Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1999 (!). This Substack is its blog, thank you for being here. | This email may be too long for your inbox, click the headline to read it in full. | On February 7, I’ll be speaking in Philadelphia, join me? To know me is to know I am a student of love above all things. Personifying love allows us to awaken the senses and endlessly discover ourselves, our communities, our beloveds, and our families; it is the building blocks of life. Tenderness—pointed acts of affection, love, and gentleness— is what spurs motion into movement ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1989. Happy Thanksgiving! I remain thankful for you all. “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board,” opens Zora Neale Hurston’s seminal work, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The book — about a woman’s search for herself — is a refusal to see the world through the bitterness and fear Black lives are often translated to. The world Hurston built in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is also the domain Black home (and amateur) movies reside in— a world where every untranslated vision for Black living, loving, and joy is on b ..read more

What does it mean to make Black film history accessible? A year ago, I launched BlackFilmArchive.com after spending significant time pondering this question. On its first anniversary, I am proud to reaffirm my commitment to the accrescent question by expanding Black Film Archive to include films from the 1980s and strengthen the platform’s focus on global Black cinema. 50+ movies — with more to come — have been added with this criteria in mind for you to explore right now.  Black Film Archive, which Slate.com likens to being the definitive history of Black cinema, is an ever-evolving arch ..read more

Friends, Above my desk at home hangs a Toni Morrison quote1: “I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are their best creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?”  This sentiment sings in my mind, and I often ask myself a version of that essential question: What do I need to remain a steward of care through witnessing and testimony? At the heart of that question is my a ..read more

Harry Belafonte’s films currently streaming can be viewed on Black Film Archive here. During racial segregation1 in the United States, Black artists were forced to make an impossible choice of lasting consequence: play by the social order —and rigid ideas of Black representation— offered or go without work. Harry Belafonte—the man, and artist who dominated stage, screen, and music charts—refused. His ascent to the upper echelons of entertainment — Black or otherwise— is integrally linked to this act of refusal and his continued interrogation of Black life through acting, producing, stage perfo ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1915 - 1979 currently streaming. This Substack is its blog. Thank you for being here! In daytime hours, guided by instincts that never sleep, the faintest signals come to me over vast spaces of etiquette and restraint. – Essex Hemphill, "Better Days” In the lyrical “Looking for Langston” (1989)1, director Isaac Julien constructs a mosaic of the inner world of Langston Hughes (1902-1967) and his Harlem Renaissance compadres using archival riches, music, correspondence, and published work. In this dream-like cinematic tone poem, a portr ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1989. This Substack is its blog, thank you for being here. | This email may be too long for email, click the headline to read it in full. | This month, I’m proud to present a film series on tenderness in Black film at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. On opening night (2/10), I’ll be in conversation with Jacqueline Stewart. Join us? The work that would become Black Film Archive started with an impulse to discover how Black films responded to a movement in June 2020. As countless Black Americans gathered in digital and phy ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1989. This Substack is its blog. Thank you for being here. Also: Join me in LA Feb 10 - 25, I’m guest programming a film series on tenderness in Black film at the Academy Museum. I hope to see you there. "Do you, as a Black person, feel that you are able to use your career, your profession, only for so-called entertainment purposes? Are you not obligated as a Black person to use your career or profession as a way of affecting your environment? That's always been the challenge.” — James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (b. January ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1915 to 1979. This Substack is its blog. Subscriptions help sustain the site and blog. Thank you for your support and encouragement. The Major Voice. The adult Voice forgoing Rolling River, forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge and other symptoms of an old despond. Warning, in music-words devout and large, that we are each other's harvest. We are each other's business. We are each other's magnitude and bond. - Gwendolyn Brooks, "Paul Robeson"  Throughout my lifetime, the luminous actor Paul Robeson has been a visitor to my hear ..read more

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films from 1898 to 1989. Want to support the Archive directly? Black Film Archive merch is now 20% off with code 20OFF. Will “somebody, anybody sing a Black girl’s song,” Ntozake Shange offers in her formative choreopoem, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide.” For generations of Black girls, Irene Cara answered the evolving call to sing a Black girl’s song. Irene Cara Escalera (b. March 18, 19591, d. November 25, 2022) was first widely recognized for singing the Black girl’s song when she rose to international stardom for her breakout ..read more