Anti-Racist Books and Films: Films

On Black Friday 2012, four African-American teenagers stopped at a gas station to buy gum and cigarettes. One of them, Jordan Davis, argued with Michael Dunn, a white man parked beside them, over the volume of music playing in their car. The altercation turned to tragedy when Dunn fired 10 bullets at the unarmed boys, killing Davis almost instantly. 3 1/2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS explores the danger and subjectivity of Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense laws by weaving Dunn’s trial with a chorus of citizen and pundit opinions, and with Jordan Davis’ parents’ wrenching experiences in and out of the courtroom. As conversations about Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Freddy Gray, and other victims of senseless violence play out on the national stage, 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets dives deep into the aftermath of Jordan Davis’ murder.

Shared beliefs about slavery bring together Angelina Grimké, the daughter of a Charleston plantation family, who moves north and becomes a public speaker against slavery; Frederick Douglass, a young slave who becomes hopeful when he hears about the abolitionists; William Lloyd Garrison, who founds the newspaper The Liberator, a powerful voice for the movement; Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose first trip to the South changes her life and her writing; and John Brown, who devotes his life to the cause. The abolitionist movement, however, is in disarray and increasing violence raises doubts about the efficacy of its pacifist tactics.

This new PBS town hall meeting, moderated by Gwen Ifill, explores the many issues around race relations that have come to the fore during this tense few months, after a white gunman shot and killed nine African-American parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, and the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds that followed.
Duration: 57 minutes

This PBS town hall meeting, moderated by PBS NEWSHOUR co-anchor and managing editor Gwen Ifill, explores events following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. The program, recorded before an audience on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will include national leaders and prominent thinkers in the areas of law enforcement, race and civil rights, as well as government officials, faith leaders and youth.
Duration: 57 minutes

Are racists born or made? Pioneering scientists have recently revealed that they can detect whether a person is subconsciously racist through a series of tests that are as ground-breaking as they are simple to do. This fascinating and revealing documentary showcases the latest scientific developments that can detect, measure, and change racist impulses in the brain.

The final hour brings the story up to the present day. As the 21st Century dawned, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina came as a wake-up call, revealing that the black poor were still grappling with issues that the civil rights movement set out to resolve decades earlier. After this sobering revelation, Senator Barack Obama’s announcement that he would run for President sparked a wave of hope that the country might at last be ready for real change. Voters of all races carried Obama to victory in 2008, setting off excited speculation that America had finally become a "post-racial" nation - even if nobody was quite sure what that meant. Former Attorney General Eric Holder gives Gates an inside view on the challenges of the Obama Presidency. While the symbolic importance of a black family in the White House was enormous, once Obama took office, he had to confront two foreign wars and a massive financial crisis -along with partisan attempts to block his political agenda that took on a distinctly racial tone. Moreover, as Gates carefully shows, America’s old problems did not disappear with the election of a black president. At a Boston public school, teacher Marcus Walker shows Gates the new face of racial and economic segregation. Ronald Day, who became a criminal justice advocate after prison, returns to illuminate the harsh reality of mass incarceration: a staggering number of black men still behind bars, and daunting challenges awaiting them on the outside. As incidents of lethal police brutality continued to occur, a new movement began taking shape, with young activists like DeRay Mckesson and Alicia Garza and high-profile entertainers and artists like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar rallying around a starkly simple new slogan: Black Lives Matter. The series ends where it began: on the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Selma, with Gates raising questions about the past and future of black America: Why does racial equality still elude us? What would it take to realize the goals of the civil rights movement? And what lies ahead in the years to come? Just one thing is certain: with the determination and strength wrought by years of struggle, African Americans will find a way forward.

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. The Central Park Five tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.

Race to Execution" is a gripping documentary that offers a compelling investigation of America’s death penalty, probing how race discrimination infects our capital punishment system. The film neither advocates nor repudiates the death penalty; instead, it enlarges the conversation regarding capital punishment, focusing attention on race-of-jury as well as race-of-victim. Research reveals that our justice system is far worse than arbitrary and capricious; it has deteriorated significantly in the last twenty years. Highlighted is a well-documented indicator of this trend - the higher value placed on the lives of white victims. Once a victim’s body is discovered, the race of the victim and the accused deeply influence the legal process: from how a crime scene is investigated, to the deployment of police resources, to the interrogation and arrest of major suspects, to how media portrays the crime, and, ultimately, jury selection and sentencing. The film traces the fates of two death row inmates: Robert Tarver in Russell County, Alabama, and Madison Hobley in Chicago. Their compelling personal stories are enlarged and enriched by attorneys who fought for these men’s lives, and by prosecutors, criminal justice scholars, and experts in the fields of law and the media. These varied voices contribute to a thoughtful examination of the factors that influence who lives and who dies at the hands of the state. While recent death penalty documentaries have focused on innocence and the wrongfully accused, "Race to Execution" tackles a more difficult, more complex issue: the prevalence and influence of racial bias in capital punishment cases.

As a quiet child of Haitian immigrants, Roxane Gay transcended all expectations and became a leading voice in modern feminist movement, with her essay collection Bad Feminist. But how did she transform a painful childhood into a powerful battle cry and a successful career that would end up helping women around the world?

On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland, a vibrant 28-year-old African American from Chicago, was arrested for a traffic violation in a small Texas town. After three days in custody, she was found hanging from a noose in her cell. Bland’s death was quickly ruled a suicide, sparking allegations of a murder and cover-up, and turning her case and name into a rallying cry nationwide. From the Oscar®-nominated, Emmy®- and Peabody Award-winning team of directors/producers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland examines this story in depth, revealing previously unknown details. The film follows the Bland family and legal team from the first weeks after her death as they try to find out what really happened in that jail cell in Texas. Embedded with the family and their lawyers, the filmmakers tracked the story for two years, drawing on key documents, jail footage and interviews with those closest to the events.

"This program challenges one of Americans' most cherished assumptions: that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South after the Civil War, new systems of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force and brutality. The film documents how for more than 80 years, thousands of African Americans, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of white masters. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century. Based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon, the film gives voice to the largely forgotten victims and perpetrators of forced labor and features moving interviews with their descendants living today. A distinguished group of historians provides context and perspective on one of the most shameful and little known chapters in American history."

The Talk – Race in America is a two-hour film about “the talk” that parents have with their children of color (primarily boys) to teach them how to act around the police in order to remain safe.

From the two-time Peabody Award-winning team of director Kate Davis and producer David Heilbroner (The Newburgh Sting, Stonewall Uprising), this haunting and compelling Academy Award®-nominated, 30-minute, documentary short tells the story of Breaion King, a 26-year-old African-American school teacher from Austin, Texas, who was stopped in 2015 for a routine traffic violation--an encounter that escalated into a dramatic and violent arrest. Caught on police dashcams, the 108 pound Breaion (who had never been arrested before) is seen pulled from her parked car by the white arresting officer, repeatedly slammed to the ground, handcuffed, and placed into the back of the police car with the help of a second officer. En route to jail in a squad car, Breaion engages in a revealing conversation with the escorting officer about race and law enforcement in America. Footage from the disturbing incident is juxtaposed with scenes from Breaion’s everyday life as a schoolteacher and dancer, offering a fuller portrait of the woman who now struggles to make sense of her clash with law enforcement.

The Tuskegee Airmen tells the dramatic, true story of the first African-American fighter pilots, the Red Tails. Through action-packed computer animations, historical reenactments, and dynamic archival sequences, audiences are taken on an immersive journey to witness the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen.

This documentary sits at the intersection of two important and timely topics of social justice: conditions in the US prison system and the injustices that befall transgender people encountering the law. The film explores why so many transgender people encounter the police, how those encounters often lead to discriminatory treatment, and the inhumane conditions that transgender people all too frequently experience. Through interviews with transgender inmates and experts, and narrated by the Tony award winning stage, screen, and TV actor, Brian Stokes Mitchell, the film casts light on one of the most hidden social injustices in the United States.

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wisés bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen ́ to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about.

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, WHOSE STREETS? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the National Guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they are the story. WHOSE STREETS? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.