Essential Cinema
Brazil:
Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha 1964 )
Terra em Transe/Entranced Earth (Glauber Rocha 1967 )
How Tasty was My Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971)
Iracema – Uma Transa Amazônica (Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna, 1975)
Ilha das flores/Island of Flowers (Jorge Furtado, 1989, 13min)
Corumbiara: They Shoot Indians, Don’t They? (Vincent Carelli, 2009)
More recent work:
The Cambridge Squatter, by Eliane Café
White out, Black in, by Adirley Queirós (one of the best Brazilian films I saw in my life)
Martírio, by Vincent Carelli
Argentina:
The Hour of The Furnaces (Argentina, 1968, by Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas) Follow links to Pt1-2-3. (Pt1: Neocolonialism and Violence, Pt2: Act for Liberation, Pt3: Violence & Liberation)
Los Rubios (Albertina Carri, 2005)
Cuba:
Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968, 97min)
I Am Cuba/Soy Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, @ MosFilm. Soviet-Cuba collaboration film. 1964, 143min. First released in the US in 1995. The first restoration work by Milestone Films, supported by Scorsese and Coppola.)
Fresa y Chocolate / Strawberries and Chocolate (1993, 110min, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea & Juan Carlos Tabío)
The Elephant and the Bicycle/ EL ELEFANTE Y LA BICICLETA (Juan Carlos Tabío, 1995)
Algeria/Italy:
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria, 1966, 121min)
Chile:
Films of Patricio Guzman:
The Battle of Chile, Pt 1-3 (1975-79)
Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997)
Salvador Allende (2004)
Nostalgia for the Light (2010)
The Pearl Button (2015)
Egypt:
Jamila, the Algerian (Youssef Chahine , 1958, 123min.)
Saladin (Youssef Chahine, 1973, 100min). Chahine’s large-scale historical drama about Arab unity.
Senegal:
Films of Ousmane Sembène
Borom Sarret/The Wagoner (1966. 18min) The first ever film made by Black African on Africa.
Black Girl/La Noire de… (1966. 55min). Sembene’s first feature based on a newspaper article he read. Private link available. Ask Reiko.
Xala (Ousmane Sembène, 1975, 123min)
Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène, 1977, 111min)
India:
Ritwik Ghatak: Meghe dhaka tara/ The Cloud-Capped Star (1960), Jukti Takko Aar Gappo/Reason, Debate and a Story (1974)
Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali (1955)
Saeed Akhtar Mirza: Naseem /Morning Breeze (1995)
Mira Nair: Salaam Bombay! (1988) , The Namesake (2006), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)
Philippines:
Perfumed Nightmare (Kidlat Tahimik, 1977)
Turumba (Kidlat Tahimik, 1981)
Why Is Yellow the Middle of Rainbow? (a.k.a. I Am Furious Yellow) (Kidlat Tahimik, 1994)
Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
Independencia (Raya Martin, 2009)
China
Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984)
Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1994, 171min)
Red Sorghum (Zhang Yimou, 1987)
The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1993)
流浪北京/ Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (Wu Wenguang, 1990
Jian-hu: Life on the Road (Wu Wenguang, 1998)
24 City/ Er shi si cheng ji (Jia Zhangke, 2010)
Storm Under the Sun (Peng Xiaolian & S. Lousa Wei, 2009)
Japan:
Political films by OSHIMA Nagisa: Night and Fog in Japan (1960); The Forgotten Army (1963); Death by Hanging (1968); Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968).
Documentaries of IMAMURA Shohei in the 70s: “In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Malaysia,” “In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Thailand,” “Outlaw-Matsu Returns Home” “Karayuki-San, the Making of a Prostitute,” and “History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess”
Documentaries of OGAWA Shunsuke: Nippon-koku Furuyashiki-mura (1984), Narita: The Peasants of the Second Fortress (1971) and Magino Village: A Tale (1987).
Documentaries about Minamata disease by TSUCHIMOTO Noriaki
Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (HARA Kazuo, 1987)
Black Cinema Movements in UK and USA
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, USA, 1977)
Illusions (Julie Dash, USA, 34min, 1982)
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, USA, 1991)
Handsworth Songs (Black Audio Film Collective, UK, 1986, dir. John Akomfrah)
Passion of Remembrance (Sankofa Film Video, UK, 1986, written and dir. Maureen Blackwood & Isaac Julien)
Twilight City (Black Audio Film Collective, UK, 1989, dir. Reece Auguiste)
Daughter of the Dust (Julie Dash, USA, 1991)
A Powerful Thang (Zainabu Davis, USA, 1991)
Sankofa (Haile Gerima, USA, 1993)
Mother of River (Zainabu Davis, USA, 1995)
SPIRITS OF REBELLION: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles (Zainabu Davis, 2017)
… all of these films helped paved the way for Dee Rees (Pariah 2011), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight 2016), Raoul Peck (I Am not your Negro, 2016), and Ava DuVerney (Selma 2014, 13th 2016)…
Cambodia
Films by Rithy Panh (S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine 2003; The Missing Picture 2013)
Iran
Films of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, and Mehrdad Oskouei.
Tehran Taboo (Ali Soozandeh, 2017, funding from Austria/Germany)
Mali
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako. Mali, France, United States, 2006)
USA
Seeing White: A 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America—where it came from, what it means, and how it works. Prod & hosted by John Biewen; Regular guest: Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika; Series editor: Loretta Williams.