10 BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS WHO HAVE SHAPED THE CINEMA LANDSCAPE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

From historical dramas to romantic films that display Black love, Black women directors have offered varied narratives to the cinema landscape in the past two decades. These countless contributions center the Black female experience, offering moviegoers a unique perspective into Black womanhood while providing Black women and girls the rare opportunity to see themselves spotlighted on-screen.

Gina-Prince Bythewood ushered in the 21st century with her classic romantic drama Love & Basketball and more recently delivered the commanding and powerful historical drama The Woman King. Meanwhile, Dawn Porter has delivered rousing examinations of conservative attacks on women’s health care and a retrospective on the late Civil Rights activist John Lewis.

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10 BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS WHO SHAPED THE CINEMA LANDSCAPE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

As representation has expanded for Black women in Hollywood, both in front of and behind the camera, it might appear to some that Black women only recently began contributing to the cinema landscape. As we praise prolific directors like Ava DuVernay, Kasi Lemmons, and Gina Prince-Bythewood for their stunning films, which offer varied views of Black womanhood, it might seem as though there was a scarcity of Black women directors who preceded them. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Oscar Micheaux is noted as the most prolific Black American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. The 1980s and 1990s paved the way for a new generation of Black male filmmakers like Spike Lee, John Singleton, and countless others, gaining the recognition they deserved for their gritty and telling depictions of Black manhood in the inner city. As a result, the contributions of Black women before and during this period have nearly been erased.

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10 Rising Black Women Film Directors to Discover This Juneteenth

While much of the world only discovered the holiday of Juneteenth in 2020 amid the racial uprisings following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, “Freedom Day” has long been a staple in the Black American community, specifically in the South. While slavery in America was officially outlawed when President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863, it wasn’t until two-and-a-half years later that the last of the enslaved finally learned of their liberation.

The date June 19 commemorates the anniversary of the Union Army’s arrival in Galveston, Texas in 1865, when Union Army general Gordon Granger shared the long-announced news that all slaves were now free. The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

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