Our film critics, looking at the complex history of black filmmaking in America, chose 28 essential works. We’ll be highlighting a film from their list each day in February.http://nyti.ms/2DVxhcI
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11. “The Defiant Ones” (1958): There's plenty to roll your eyes at in this movie. But Sidney Poitier’s wit and charisma transcend the material and render it believable.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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12. “Shadows” (1959): John Cassavetes’s landmark independent film about 3 black siblings of varying skin tones — only one of whom was played by a black actor, a casting decision that speaks to the time http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/p3ywzOCU7G
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13. “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One” (1968): All but forgotten until the early 2000s, the film is mischievously eloquent on the struggles of the black artist in a supposedly liberal societyhttp://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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14. "The Story of a Three-Day Pass" (1968): An affair between a black soldier and a young Frenchwoman becomes a prism for a 1960s theme: the longing for liberation in the face of deeply entrenched, absurd obstacleshttp://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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15. "The Learning Tree" (1969): The moment Gordon Parks called "action" on the set, he broke decades of Hollywood apartheid, becoming the first African-American director of a major studio productionhttp://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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16. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970): Ossie Davis's movie gave Blaxploitation its literary and Hollywood pedigree. The volatile, often contradictory politics are especially pointed here.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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17. "I Am Somebody" (1970): The director, Madeline Anderson, lets striking female workers speak for themselves, a choice that puts their fight for self-determination into stirring terms http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/1S2onomx7l
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18. "Ganja & Hess" (1973): Directed by Bill Gunn, a fixture of the New York black independent film movement, the movie's a sensual, scholarly, magic-realist exploration of black history and black desirehttp://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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19. "Killer of Sheep" (1977): One of the essential films of American cinema, “Killer of Sheep” sings a song of love, family, brutalizing despair and ineffable, persistent human dignity.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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20. “Stir Crazy” (1980): For movie fans who came of age in the late '70s, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor were an unparalleled interracial buddy act. As a director, Sidney Poitier shows a silly side behind the camera that he rarely indulged in front of it. http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/FK1z6SNplU
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21. “Losing Ground” (1982): Identity is among the themes that wend through Kathleen Collins’s film, which feels just as personal and vital now as it did over 35 years ago.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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22. “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986): Spike Lee’s debut feature remains a loving, lovely portrait of black bohemia. (That said, the sexual politics may look problematic in hindsight.)pic.twitter.com/h1y1IpsZjp
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23. “Tongues Untied” (1989): This passionate, angry mix of documentary, memoir and poetry is a milestone in both New Black and New Queer cinema.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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24. “House Party” (1990): The rap duo Kid ’n Play star in an exuberant teenage comedy that mixes rebellious mischief and respect for elders. http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/MF3f5kp1Ka
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25. "Daughters of the Dust" (1991): Beyonce’s "Lemonade" sparked the latest revival of interest in this masterpiece, a beautiful work of historical reconstruction and feminist imagination.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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26. “Malcolm X” (1992): Denzel Washington dominates almost every frame of this electrifying epic, one of Spike Lee’s most enduring films. http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/I8sCIA1G0h
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27. "Devil in a Blue Dress" (1995): As a man traverses both black and white L.A., the film offers up a rich vision of African-American life almost entirely absent from Hollywood’s fantasies. http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU pic.twitter.com/Z5yuoCwUsN
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28. “The Watermelon Woman” (1996): The moral of this movie is that “sometimes you have to invent your own history.” That idea is both heartbreaking and inspiring.http://nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
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At what point do we realize that black,(and Latinos, Native Americans) Americans are Americans and stop discrimination due to skin color? It’s not about skin color, it’s about character content,which they have proven over and over again that they possess American character.
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