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.

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Black Lives
  • Black is... Black Ain't

    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.

  • Good White People

    Directed by Jarrod Cann & Erick Stoll • Documentary • 2016 • 16 minutes

    In the Spring of 2001, the African-American community of Over-the-Rhine in downtown Cincinnati arose in protest after unarmed 19-year-old, Timothy Thomas, was killed by a white officer named Steven Roach. In the years follow...

  • A Murder in Abidjan

    Directed by Mosco Boucault • Documentary • 1997 • 86 minutes

    Warning: This film contains graphic sequences of police violence, brutality, and torture.

    1995. On the outskirts of Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast, a policeman is murdered. Shot outside his vehicle, while his fiancée sits in...

  • Gil Scott-Heron: Black Wax

    Directed by Robert Mugge • Documentary • With Gil Scott-Heron • 1983 • 79 minutes

    BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge. It centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man Melody Maker called "the most dang...

  • 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...