18 Wonderful Films About Black Girlhood and the Coming-of-Age Experience

For many of us, cinema is an awakening. It is revelatory in that it can showcase what is possible. The moving image acts as a mirror, showing us who we are and giving us glimpses of who we could be. But what happens when you can’t see yourself?

In a 2019 study, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media examined the representation of Black women in Hollywood. The organization determined that while Black girls and women are 6.5 percent of the U.S. population, only 3.7 percent of leads/co-leads in the 100 top-grossing films of the last decade fit that demographic. In short, for Black girls and teens, seeing themselves on screen is still a rarity.

As young women and girls have fought for representation in the cinema landscape for decades, Hollywood has offered up stories of pretty, posh girls like Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in “Clueless” or fierce warriors like Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games” franchise. Like many others, Black teen girls have felt a kinship with these figures, or have seen themselves in Cher’s best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) or the brave young tribute Rue (Amandla Stenberg) whom Katniss befriends.

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Perfectly Imperfect: 6 Layered Black Women Moving TV Forward

Respectability has been a pillar of Black American culture since Emancipation. Since Black people arrived on the shores of America, we have been subjected to hardships and cruelties based solely on our skin color. For centuries we’ve combated horrible stereotypes in our everyday lives and American popular culture. For Black women, in particular, being anything other than docile and likable meant that you could be seen as masculine, mean, overly sexual, asexual, and conniving. These terms were weaponized against Black people by outsiders and insiders like W.E.B Dubois, who touted his talented tenth, the most educated of the race, as the epitome of “good” Blackness and the embattled Bill Cosby with his “perfect” portrayal of the Black family in “The Cosby Show.”

Though respectability has been lauded as a tool for full citizenship in the Black community, it’s a falsehood. More than that, the performance of likability is exhausting. It forces a constant state of people-pleasing, one that often requires self-betrayal. Respectability won’t cause those who cling to their hatred, anti-Blackness, and racism to throw away their long-seated feelings of anger and disgust. It certainly won’t alleviate misogynoir. 

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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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‘King Richard’: How Breakouts Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton Aced Venus and Serena Williams

No one else on this planet has accomplished what Venus and Serena Williams have. For the Williams sisters, their unmatched success in tennis is just the tip of the iceberg. And even that seems as if it should never have happened: for a pair of Black girls growing up in Compton, California, an elite sport that requires copious amounts of money, access, and time — in addition to plain old talent — shouldn’t have even been on their radar.

But as the crowd-pleasing new drama “King Richard” suggests, Venus and Serena’s parents were determined to give them (and their sisters) a better life and all the opportunities that comes with it. That drive and ambition, along with the family’s shared worth ethic, helped launch the pair into superstardom at a young age, ensuring that they will forever go down as two of the greatest athletes ever to live.

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‘The Harder They Fall’: Inside the Very Real History of Jeymes Samuel’s All-Black Western

Before the opening credits of Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” splash across the screen, outlaw Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) has already murdered two people,  irrevocably changing a young boy’s life and setting the stage for an epic-scale shoot-em-up in the process. Set in the Old West, the Netflix feature has all the bells and whistles of a traditional Hollywood Western, but Samuel’s debut feature isn’t just a new spin on classics of the genre like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” or “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” This narrative is grounded in actual history.

Samuel’s world is populated by characters named after real-life Black figures who lived (and sometimes caused chaos) in the Old West. For Samuel and his star Jonathan Majors, who plays the revenge-minded Nat Love, it was about unearthing the true history of the American West and getting into the hearts and minds of lives lived and lost without the narrative of slavery or oppression. Just as essential: finding a way of turning that history, one rarely explored on the big screen, into a brand-new cinematic adventure.

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Life After ‘In the Heights’ Controversy: Here Are 9 Afro-Latino Stars Who Deserve Big Hollywood Roles

Jon M. Chu’s long-awaited film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” should have debuted to critical acclaim. From the dynamic musical numbers to the film’s stars, which include “Hamilton” standout Anthony Ramos, “Orange Is The New Black” star Dasha Polanco, and “Straight Outta Compton” breakout Corey Hawkins, all the signs pointed to another progressive hit on par with Chu’s “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Instead, in a film that was supposed to immortalize present-day Washington Heights — in a community called the Little Dominican Republic — the lack of Black and brown faces on screen was glaring. After all, 90 percent of Dominicans are of African descent. Unfortunately, as it is with “In the Heights,” colorism is pervasive in Latinidad. As a result, exhausting conversations about skin color, an entire market for skin lightening creams, and generation-long skin color preferences within families persist. All of this stems from rampant racism, colonialism, and anti-Blackness.

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Image: Pose/FX

Pariah’ at 10: Dee Rees’ Groundbreaking Debut Paved the Way for ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Pose’

Ten years ago, filmmaker Dee Rees changed the game for queer filmmaking with her stunning semi-autobiographical debut feature, “Pariah.” The compelling coming-of-age story is set in Brooklyn and follows 17-year-old Alike (Adepero Oduye), a whip-smart high school student trying to grapple with her identity. At the same time, her straight-laced church-going parents, portrayed by Charles Parnell and Kim Waynes, continue to deny Alike’s evident sexual awakening.

“Pariah” was a force. Arriving at the Sundance Film Festival 15 years after Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” Rees’ first feature was nominated for countless awards and cemented her status as a major filmmaker. She followed it with “Mudbound” in 2017, which scored her an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her last effort, the Netflix-produced “The Last Thing He Wanted,” yielded mixed reviews — but Rees has already moved on with a slate of promising new projects, all of which suggest she’s on track to return to her “Pariah” roots.”

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Daniel Kaluuya Unintentionally Summed Up Oscars Diversity the Best: There’s Still a Lot of Work to Do

There were high hopes for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)’ 93rd Academy Awards ceremony. For the first time in history, nearly half of the nominees in acting categories were people of color, and 70 women were nominated across all 23 categories. These were unprecedented numbers for an awards show that has existed for nearly a century. While some of this change resulted from AMPAS’ Academy Aperture 2020 Diversity Initiative (A2020) and the Tarana Burke-founded #MeToo Movement, the events of 2020 also shook Hollywood to its core.

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Cheryl Dunye Wants to Create the Black Lesbian Canon of Fiction

In the 25 years since she became the first Black lesbian to direct a feature film, the acclaimed “The Watermelon Woman,” Cheryl Dunye has lent her perspective to dozens of stories stretching across various genres on-screen. The NAACP Image Award-nominated director recently put her signature stamp on “Lovecraft Country’s” episode “Strange Case.” Now, she is lending her vision to OWN’s new series, “Delilah,” a legal drama centering Maahra Hill in the titular role as a lawyer trying to juggle her personal and professional lives.

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Harry and Meghan’s Interview Reveals the Prince’s Burgeoning Racial Enlightenment

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey has shattered any lingering illusions about the British royal family. In “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special,” the Sussexes discussed at length their decision to step down as senior working members of the royal family, while getting candid about all the abuse Meghan experienced from the British press, as well as the lack of support they received from the prince’s family.

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Black Superhero Movies Need a Savior, but Superman Requires a Fresh Take — Analysis

Hollywood’s obsession with superhero reboots shows no sign of letting up. By this time next year, “The Batman” will have brought the origin story of the caped crusader to the screen for the umpteenth time. Now comes the news that revered scribe Ta-Nehisi Coates is taking a crack at a new “Superman” screenplay, with DC eying a Black actor to play the lead.

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‘Almost Christmas’ Review: This Warm Family Film Is Just What the Holiday Season Ordered

Holiday season movies are a time-honored tradition, but African American holiday season films exist in a genre of their own. From Malcolm Lee’s “The Best Man Holiday” to Preston A. Whitmore II’s “This Christmas,” the nuances of black life at the proverbial “most wonderful time of the year” have enraptured audiences for years. David E. Talbert’s latest entry “Almost Christmas” just might be the most satisfying entry in this genre to date.

Led by the ever-reliable Danny Glover as heartbroken family patriarch Walter Meyers, “Almost Christmas” benefits from a robust cast in tune with the material. Mo’Nique stars as Walter’s hilarious and outspoken sister-in-law May. Strong supporting work comes from Gabrielle Union, Kimberly Elise, Romany Malco, Nicole Ari Parker, J.B. Smoove, Omar Epps and Jessie T. Usher.

“Almost Christmas” follows the eclectic Meyers clan as they embark on their first Christmas since burying their beloved mother, Grace. The film opens in 1971, with nostalgic thoughts about a slice of sweet potato pie — and then glides forward in time, highlighting births and other significant moments, until we land in the present day. The dysfunctional family heads to their childhood home in Birmingham, Alabama to stay with their father, Walter, just five days before Christmas. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Walter is still determined to have a positive holiday experience. He even sets out to make his wife’s traditional sweet potato pie (which results in disaster) before his sons and daughters descend on him.

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Image: Universal