Black Is… Black Ain’t
Jun 01, 1994 | IMDB 6.1
87 min Watch NowDocumentary
African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime
Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color
Stone Street
Paris Is Burning
The Beauty President
Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare
Daughters
Black Nations/Queer Nations?
Buffalo Soldiers, Victorio and Manifest Destiny
Pride of the Buffalo Soldier
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Kokomo City
Being BeBe
Black Is the Color: African-American Artists and Segregation
Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
The Country Upside Down
80 Blocks from Tiffany's
Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back
Man Made
SIMILAR MOVIES
Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2018
Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The Harlem Hellfighters" of World War I, Broadway Theatre, the Civil Rights movement, and decades of Black cultural development.Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color
IMDB 10 | Jul , 2021
Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first Black woman to have her paintings exhibited in the White House (2009). Yet she did not receive national attention until she was 80.Stone Street
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2012
Stone Street documents the life and experiences of a Trinidadian diaspora family and their enduring connection to the long standing family home in Port of Spain. Through the intersecting journeys of this extended and extensive family, the filmmaker explores themes of home, belonging and identity in a life defined by the fragmentary nature of a migratory Caribbean culture. This experimental documentary combines a lyrical first person voice with a family archive of home made audio visual artifacts, interviews and events. As the documentary explores the fragmentary nature of Caribbean identity, it simultaneously celebrates the fragments of domestic memorializing found in home movies, videos and photographs. Stone Street uses these various forms to evoke the experience of a complex and diverse Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora identity.Paris Is Burning
IMDB 8 | Mar , 1991
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.The Beauty President
IMDB 6 | Mar , 2021
In 1992, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, activist Terence Alan Smith made a historic bid for president of the United States as his drag queen persona Joan Jett Blakk. Today, Smith reflects back on his seminal civil rights campaign and its place in American history.Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare
IMDB 6.3 | Aug , 2019
The history of warfare as it relates to global Black society, broken down into 7 chapters that examines the ways the system of racism wages warfare from a historical, psychological, sexual, biological, health, educational, and military perspective.Daughters
IMDB 8 | Aug , 2024
Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.Black Nations/Queer Nations?
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1995
This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien's "The Attendant" and Jocelyn Taylor's "Bodily Functions", this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.Buffalo Soldiers, Victorio and Manifest Destiny
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2017
A look into the 19th century American-Indian Wars, Manifest Destiny, and the conflicts between Apache tribes and the African-American Buffalo soldier regiments.Pride of the Buffalo Soldier
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2017
African American soldiers throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries faced discrimination and segregation, yet many still chose to fight for their country.SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
IMDB 6.9 | Jan , 2025
An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone – the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic Sly Stone – that captures the band's reign while shedding light on the burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.Kokomo City
IMDB 6.7 | Jul , 2023
Four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City break down the walls of their profession.Being BeBe
IMDB 9 | Jun , 2021
The intimate journey and unpublished backstory of BeBe Zahara Benet – a charismatic drag performer originally from Cameroon, and the very first winner of the culture-changing phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race. With over a decade of unprecedented access, we observe BeBe’s struggles with celebrity, authenticity, success, and failure.Black Is the Color: African-American Artists and Segregation
IMDB 0 | Jul , 2016
Black Is the Color highlights key moments in the history of Black visual art, from Edmonds Lewis’s 1867 sculpture Forever Free, to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Art historians and gallery owners place the works in context, setting them against the larger social contexts of Jim Crow, WWI, the civil rights movement and the racism of the Reagan era, while contemporary artists discuss individual works by their forerunners and their ongoing influence.Marcus Garvey: Toward Black Nationhood
IMDB 0 | Feb , 1984
A documentary, combining archival material and live interviews with Marcus Garvey, Jr., and others, which introduces the life and work of the pioneer Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
IMDB 5.6 | Jan , 2003
Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.The Country Upside Down
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2009
Returning to the island that her father left 50 years earlier, the filmmaker goes back in time to retrace the history of her name.80 Blocks from Tiffany's
IMDB 6.6 | Mar , 1980
This 1979 documentary depicts the daily life of gangs in the South Bronx. It deals primarily with two African American and Puerto Rican gangs known as the "Savage Skulls" and the "Savage Nomads".Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back
IMDB 5 | Nov , 2019
Maurice Hines, a charming, gay African-American entertainer navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines.Man Made
IMDB 0 | May , 2018
From adoption and homelessness to navigating relationships and overcoming self-harm, the four transmen in MAN MADE all have something else in common: they are all bodybuilders. Through the lens of FTMFitCon, the world’s only FTM bodybuilding competition, we delve into the lives of Dominic, Rese, Mason, and Kennie as they define what it means to be a man while contextualizing that definition through the social, racial, and economic realities of their lives. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about stepping on stage and being seen for everything they are.