Ava DuVernay is quickly becoming on of the most talked-about directors in Hollywood, and she isn\u2019t shying away from the platform she\u2019s built for herself. After directing the critically lauded Selma<\/em>, DuVernay went on to direct the Netflix documentary 13th<\/em>, which, while we don\u2019t own it, is definitely worth a watch. With her 2018 film A Wrinkle in <\/em>Time, she also became the first black woman to direct a film with a blockbuster budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the DuVernay films we have in our collection are her indie earlier works like I Will Follow <\/em>and Middle of Nowhere<\/em>, which are intimate portraits of black women. Likewise, Queen Sugar<\/em>, though a tv series, follows two black sisters and their brother after they inherit their family\u2019s sugarcane farm. The series, produced by Oprah, was also the first television series to hire women directors for every single episode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ava DuVernay films in our collection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spike Lee<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spike Lee may be the most prolific director on this list.\nHe\u2019s directed twenty-six feature films since 1983, plus eight short films,\ntwelve documentaries, seven tv shows, nineteen music videos, and three plays,\nnot to mention acting in several of his own movies. Though he\u2019s known as a\nprovocateur in Hollywood, his films chronicle the lives of black Americans, and\nforce movie audiences to confront uncomfortable truths they\u2019d happily avoid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After winning the Palm D\u2019Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Lee\u2019s most recent film BlacKkKlansman<\/em>, is currently nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Lee is nominated in the Best Director category, and Adam Driver for Best Supporting Actor. We\u2019ve ordered a copy for Media Services, but it\u2019s stuck in processing limbo. Hopefully we\u2019ll get it in soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A (Selected) List of Spike Lee’s films in our collection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amma Asante <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amma Asante is a British-Ghanaian director most famous\nfor her film Belle<\/em>, a sumptuous period\ndrama that chronicles the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido was the illegitimate\ndaughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman, and Sir John Lindsay, a\nBritish Naval Officer. While Dido was born a slave, her father eventually took\nher back to England, where he entrusted her to his uncle, the Earl of Mansfield\nand Lord Chief Justice. Belle<\/em> follows\nDido while she navigates racist English society, her own family\u2019s assumptions,\nand the burgeoning abolitionist movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Asante has only directed four films, she\u2019s definitely a director to watch. In addition to Belle<\/em>, she directed A United Kingdom<\/em>, which starred David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, and Where Hands Touch, which starred Amandla Stenberg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amma Asante films in our collection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Coogler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Coogler burst onto the scene with his first feature\nfilm Fruitvale Station <\/em>at the ripe\nold age of twenty-seven. Fruitvale\nStation<\/em>, tells the story of Oscar Grant\u2019s last 24 hours, and stars Michael\nB. Jordan. Oscar Grant was murdered by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police\nofficers at the Fruitvale BART station in 2009, and his death sparked protests\nin the Bay Area and beyond. Coogler tackled this tough subject for his debut\nfilm, which won awards everywhere from Sundance to Cannes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coogler followed up Fruitvale\nStation<\/em> with Creed<\/em>, a Rocky spin-off\nthat he co-wrote as well as directed, and which starred Michael B. Jordan. This\nfilm drew audiences and pleased critics, so it wasn\u2019t a huge surprise when\nMarvel offered him Black Panther<\/em>.\nAgain, Coogler co-wrote the script\u2026 and got Michael B. Jordan to star as Eric\nKilmonger, the rival for the Wakandan throne. Despite its February release\ndate, Black Panther <\/em>is the highest\ngrossing film directed by an African-American, and the fifth largest opening\nweekend box office take of all time. It\u2019s also just a straight up spectacular\nfilm, and if you haven\u2019t seen it, you need to correct that immediately. We have\nTHREE copies here at Media Services, so you don\u2019t have any excuse. I\u2019ll even\ngive you the call number: DVD 16090. All you have to do is walk up to the desk\nand ask for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Coogler films in our collection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of working at a university library is accumulating and highlighting diverse creators in our collections. For Black History Month, I didn’t just want to just slap a list of Black Films up on our blog and call it a day. Instead, this will be the first of two posts featuring contemporary Black Directors, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-history-month","category-directors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/Ava_DuVernay_2015-737x1024.jpg\")
photos\/usbotschaftberlin\/1631629515, Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=40671404<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/800px-Spike_Lee_at_the_2009_Tribeca_Film_Festival.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/Amma_Asante_at_MIFF.jpg\")
https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/miamifilmfestival\/16980733490\/ <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/02\/800px-Ryan_Coogler_36203771036.jpg\")