WATCH
Lectures
‘The Urgency of Intersectionality’ by Professor Kimberleé Crenshaw
In her 2016 TED Talk, Kimberleé Crenshaw argues that because the public has no “frame” or point of view that includes non-white women in discussions of racial and gender discrimination, non-white women are ignored, and that has led to unseen prejudice.
Webinars
Black Lives Matter: a challenge to the law
A webinar presented by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI). Join the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, in conversation with David Lammy, Ulele Burnham and Matthew Ryder QC, to discuss the ways in which the justice system perpetuates systemic racism in the UK and beyond, and the role legal systems must take in dismantling it.
Documentary
Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners
BBC 2
Documentary about the abolition of slavery. Huge sums of money were paid out in compensation, not to slaves, but to slave owners.
Black and British: A Forgotten History
BBC 2
Historian David Olusoga explores the enduring relationship between Britain and people whose origins lie in Africa.
Why is COVID Killing People of Colour?
Mon 8 Mar 2021 BBC 1
David Harewood investigates what the high Covid-19 death rates in black and minority ethnic patients reveal about health inequality in modern Britain.
The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files
BBC 2
David Olusoga opens secret government files to show how the Windrush scandal and the ‘hostile environment’ for black British immigrants has been 70 years in the making.
Sitting in Limbo
BBC iPlayer
A shocking drama inspired by the Windrush scandal. After 50 years in the UK, Anthony Bryan is wrongfully detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation.
Thirteenth
Netflix
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
OJ: Made in America
BBC
Five-part feature length Storyville documentary series and winner of an Academy Award for Best Documentary, chronicling the rise and fall of OJ Simpson.
Film
Queen and Slim
Queen and Slim go out for a date. However, their romantic adventure takes an unexpected turn when a police officer catches them for rash driving.
Small Axe
BBC
Love letters to black resilience and triumph in London’s West Indian community, directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen. Vivid stories of hard-won victories in the face of racism.
American Son
Netflix
An estranged couple reunite in a Florida police station to help find their missing teenage son.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
In early 1970s Harlem, daughter and wife-to-be Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny. Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together, but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.
The Hate U Give
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
Starr Carter, an African-American teenager, faces pressure from various communities and tries to stand up for what is right after she witnesses the shooting of her best friend by the police.
Moonlight
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
Chiron, a young African-American boy, finds guidance in Juan, a drug dealer, who teaches him to carve his own path. As he grows up in Miami, Juan’s advice leaves a lasting impression on him.
Do the Right Thing
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
Directed by Spike Lee.
Salvatore “Sal” Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin’ Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin’ Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Get Out
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
Directed by Jordan Peele.
Chris, an African-American man, decides to visit his Caucasian girlfriend’s parents during a weekend getaway. Although they seem normal at first, he is not prepared to experience the horrors ahead.
King in the Wilderness
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
A portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life, from his part in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to his assassination in 1968.
Hidden Figures
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
Just Mercy
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. One of his first cases is that of Walter McMillian, who is sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Stevenson encounters racism and legal and political maneuverings as he tirelessly fights for McMillian’s life.
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson is an American drama film, directed by Ali LeRoi and released in 2019. A wealthy, Nigerian-American teen is pulled over by police, shot to death and immediately awakens, reliving the same day over and over, trapped in a terrifying time loop – forced to confront difficult truths about his life and himself.
Malcolm X
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the ’50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
Series
When They See Us
Netflix
In 1989 a jogger was assaulted and raped in New York’s Central Park, and five young people were subsequently charged with the crime. The quintet, labeled the Central Park Five, maintained its innocence and spent years fighting the convictions, hoping to be exonerated. This limited series spans a quarter of a century, from when the teens are first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, going through their exoneration in 2002 and ultimately the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014. The cast is full of Emmy nominees and winners, including Michael K. Williams, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, and Blair Underwood. Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Ava DuVernay co-wrote and directed the four episodes.
Seven Seconds
Netflix
When 15-year-old black cyclist Brenton Butler dies in a hit-and-run accident — with a white police officer behind the wheel of the vehicle — Jersey City explodes with racial tension. This crime drama explores the aftermath of the accident, which includes an attempted cover-up by the police department and a volatile trial. Assistant prosecutor KJ wants to prosecute the hit-and-run as a hate crime, in addition to a negligent homicide. The longer the case drags on without a resolution, the more tense the situation becomes. Emmy winner Regina King stars as Brenton’s churchgoing mother, Latrice.
Dear White People
Netflix series
Based on the acclaimed film of the same name, this Netflix-original series follows a group of students of colour at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college. The students are faced with a landscape of cultural bias, social injustice, misguided activism and slippery politics. Through an absurdist lens, the series uses irony, self-deprecation, brutal honesty and humor to highlight issues that still plague today’s”post-racial” society.
#BlackAF
Netflix
American sitcom created by Kenya Barris.
The series stars Barris as a fictionalized version of himself. #blackAF uncovers the messy, unfiltered, and often hilarious world of what it means to be a ‘new money’ black family trying to ‘get it right’ in a modern world where ‘right’ is no longer a fixed concept.
Insecure
Available to rent on Amazon Prime
American comedy-drama television series created by Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore. It follows the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern-day African-American woman.
She’s Gotta Have It
Spike Lee revisits his first feature film with this Netflix original series of the same name.
Brooklyn-based artist Nola Darling struggles to stay true to herself and her dreams while dividing her time between her friends, her job and her lovers — all three of them. That trio includes married businessman and father Jamie Overstreet, photographer and self-described “biracial Adonis” Greer Childs and Michael Jordan fan Mars Blackmon.
Interviews
Akala Deconstructs Race and Class
You Tube
In an hour of conversation, Akala picks apart many of the modern myths around gangs, street violence and black youth, looking at the ways these are perpetuated in the media and who benefits from perpetuating them, as well as looking back to the Windrush generation and the institutionalised injustices that led to the recent crisis.