Black History Month 2019 Overview: Black Directors

I have recently started doing my blog composition at night because I can't take that amount of time away from my mother during the day. Last night I wrote all about Denzel Washington and Fences, and realized that I should have watched the other movies he directed, and no other director felt right to start, partly because I want to group some together, and partly because a few still aren't done. (Also, I am me, but that part can't be helped.)

Clearly what is needed is an overview; then we can get down to individuals.

Here is the overview in no particular order.

(ETA: Now that all full reviews have been completed, each director's name is a link to their specific write-up.)

Julie Dash 
Watched Daughters of the Dust (1991) and The Rosa Parks Story (2002).

Amma Assante
Watched Belle (2013). Had already seen A United Kingdom (2016).

Ava Duvernay
Watched 13th (2016). Had already seen Selma (2014) and A Wrinkle in Time (2018). Still waiting on When They See Us.

Jordan Peele
Watched Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), plus seasons 1-3 of Key & Peele.

Kasi Lemmons
Watched Eve's Bayou (1997), Talk To Me (2007), and Black Nativity (2012). The Caveman's Valentine is waiting on my DVR.

Denzel Washington
Watched Fences (2016). Just requested Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters from the library.

Ryan Coogler
Watched Fruitvale Station (2013) and Creed (2015). Had already seen Black Panther (2018).

Barry Jenkins
Watched Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).

John Singleton
Watched Boyz N The Hood (1991), Shaft (2000), and Rosewood (1997). I have Poetic Justice set to record on March 6th.

Robert Townsend
Watched Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987), The Five Heartbeats (1989), B*A*P*S (1997), and The Hollywood Shuffle (1987).

There were also some one-offs that were related. For example, seeing Eddie Murphy do comedy inspired me to watch Pryor: Here and Now (directed by Richard Pryor, 1983) and The Original Kings of Comedy (directed by Spike Lee, 2000), but I really want to compare that to Nanette, something more modern and more female.

I did watch How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan, and I thought about watching more of his films, but in terms of what I could find and what I was interested in watching, it just didn't work out.

Access was an issue. It is amazing how many pay streaming services there are now, with unique content that you can't get in other places. A lot of that can't be helped, but I am going to sign up for the free trial month of Netflix soon and go through that list of things I have been waiting to see.

Anyway, when I start writing about these next week, this is what I am working with.

Other one-offs during the time period include seeing Little (2019), directed by Tina Gordon, and I am going to see The Photograph tonight, directed by Stella Meghie.