We posed a question to staff members at the Missouri Historical Society: What are some films to help better understand the anti-racism movement in America and build an appreciation for Black stories? Here are their selections.
1. “On its surface, Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020) is about a group of Vietnam vets who return to the country in search of gold,” says Jody Sowell, managing director of strategic initiatives for the Missouri Historical Society. Beyond its narrative, the film is packed with short history lessons from 1619 to today and war movie references. “These references become more poignant because Lee does something that other movies often failed to: putting the spotlight on the African-American experience,” he says.
2. “Researchers from around the world still call the Missouri Historical Society for help researching the public housing complex that became an international symbol of the failures of American housing policy,” says Sowell. “In The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (Chad Freidrichs, 2011), Freidrichs does a masterful job of putting Pruitt-Igoe into the national context of post–World War II urban America, showing that problems the complex faced were less about its architecture or residents and more about government policies that promoted segregation.”
3. Shakia Gullette, director of African-American history initiatives, selected St. Louis Superman (Sami Khan & Smriti Mundhra, 2019), which “shows the strength and power of this region’s Black community.” The Oscar-nominated doc follows the life of community leader and former Missouri state Representative Bruce Franks Jr.
4. “While the men represented in Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989), for the most part, were fictionalized, the film captures the essence of life in a Black regiment during the War of the Slaveholders Rebellion,” says Marvin-Alonzo Greer, education and visitor experience lead for the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. One soldier in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was Sergeant William Carney, who was wounded during battle. “He saved the American flag,” Greer says. “He was the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor.” Greer says that Glory inspired hundreds of historians to research Black regiments.
5. “Ava DuVernay has been celebrated for her feature films, including Selma,” says Sowell, “but this documentary may be her most important work.” 13th (2016) looks at how the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, but DuVernay argues that the criminal justice system has created a type of bondage still in existence today.
6. Gullette describes Sankofa (Haile Gerima, 1993) as empowering, a film that tells the story of slavery and of the African diaspora from the perspective of those who were enslaved. “It challenges the romanticizing of slavery prevalent in American culture,” she says.
7. In the anti-apartheid musical Sarafina! (Darrell James Roodt, 1992), a young South African girl experiences a political awakening in the mid-1970s. The film amplifies young voices, Gullette says, “whose courage and tenacity have been at the forefront of every movement in our history.”
8. The Brother From Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984) imagines intergalactic slave catchers who descend on Earth in search of an escaped bondsman. “It raises contemporary issues about race and the legacy of enslavement,” says Gwen Moore, curator of urban landscape and community identity.
9. “Panther (Mario Van Peebles, 1995) chronicles the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, with the purpose of patrolling African-American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality,” says Gullette.
10. “In To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett, 1990), Danny Glover plays a disturbing, almost satanic figure who disrupts a stable working-class Black family,” says Moore. “What I like about the film is its accurate, relatable portrayal of Black life and culture, free of the usual stereotyping. It is a gripping story as well.”
