DOCUMENTARIES | Sankofa High

DOCS THAT TEACH

Documentaries can be a great way to reach your student and make connections. Prior to watching the documentary, learn about the topic through analyzing maps, primary/ secondary source documents and key terms to create a framework for understanding. After watching the documentary: Assign activities that require research, writing, and presentation skills to evaluate the film in relation to actual events. The following documentaries, in no particular order, provide historical context to the Black experience. For lesson plans and activities related to these films, search under the Resources section of this website. Read more about how documentaries can enhance the student learning experience here.

Make sure to watch documentaries before showing to determine if appropriate for your audience.

Some schools may also require parent permission forms before viewing.

Unchained Memories

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives is a documentary film about the stories of former slaves interviewed during the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project and preserved in the WPA Slave Narrative Collection. It is a compilation of slave narratives, narrated by actors, emulating the original conversation with the interviewer.

The largest collection of slave narratives emerged from the Federal Writers' Project. Created by the Federal Government under the WPA to reduce unemployment during the 1930s, one component of the Federal Writers' Project involved interviews with thousands of former slaves in 17 states. The oral history interview project yielded an extraordinary set of 2,300 autobiographical documents known as the Slave Narrative Collection. What emerged from these documents were pictures of living standards, the daily chores, and long days, along with stories of the good and bad "Master", the brutality, torture, and abuse under slavery. ~Source: Wikipedia

The Black Power Mixtape

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. The filmmakers captured interviews with Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

The film focuses on several topics and subjects relevant to the Black Power Movement including Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, the Black Panther Party, COINTELPRO, and the War on Drugs.

~Source: Wikipedia

Marley

MARLEY is the life story of the musician, revolutionary, legend, and the man, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, never before seen performances, previously unreleased music, and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best. Especially interesting is the sketch of Bob Marley's youth, as a mixed-race--and thus socially ostracized--kid from the village of Nine Mile who began to put together a reggae sound with a group of like-minded musicians in Jamaica in the late '50s and early '60s. That period comes to life, and the account of Marley's ascent, while familiar from such sagas, has its share of offbeat incidents.

I Am Ali

The documentary covers the life of professional boxer ssdMuhammad Ali. The film tells his story using personal audio recordings Ali made himself during the 1970s. Additionally, interviews of friends, family members, and people associated with professional boxing, combined with archival footage of Ali, are used throughout the movie. Notable appearances in the film include George Foreman, Jim Brown, and Mike Tyson. Another topic touched on is Ali's conversion to Islam, including why he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. That line of exploration also includes Ali's conscientious objector status to the Vietnam War, and his refusal to join the military based on his religious beliefs.

Hip Hop Evolution

Hip-hop music first developed in the United States in the 1970s and has steadily grown in popularity in the decades since then. This docuseries traces the genre's dynamic evolution from the beginning through the 1990s. It starts with a look at artists -- including Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash -- who laid the foundation early on, and then moves on to other influential groups like Run-DMC and Public Enemy. The show also explores differences in hip-hop on the East Coast compared to the West Coast.

Dark Girls

Dark Girls is a 2011 film that documents colorism within the African American community, a subject still considered taboo by many black Americans. The film contains interviews of African American women describing the role colorism has played in their lives, with notable African Americans including Viola Davis also detailing her experience. It also reports on a new version of the 1940s black doll experiment by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, which proved that black children had internalized racism by having children select a white or a black doll (they typically chose white) based on questions asked. In the updated version, black children favored light-skinned dolls over dark-skinned dolls.

The documentary takes a look into the trend of skin bleaching, a multi-billion dollar business in which various people around the world contribute to with the belief that being lighter will bring about an overall better life. It also examines how black women are trying to look more Caucasian while white women are trying to look more ethnic. “White women are risking skin cancer and tanning booths twice a week, botoxing their lips, getting butt lifts to look more ethnic and crinkling up their hair.” ~Source: Wikipedia

Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce

Homecoming is a 2019 concert film about American singer Beyoncé and her performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, written, executive produced and directed by Beyoncé herself. It was released on April 17, 2019 by Netflix. The film is an "intimate, in-depth look" at the performance, revealing "the emotional road from creative concept to a cultural movement".
~ Source: Wikipedia

Africas Great Civilizations

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century in a six-part series. This is a breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only their own rich civilizations, but also the wider world.
~Source: PBS

A Class Divided

A Class Divided" is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline and profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970. In 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Elliott tried discussing issues of discrimination, racism, and prejudice with her third grade class in Riceville, Iowa. Not feeling that the discussion was getting through to her class, who did not normally interact with minorities in their rural town, Mrs. Elliott began a two-day "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise to reinforce the unfairness of discrimination and racism: Students then reunited as adults to recall the experience. ~Source:

13th

The 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution abolished slavery. But it also included a provision many people don't know about and that is what this documentary brings to view. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist." That exception justifies the use of forced labor as long as the laborer is a convict. This documentary makes the case that inclusion of this loophole is only one of the justifications for continuing domination of people of color. The documentary makes the case that those drug busts, Jim Crow laws and segregation are all variations of domination of black America. Currently the 'Prison/Industrial Complex' is just a new version of the same old problem. Here DuVernay returns to the 13th Amendment and makes the case that the system cannot be dealt with by making small changes. The system itself has to be rebuilt. ~Source: imbd.com

Black in Latin America

Black in Latin America, a four-part series on the influence of African descent on Latin America, hosted by renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who examines how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Latin America is often associated with music, monuments and sun, but each of the six countries featured in Black in Latin America including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, has a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots. Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest concentration of people with African ancestry outside Africa — up to 70 percent of the population in some countries. The region imported over ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. On this series of journeys, Professor Gates celebrates the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers why and how their contribution is often forgotten or ignored. ~Source: PBS.org

Black 14

Before there was Colin Kaepernick, before #BlackLivesMatter and #MarchForOurLives, there were the “Black 14.”

Directed by filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe and executive produced by Spike Lee, a new 14-minute documentary short film tells the story of what happened when a group of college athletes decided to protest a long-standing racial injustice.

Using only archival media footage from 1969, Monroe wanted to allow the people who were there to be able to tell the story on their own terms. His goal was to create a conversation around the power structures in place that have allowed injustice to persist nearly 50 years later.

14 young black men emerged as unsung civil rights heroes after facing racial slurs a year earlier during a Brigham Young University football matchup. The student-athletes planned to present a proposal to University of Wyoming’s head football coach Lloyd Eaton to wear black armbands that read “Black 14” to protest the racist treatment and policies associated with BYU during an upcoming game with them. ~Source: good.is

Basquiat: Rags to Riches

One of the most influential American artists of the 20th century, He lived fast, died young and created thousands of drawings and paintings. It took less than a decade for Basquiat to go from anonymous graffiti writer to an epoch-defining art star. 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of Basquiat’s untimely death from a heroin overdose. In death, he has emerged as one of the most important artists of his generation and now exhibits in museums all over the world.
~Source: PBS

Breaking the Huddle

Focusing on football programs in the Southeastern, Southwest and Atlantic Coast Conferences, Breaking The Huddle: The Integration of College Football chronicles the heyday of football programs at historically black colleges and universities, and explores the profound effect of the Civil Rights movement of the '60s on the racial status quo of college athletics. The story culminates with the Sept. 1970 game played in Birmingham between the University of Southern California, and the University of Alabama. ~HBO

Eyes on the Prize

an American television series and 14-part documentary about the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States.[1] The series uses archival footage, stills, and interviews by participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the title of the folk song "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize", which is used as the opening theme music in each episode. ~Wikipedia

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.~PBS

Jesse Owens PBS

The most famous athlete of his time, his stunning triumph at the 1936 Olympic Games captivated the world even as it infuriated the Nazis. Despite the racial slurs he endured, Jesse Owens' grace and athleticism rallied crowds across the globe. But when the four-time Olympic gold medalist returned home, he could not even ride in the front of a bus. The story of the 22-year-old son of a sharecropper who triumphed over adversity to become a hero and world champion, Jesse Owens is also about the elusive, fleeting quality of fame and the way Americans idolize athletes when they suit our purpose, and forget them once they don't. ~PBS