Things We Won't Say About Race That Are True

Killing the Indian in the Child

2021

The Indian Act, passed in Canada in 1876, made members of Aboriginal peoples second-class citizens, separated from the white population: nomadic for centuries, they were moved to reservations to control their behavior and resources; and thousands of their youngest members were separated from their families to be Christianized: a cultural genocide that still resonates in Canadian society today.

Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America

2022

Jeffery Robinson's talk on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism, with archival footage and interviews.

Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992

2017

An in-depth look at the culture of Los Angeles in the ten years leading up to the 1992 uprising that erupted after the verdict of police officers cleared of beating Rodney King.

L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later

2017

Documentary film exploring the lives of the people at the flashpoint of the LA riots, 25 years after the uprising made national headlines and highlighted the racial divide in America.

Joe Louis: America's Hero Betrayed

2008

An American story. Traces the career of Joe Louis (1914-1981) within the context of American racial consciousness: his difficulty getting big fights early in his career, the pride of African-Americans in his prowess, the shift of White sentiment toward Louis as Hitler came to power, Louis's patriotism during World War II, and the hounding of Louis by the IRS for the following 15 years. In his last years, he's a casino greeter, a drug user, and the occasional object of scorn for young Turks like Muhammad Ali. Appreciative comment comes from boxing scholars, Louis's son Joe Jr., friends, and icons like Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory, and Bill Cosby.

The Blinding of Isaac Woodard

2021

In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.

But... Seriously

1994

A documentary juxtaposing the events of the 20th century with the commentary of stand-up comedians.

Sometime, Somewhere

2024

Sometime, Somewhere sheds light on the challenges faced by Latino communities in Charlottesville, Virginia against the backdrop of immigration driven by factors like climate change, poverty, and drug-related violence.

Une identité dans la diversité

2016

Jean-Michel Basquiat, artiste absolu

2022

The life and work of New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat have been marked by a long quest for identity, by his Haitian and Puerto Rican family origins and by a founding trip to Africa. To portray this major painter of the 20th century, who died in 1988 at only 27 years old, is also to evoke the place of black American artists in the conservative and racist America of the Reagan years.

The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story

2000

Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses and background accounts by historians.

America Unfiltered: Portraits and Voices of a Nation

2024

Two immigrant filmmakers journey across the US, exploring American identity through raw encounters on politics, race, immigration, and gun control. The film offers an unflinching portrait of America, unveiling hope for our common humanity.