5 Movies and TV Shows to Watch by Black Filmmakers

In honor of Black History Month, the Lightswitch Video team put together a list of a few movies brought to life by Black filmmakers. (Check out last year’s list here.)

While Black filmmakers are still underrepresented in the entertainment industry, watching and talking about the art they make is one way to help create more opportunities for more stories to be told on screen.

Here are five films/television shows that our team recommends you start with:

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) dir. Carl Franklin

An African-American man is hired to find a woman, and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal.

The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir. Cheryl Dunye

A young Black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s Black actress who played ‘mammy’ archetypes.

Pariah (2011) dir. Dee Rees

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Till (2022) dir. Chinonye Chukwu

In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice.

Abbott Elementary (TV series) created by Quinta Brunson

A mockumentary sitcom of a predominantly Black Philadelphia public school where a documentary crew is recording the lives of teachers working in underfunded, mismanaged schools.