, wryly humorous look at the dilemma of a would-be suicide unable to find the right outfit to die in, examines the personal habits, socialization, and complexities of life that keep us going. Part of the mediamaking move...

  • Colette and Justin

    Directed by Alain Kassanda • Documentary • 2023 • 89 minutes

    Born in Kinshasa and living in Paris, filmmaker Alain Kassanda embodies the classic immigrant dual identity: in the Democratic Republic of Congo he is seen as French, while in France he is seen as Congolese. Determined to understand th...

  • Black Hair Magic

    Directed by Alaysja Clark • Documentary • 2017 • 7 minutes

    African-American women discuss the struggles and benefits of being a black woman in America through hair.