Film & TV Lunch Club: October 2019 - Black History Month
Moonlight, Hidden Figures, The Loving Story
The titles to watch for discussion are below and as usual we have a mix of male and female directors, lead actors and writers. Since everyone seemed to enjoy the different viewing experience of the documentary last month we will try to include one each month from now on.
You can watch just one or all three of the selection (as well as supplementing with your own TV and film choices if you wish – see the list of suggestions below) for this month's theme of Black History Month. You can find out more about Black History Month on the UK website here and visit the Black Lives Matter website here.
🎞 October Selection 🎞
Moonlight | Official Trailer HD | A24
1. Moonlight (2016; Dir: Barry Jenkins)
Drama: A young African-American man grapples with his identity andsexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
2. Hidden Figures (2016; Dir: Theodore Melfi)
Biography/drama: The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
3. The Loving Story (2011; Dir: Nancy Buirski)
Documentary: A racially-charged criminal trial and a heart-rending love story converge in this documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving, set during the turbulent Civil Rights era.
The Loving Story has been uploaded to YouTube so is accessible for all.
🎬 Optional Extras 🎬
Other notable films/TV shows that fit the theme:
o Green Book - A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.
o The Hate U Give - Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.
o Straight Outta Compton - The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
o Race - Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy.
o Selma - A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
o The Colour Purple - A black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from her father and others over four decades.
o Loving - The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose arrest for interracial marriage in 1960s Virginia began a legal battle that would end with the Supreme Court's historic 1967 decision (this could accompany the documentary nicely!).
o Glory - Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
o Detroit - Fact-based drama set during the 1967 Detroit riots in which a group of rogue police officers respond to a complaint with retribution rather than justice on their minds.
o BlacKkKlansman - Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer from Colorado Springs, CO, successfully manages to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan branch with the help of a Jewish surrogate who eventually becomes its leader. Based on actual events.
o If Beale Street Could Talk - 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.
o A Time to Kill - In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
o 12 Years a Slave - In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
o Get Out - A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
o Atlanta (TV Series) - Based in Atlanta, Earn and his cousin Alfred try to make their way in the world through the rap scene. Along the way they come face to face with social andeconomic issues touching on race, relationships, poverty, status, and parenthood.
o Dear White People (Netflix Series) - At a predominantly white Ivy League college, a group of black students navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination.
o When They See Us (Limited Netflix Series) - Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story.