Black Film Archive

Created by samlowery.

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ABOUT THE SITE

Black Film Archive celebrates the rich, abundant history of Black cinema. We are an evolving archive dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made from 1898 to 1989 about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context.

HOW DOES BLACK FILM ARCHIVE DEFINE A BLACK FILM?

The films collected on Black Film Archive have something significant to say about the Black experience; speak to Black audiences; and/or have a Black star, writer, producer, or director. This criterion for selection is as broad and inclusive as possible, allowing the site to cover the widest range of what a Black film can be.

The films listed here should be considered in conversation with each other, as visions of Black being on film across time. They express what only film can: social, anthropological, and aesthetic looks at the changing face of Black expression (or white attitudes about Black expression, which are inescapable given the whiteness of decision-makers in the film industry).

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Maya S. Cade is the creator and curator of Black Film Archive and a scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress. She has been awarded special distinctions by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for the Archive. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Paris Review, Vulture, among other publications. She is the fall 2022 programmer in residence at Indiana University’s Cinema and was the fall 2021 research fellow at Indiana University's Black Film Center & Archive. Originally hailing from New Orleans, Maya is based in Brooklyn.

Black Film Archive is a resource Maya has been hoping to discover for as long as she can remember. In June 2020, she decided to start building it herself. Every word on Black Film Archive is thoroughly researched and lovingly written by her.

NOTES FROM THE ICHECKER

In keeping with the official iCheckMovies list for the Library of Congress, I listed the shorts of Rev. Solomon Sir Jones separately (Films 1-29) versus one title "Rev. S.S. Jones Home Movies" like on BFA.

As of January 2023, there are twelve BFA titles missing from my list because I could not track them down on either iCheckMovies or IMDB:

Foye Family Home Video #3
Wedding Reception
The Killing Floor
Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock
The Black Cop
Steel Drums in New York
Color Us Black!
Off the Pigs
Azz Izz Jazz
To Live As Free Men
Cheryl
America, They Loved You Madly; Interview with John Lewis.