BIPOC Films to Consider for VIFH
by ibrahimmdhi | created - 20 Aug 2018 | updated - 01 Dec 2019 | PublicList of avant-garde, BIPOC, indie, and artistic films for the Vermont Independent Film House
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1. Ganja & Hess (1973)
R | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.
Director: Bill Gunn | Stars: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam L. Waymon
Votes: 2,591 | Gross: $0.02M
2. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012)
TV-MA | 84 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
An artist's shortsighted film about a failed relationship is reedited into a more collaborative, more inclusive work of art.
Director: Terence Nance | Stars: Alisa Becher, Jc Cain, Reg E. Cathey, Dexter Jones
Votes: 813 | Gross: $0.07M
3. Black Mexicans (2018)
104 min | Drama
"La Negrada" is the first mexican feature film about the Afro-mexican community, filmed entirely with people from different towns around the Costa Chica in Oaxaca.
Director: Jorge Pérez Solano
Votes: 173
4. Ship of Theseus (2012)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama
The film explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker.
Director: Anand Gandhi | Stars: Aydah El-Kashef, Yogesh Shah, Faraz Khan, Hannan Youssef
Votes: 7,791
5. Better Mus' Come (2011)
104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The film follows warring political factions in 1970s Jamaica as they enlist the support of gangs to enforce their policies, and advance their political agenda. It is a fictionalized ... See full summary »
Director: Storm Saulter | Stars: Sheldon Shepherd, Sky Nicole Grey, Ricardo Orgil, Everaldo Creary
Votes: 186
6. Jinn (I) (2018)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama
Summer is a 17-year old carefree black girl, whose world is turned upside down when her mother, a popular meteorologist named Jade Jennings, abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a ... See full summary »
Director: Nijla Mumin | Stars: Simone Missick, Zoe Renee, Hisham Tawfiq, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Votes: 446
7. Touki Bouki (1973)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty | Stars: Magaye Niang, Myriam Niang, Christoph Colomb, Mustapha Ture
Votes: 4,101
8. Redes (1936)
Not Rated | 65 min | Drama
A story of burgeoning labor rights amongst poor fishermen in a small village in Mexico.
Directors: Emilio Gómez Muriel, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Silvio Hernández, David Valle González, Rafael Hinojosa, Antonio Lara
Votes: 847
9. Mother of George (2013)
R | 107 min | Drama
Adenike and Ayodele, a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn, are having trouble conceiving a child - a problem that defies cultural expectations and leads Adenike to make a shocking decision that could either save or destroy her family.
Director: Andrew Dosunmu | Stars: Danai Gurira, Isaach De Bankolé, Anthony Okungbowa, Bukky Ajayi
Votes: 1,282 | Gross: $0.15M
10. Restless City (2011)
R | 80 min | Drama, Music
Tells the story of an African immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk.
Director: Andrew Dosunmu | Stars: Hervé Diese, Momo Dione, Lenore Thomas Douglas, Ger Duany
Votes: 275
11. Rafiki (2018)
83 min | Drama, Romance
"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.
Director: Wanuri Kahiu | Stars: Samantha Mugatsia, Neville Misati, Nice Githinji, Charlie Karumi
Votes: 3,297 | Gross: $0.14M
12. Yomeddine (2018)
Not Rated | 97 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A Coptic leper and his orphaned apprentice leave the confines of the leper colony for the first time and embark on a journey across Egypt to search for what is left of their families.
Director: Abu Bakr Shawky | Stars: Rady Gamal, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Osama Abdallah, Adel Abdulsalam
Votes: 1,885 | Gross: $0.01M
13. Baara (1978)
90 min | Drama
A young manager of a factory encounters a man walking along a road who says his family traditionally are servants to the manager's family. The manager offers him a job, and as he watches ... See full summary »
Director: Souleymane Cissé | Stars: Balla Moussa Keita, Baba Niare, Bubukar Keita, Omou Diarra
Votes: 237
14. Birds Are Singing in Kigali (2017)
113 min | Drama
In 1994 Rwanda, a Polish woman ornithologist saves a Tutsi girl from certain death. After a few years they both revisit Africa on an emotional journey full of painful memories.
Directors: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze | Stars: Jowita Budnik, Eliane Umuhire, Witold Wielinski, Ciza Remy Muhirwa
Votes: 346
15. Birds of Passage (2018)
Not Rated | 125 min | Crime, Drama
During the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture.
Directors: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra | Stars: Carmiña Martínez, José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez
Votes: 13,127 | Gross: $0.51M
16. Edge of the Knife (2018)
101 min | Drama, History
When a man accidentally causes the death of the son of his best friend, the man is wracked by grief and runs off into the woods.
Directors: Gwaai Edenshaw, Helen Haig-Brown | Stars: Willy Russ, Adeana Young, Brandon Kallio, Merika Gladstone
Votes: 388
17. I Am Not a Witch (2017)
93 min | Comedy, Drama
In a remote Zambian community a girl is denounced as a witch and sent on a trajectory of exploitation, as a tethered member of a witches' camp, a witch for hire and a tourist exhibit.
Director: Rungano Nyoni | Stars: Maggie Mulubwa, Henry B.J. Phiri, Nancy Murilo, Margaret Spinella
Votes: 4,191 | Gross: $0.05M
18. I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
PG-13 | 93 min | Documentary, History
Writer James Baldwin tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, Remember This House.
Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X
Votes: 23,495 | Gross: $7.12M
19. Gook (2017)
Unrated | 94 min | Drama
Two Korean-American brothers run a shoe store in L.A. county. Their friend, black eleven-year-old Kamilla, drops in and helps. On this day, the Rodney King verdict ignites the 1992 L.A. riots.
Director: Justin Chon | Stars: Simone Baker, Justin Chon, Curtiss Cook Jr., David So
Votes: 2,748 | Gross: $0.25M
20. Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999)
PG-13 | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A Vietnamese brother and sister raised by an African American couple are reunited with their birth mother after 22 years.
Director: Chi Muoi Lo | Stars: Chi Muoi Lo, Sanaa Lathan, Paul Winfield, Mary Alice
Votes: 516 | Gross: $1.32M
21. Life and Nothing More (2017)
114 min | Drama
Standing on the edge of adulthood, Andrew yearns to find his purpose as a young black man in today's America. With his mother longing to find more to her life than parenting, Andrew is ... See full summary »
Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza | Stars: Andrew Bleechington, Regina Williams, Robert Williams, Ry'nesia Chambers
Votes: 584 | Gross: $0.02M
22. Hyenas (1992)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
Dramaan is the most popular man in Colobane, but when a woman from his past, now exorbitantly wealthy, returns to the town, things begin to change.
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty | Stars: Mansour Diouf, Ami Diakhate, Mamadou Mahourédia Gueye, Djibril Diop Mambéty
Votes: 1,338 | Gross: $0.02M
23. Capernaum (2018)
R | 126 min | Drama
While serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.
Director: Nadine Labaki | Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad
Votes: 105,280 | Gross: $1.66M
24. Sorry to Bother You (2018)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a universe of greed.
Director: Boots Riley | Stars: LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick
Votes: 88,110 | Gross: $17.49M
25. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
R | 121 min | Drama
A young man searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind.
Director: Joe Talbot | Stars: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold
Votes: 21,952 | Gross: $4.52M
26. Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014)
90 min | Documentary, Family, History
A film that explores how African American communities have used the camera as a tool for social change from the invention of photography to the present. This epic tale poetically moves ... See full summary »
Director: Thomas Allen Harris | Stars: Arthé Anthony, Anthony Barboza, Hugh Bell, David G. Berger
Votes: 189 | Gross: $0.07M
27. Black Is... Black Ain't (1994)
Not Rated | 87 min | Documentary
A film about black experiences with a "backdrop of Creole cooking."
Director: Marlon Riggs | Stars: Angela Davis, Essex Hemphill, bell hooks, Bill T. Jones
Votes: 429
28. Fatima, l'Algérienne de Dakar (2004)
89 min | Drama
In the summer of 1957, during the Algerian war, the Senegalese sub-lieutenant Souleymane Fall discovers among the bushes a young girl, Fatima, stunned, her eyes bulging with fear. He rapes ... See full summary »
Director: Med Hondo | Stars: Aboubacar Sadikh Ba, Amel Djemel, Thierno Ndiaye Doss, Mame Ndoumbé
Votes: 14
29. Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
157 min | Drama, War
In this semi-autobiographical film, black soldiers help to defend France, but are detained in prison camp before being repatriated home.
Directors: Ousmane Sembene, Thierno Faty Sow | Stars: Sidiki Bakaba, Hamed Camara, Ismaila Cissé, Ababacar Sy Cissé
Votes: 644
30. Emitai (1971)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama
As World War II is going on in Europe, a conflict arises between the French and the Diola-speaking tribe of Africa, prompting the village women to organize their men to sit beneath a tree to pray.
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Andongo Diabon, Robert Fontaine, Michel Renaudeau, Ousmane Camara
Votes: 476
31. Black Girl (1966)
Not Rated | 65 min | Drama
A black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene
Votes: 6,005
32. Moolaadé (2003)
Unrated | 124 min | Drama
When a woman shelters a group of girls from suffering female genital mutilation, she starts a conflict that tears her village apart.
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Salimata Traoré, Dominique Zeïda
Votes: 4,150 | Gross: $0.21M
33. Chungking Express (1994)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong
Votes: 95,673 | Gross: $0.60M
34. Aparajito (1956)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
Following his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Pinaki Sengupta, Smaran Ghosal, Kamala Adhikari, Rani Bala
Votes: 15,973 | Gross: $0.17M
35. The World of Apu (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
This final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherjee
Votes: 16,737 | Gross: $0.02M
36. Pather Panchali (1955)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Banerjee, Chunibala Devi
Votes: 38,510 | Gross: $0.54M
37. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 52,476 | Gross: $14.92M
38. Through Black Spruce (2018)
111 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.
Director: Don McKellar | Stars: Tanaya Beatty, Brandon Oakes, Kiowa Gordon, Tina Keeper
Votes: 736
39. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,606 | Gross: $0.39M
40. Sprinter (2018)
114 min | Drama, Sport
A boy separated from his mother who has moved to the U.S. for a better life, is set to be Jamaica's next track-and-field sensation.
Director: Storm Saulter | Stars: David Alan Grier, Lorraine Toussaint, Shantol Jackson, Bryshere Y. Gray
Votes: 529
41. Luce (I) (2019)
R | 109 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A married couple is forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted from war-torn Eritrea, after an alarming discovery by a devoted high school teacher threatens his status as an all-star student.
Director: Julius Onah | Stars: Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tim Roth
Votes: 15,104 | Gross: $1.78M
42. You Will Die at 20 (2019)
103 min | Drama
Shortly after Muzamil was born, the village's holy man predicts that he will die at age 20. Muzamil's father can't stand the curse and leaves home. Sakina raises her son as a single mother, overly protective. One day, Muzamil turns 19.
Director: Amjad Abu Alala | Stars: Mustafa Shehata, Islam Mubarak, Mahmoud Maysara Elsaraj, Bonna Khalid
Votes: 2,664
43. Waves (I) (2019)
R | 135 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
Traces the journey of a suburban family - led by a well-intentioned but domineering father - as they navigate love, forgiveness, and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.
Director: Trey Edward Shults | Stars: Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Alexa Demie, Bill Wise
Votes: 30,699
44. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018)
Not Rated | 76 min | Documentary
A kaleidoscopic and humanistic view of the Black community in Hale County, Alabama.
Director: RaMell Ross | Stars: Latrenda 'Boosie' Ash, Karmyn Bryant, Korbyn Bryant, Kyrie Bryant
Votes: 2,125 | Gross: $0.11M
45. The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Unrated | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Director: Cheryl Dunye | Stars: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson
Votes: 3,511
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