Lockdown List 3️⃣✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽

To be silent is to be complicit. We believe in taking action then, now and forever.

“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.” — James Baldwin

We as a team have curated this watch list as a resource for those seeking to do the work and surround themselves with vital Black stories.

📣Watch, listen, learn and act 📣

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PARIAH (2011 dir. Dee Rees) via Amazon Prime – recommended by Reg

A debut from Dee Rees, 17-year old black Brooklyn native: Alike, wrestles and confronts her identity as a lesbian. In this case it threatens to alienate her from family and friends. This film works to represent a unique experience in a lot of black households and neighbourhoods, also fitting for Pride month.

FARMING (2018 dir. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) via Amazon Prime – recommended by Faaria

Based on the director’s childhood, Farming is the brutally honest story of a young Nigerian boy ‘farmed out’ by his parents to live with a white British family in Essex. As Enitan grows up, he internalises the racism he’s surrounded by and joins a local skinhead gang.

WHEN THEY SEE US (2019 dir. Ava DuVernay) via Netflix – recommended by Ellie

The heartbreaking true story of the Central Park Five, young black teenagers from Harlem, who were falsely accused of a brutal attack and imprisioned. It’s a stark look at systemic racism in America and it’s tragic effect on the lives of black men.

GET OUT (2017 dir. Jordan Peele) via YouTube (£2.49) – recommended by David

“A young black man meets his white girlfriend’s parents in Jordan Peele’s chilling satire of liberal racism in the US” - Mark Kermode, The Guardian

INSECURE (Series 1-5, dir. Issa Rae) via Sky – recommended by Lizzy

Insecure follows the lives of LA best friends Issa and Molly. Hilarious, sexy, beautifully shot, Issa Rae has created the best tv show, and I will bang on about it forever.

DO THE RIGHT THING (1989 dir. Spike Lee) via NowTV/Sky – recommended by Rich

Upon release some (white) critics thought it could incite black audiences to riot. Whilst other (white) critics weren’t so blatantly racist, they still failed to value a young black character’s life over that of a pizzeria. This controversial film and its reception has never been more relevant.

THIS IS ENGLAND (2007 dir. Shane Meadows) via Amazon Prime – recommended by Ian

To my mind it should be shown in every class room around the land.  The story follows a 12-year-old boy called Shaun in 1983 who falls under the sway of two very different groups of skinheads.  It shows the hijacking of an optimistic, celebratory working-class culture – one that revels in black music and influences – by an angry, bitter movement that wants to blame ethnic minorities and immigrants for their problems.  The films message is as relevant now as it was in 2007.

MOONLIGHT (2017 dir. Barry Jenkins) via BFI Player (£3.50) – recommended by Gemma

An award-winning tale of a young Black boy’s journey to find himself – the story is told as he grows into a man whilst experiencing the heartbreak, agony and euphoria of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.