Research Guides: Black History Month: Film &amp; Directors

Black Film & Directors

This list features just a few of the films available in the library's collections, some of which were featured on our display during the week of February 28. For more, search by title, director, actor, or screenwriter in OneSearch (see below). You can also browse an expanded list of films from Black directors or that feature plots primarily about Black characters.

Feature Films

Black Orpheus (Streaming Video) by Marcel Camus (Director)
Publication Date: 1959
"Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus...brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.
Do the Right Thing! (DVD) by Spike Lee (Director)
Publication Date: 1998
It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Tensions are growing, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria....Tempers flare and rage is in the air.
Moonlight (Streaming Video) by Barry Jenkins (Director)
Publication Date: 2017
Also available on Blu-ray.
Moonlight is the tender, heartbreaking story of a young man's struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Documentaries & Biographies

I Am Somebody (Streaming Video) by Madeline Anderson (Director)
Publication Date: 2014
Live film coverage of a successful hospital workers' strike in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1969. Shows the crucial help of Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King in organizing demonstrations in support of the workers, mostly black women. Includes interviews with city officials and strikers.
Jackie Robinson Story (Streaming Video) by Alfred E. Green
Publication Date: 1950
Also available on DVD.
The Jackie Robinson Story stars the baseball legend himself in a biographical drama about the player and man who integrated major league ball. The story begins with Jackie's early years, profiling the successful young athlete who excelled in a variety of collegiate sports. It follows him to his momentous meeting with Branch Rickey of the no-less-legendary Brooklyn Dodgers who brought Robinson in as a professional player to the previously all-white sport.

OneSearch

OneSearch is the Fulton Library's main database. It allows you to search the library's articles, books, streaming media, and more. OneSearch includes resources on almost every topic, making it a great place to start your research!

To use OneSearch, go to the UVU Fulton Library Homepage link below. OneSearch is the main search box on the page. Enter search terms into the box, then hit enter or click the magnifying glass. Once your search runs, you can filter your results clicking the All Filters button that appears below the search box.

UVU Fulton Library Homepage
The library's main page. Access OneSearch, help options, library hours, and more.

Library Help

Call: 801.863.8840
Text: 801.290.8123