Mario Van Peebles' candid portrait of his father Melvin's struggle as a young, black director during the society-shifting early '70s. Determined to make a film that matters, Melvin (played by son Mario) deals with two-faced backers, a rag tag crew, threatening creditors and various shades of Hollywood hypocrisy. Obsessed and with everything on the line, including his failing eyesight and family, his only choice is to stick to his guns and do whatever it takes to get his neo-blaxploitation epic Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to the audience for which it was envisioned. [109 minutes]

Revisit the turbulent 1960s, when a new revolutionary culture emerged with the Black Panther Party at the vanguard. Stanley Nelson tells the vibrant story of a pivotal movement that feels timely all over again. [1 hour 55 minutes]

Filmmaker Dan Murdoch spent last summer [2015] documenting clashes between a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, and a growing Black Power movement. Now in a follow up to 'KKK: The Fight for White Supremacy' he returns to America to revisit some of the people he met from the KKK and also meet members of the Black Liberation Movement: to find out what black power means, what their motivations are and why their movement seems to be gaining traction. With rare access to members of the Black Liberation Movement, Murdoch quickly finds himself in the midst of an armed black militia, outraged at the treatment of black people at the hands of police, patrolling the streets of their communities and calling for change. [48 minutes]

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords is the first film to chronicle the history of the Black press, including its central role in the construction of modern African American identity. It recounts the largely forgotten stories of generations of Black journalists who risked life and livelihood so African Americans could represent themselves in their own words and images. [87 minutes]

Dirt And Deeds in Mississippi reveals the extraordinary story of a Delta community called Mileston in which 100 sharecropping families gained control of 10,000 acres of some of the best land in the state as a result of a radical New Deal era experiment in the 1930’s and in turn, became leaders of the movement in the 1960s. The film also presents new information about the infamous case of the three young activists murdered during Freedom Summer in 1964. [1 hour 23 minutes]

An unsolved 1960s murder reveals an untold story of the civil rights movement and Black resistance. With Retro Report, the film draws on rarely seen footage filmed more than 50 years ago in Natchez, MS, and follows one family's search for justice. [86 minutes]

Furious Flower III: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (2015) offers the unprecedented opportunity to watch thirty-two of today’s leading African American poets reading from their work and discussing the critical issues shaping this vibrant poetic tradition. Readings by the ten poets below reveal how African American poetry acts both as an historical witness and advocate for racial justice. John Bracey, Jr., Tony Medina, Haki Madhubuti, Quincy Troupe, Ishmael Reed, Evie Shockley, Mariahadessa EkereTallie, Camille Dungy, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez. [85 minutes]

Explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. [94 minutes]

Documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period. [55 minutes]

A captivating look into the daily lives of a group of LGBTQ youth who comprise the "Kiki" scene as they prepare for and perform at fierce and exuberant ballroom competitions in NYC. [1 hour 34 minutes]

An epic portrait of the eloquent, award-winning Black, lesbian, poet, mother, teacher and activist, Audre Lorde, whose writings -- spanning five decades -- articulated some of the most important social and political visions of the century. [53 minutes]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as an American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader. Yet throughout his history-altering political career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. In this virtuosic film, award-winning editor, and director Sam Pollard lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King's activism throughout the '50s and '60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. [107 minutes]

A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries - and path of promise toward the American dream - Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. [82 minutes]

Chronicles the successful struggle of Bayview, Virginia, a small and severely improverished rural African-American community to overcome the state of Virginia's plans for building a prison in their backyard, and under the leadership of visionary women, building a new community from the ground up. [58 minutes]

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the biggest protest America had ever seen. It culminated in Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr's iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech. But the man who made it all possible, chief organiser Bayard Rustin, was almost written out of history not because he was black, but because he was gay. [2 minutes]

While I Breathe, I Hope is a feature documentary film that explores what it means to be young, black, and progressive in the American South through the experiences of South Carolina Politician Bakari Sellers. [1 hour 11 minutes]