Films recommended by the Racial Equity Council

Films Recommended by members of the Racial Equity Council of Fourth Church

The following films have been viewed and enjoyed by individual members of the Fourth Church Racial Equity Council. Neither the REC nor Fourth Church is endorsing these films.

DOCUMENTARIES

I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1982, restored in 2024) follows James Baldwin on an epic road trip through haunted and historical locations in the US where critical moments of the civil rights movement took place. It lays bare the truth of what has changed and what has stayed the same. Showing March 22-26, 2024 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street.

Stamped from the Beginning (2023) is based on the National Book Award winning book by Ibram X. Kendi and chronicles the story of anti-black racist ideas and their power over the course of American history.

Who is Watson (2022) is about the extraordinary career and work of Bernard C. Watson, whose work served to open doors to education and build opportunities for Black Americans. He advised US Presidents and worked to safeguard one of the most extraordinary art collections in the world.

A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (2021). By and large, the segregation of 20th-century America was documented in black and white. In 1956 Gordon Parks, the first Black staff photographer of Life magazine, traveled in and around Mobile, Alabama, to capture the realities of Jim Crow. He chose to shoot in color, capturing the more vibrant daily life of Black Americans. “I might have turned to the gun or the knife,” he had said in a televised interview, “but by then I had chosen the camera.”

Black Boys (2020) is a documentary that illuminates the full spectrum of Black male humanity in America through intimate, intergenerational conversations revealing vulnerability and resilience in the face of dehumanization.

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (2019) is a 4-hour Heny Louis Gates documentary that describes the rich history of the years after the American Civil War through the turn of the century. The first two hours chronicle the Reconstruction years of hope for a unified nation, and the last two describe the unraveling of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow segregation. Filled with insights and research into primary sources not used in traditional history books.

Martin Luther King, Jr: Marked Man (2018) focuses on the relentless campaign against King led by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. (45 minutes)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember this House. It explores the history of racism in the US through Baldwin’s recollections of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American History. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards and won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary.

King: Man of Peace in a Time of War (2006), presents key moments in US history, including the Viet Nam War, with archive footage of King giving inspiring speeches and appearances. It also interviews famous figures who knew him, including Colin Powell, Hugh Hefner, Laurence Fishburne, and Jesse Jackson.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003) recounts the life of Bayard Rustin, notable for his activism for racial equality and gay rights. Rustin’s contributions to the fight for equality were often overlooked, but he is credited with playing a crucial role in making the 1963 March on Washington a reality.

Paris is Burning (1990) focuses on the New York City’s Black and Brown queer communities and their ball culture, where groups from drag houses competed in elaborate pageants. The film explores the challenges faced by the community around the intersections of racism, poverty, AIDS, and queerness in the 1980s.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement (1987; 1990). This landmark series, which first premiered in 1987, documents the history of the civil rights movement in America. Segments include the Montgomery bus boycott of 1954, school desegregation in 1957 Arkansas, the right-to-vote battle within Mississippi, the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The series has been honored with a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, Television Critics Association Award and numerous Emmy Awards.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

Shirley (2024) focuses on Shirley Chisholm’s trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.

Genius: MLK/X (2024) This award winning docu-drama series focuses on the formative years and parallel stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. It offers an intimate look into their complex lives as husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons to show the depth of their humanity.

Origin (2023), written and directed by Ava DuVernay, follows Isabel Wilkerson’s journey as she wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020), which examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America. Wilkerson is the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was named to The New York Times list of the Best Nonfiction of All Time.

Rustin (2023) tells the story of the behind-the-scenes role that Bayard Rustin played in the planning, organizing and executing the famous 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, all while fighting homophobia as an openly gay man. Colman Domingo was nominated for Best Actor, 96th Academy Awards, for his portrayal of Bayard Rustin.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), based on the non-fiction book by David Grann, about a series of murders of newly wealthy Osage people after oil was discovered on tribal land. Nominations for Best Picture and Lily Gladstone Best Actress, 96th Academy Awards.

Till (2022) tells the story of the murder of 14-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till at the hands of brutal racists in small town Mississippi. It also focuses on the activism of his mother, Mamie Till, who famously insisted on an open casket at Emmett’s funeral, and the activism ignited in the aftermath of the murder.

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) tells the story of the infiltration of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party by an FBI informant, leading to the murder of Fred Hampton, its charismatic leader. Nominated for six academy awards, including Best Picture and two nominations for best supporting actor by Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield.

Just Mercy (2019) is based on the true story of Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard law graduate, who chose to defend poor, wrongly condemned or improperly represented defendants in Alabama. The movie focuses on his defense of a man sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence.

Marshall (2017). In 1941 Thurgood Marshall is an NAACP lawyer traveling the country defending people of color who are wrongly accused of crimes. The movie centers on Marshall’s defense of a Black man (Sterling K. Brown) accused of sexual assault against a white socialite in wealthy Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017) is based on the book by Rebecca Skloot and tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells were used without consent to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950’s.

13th (2016) explores legal measures enacted to ensure African Americans are not truly free and equal, from drugs laws that disproportionately affect them to voter suppression. Directed by Ava DuVernay (Origin, When They See Us, Selma, 12 Years a Slave and many others.)

Hidden Figures (2016) tells the story of three African American women, all with brilliant mathematical minds, who worked as human “computers” for NASA. Each of them broke barriers as one performed calculations that helped send John Glenn into America’s first orbital spaceflight in 1962, one became NASA’s first Black female supervisor, and one became the first Black female engineer in the NASA program.

Selma (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay, tells the story of the epic voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams and John Lewis.

12 Years a Slave (2013 Academy Award for Best Picture) tells the story of a free Black man in upstate New York who is kidnapped by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery. It was 12 years before he regained his freedom. African American history and culture scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was a consultant on the film.

The Butler (2013) tells the story of Cecil Gaines (played by Forest Whitaker), who is hired as a butler at the White House and sees the inner workings of the Oval Office over three decades. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen.

When They See Us (2019) is a miniseries created, written and directed by Ava DuVernay (writer and director of Origin). It explores the lives of the five young boys who were falsely accused of a brutal assault in the 1989 Central Park jogger case.

The Great Debaters (2007) stars Denzel Washington (who also directed the film) as Melvin B. Tolson, who coaches a debate team to fame at Wiley College, a small black college in 1935 Marshall, TX.

Coach Carter (2005), starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role as Ken Carter, who takes over as basketball coach at an inner-city high school in Northern California. A tough disciplinarian, the coach outrages his community by putting grades above winning games.

Something the Lord Made (2004) This highly rated and moving film tells the story of Vivien Thomas (Mos Def), an exceptional young Black man trying to earn enough money for college. He was hired as a janitor in the medical research laboratory of Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), a brilliant surgeon. Recognizing Thomas’ talent, the doctor made him his research assistant and the two functioned like research partners. Together they designed the first bypass surgery.

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). In this film based on actual events, black activist Medgar Evers (James Pickens Jr.) is murdered in 1963, and much of the evidence points toward white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods). However, after two trials, De La Beckwith is acquitted twice by a jury of whites. Decades later in 1989, Evers' widow, Myrlie (Whoopi Goldberg), thinks she has evidence to finally convict him. But no lawyer will touch the case except the young and brash Bobby DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin).

Malcolm X (1992) is based on the book by Alex Haley and depicts the life and career of Malcolm X.

GENERAL

American Fiction (2023) stars Jeffrey Wright as a frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. He writes an outlandish Black book of his own that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy. Nominations for Best Picture, Jeffrey Wright for Best Actor, and Sterling K. Brown for Best Supporting Actor, 96th Academy Awards.

Mudbound (2017) is about two World War II veterans, one white and one Black, who return to rural Mississippi and address racism and post-traumatic stress disorder in their own way.

In the Heat of the Night (1968 Academy Award for Best Picture) stars Sidney Poitier, playing city homicide detective Virgil Tibbs, who works with a bigoted small town police chief played by Rod Steiger to solve the murder of a wealthy and respected citizen of the town.