Black Queer Cinema Through the Ages

NewFest4
From Amos ’n’ Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, Black people have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving clips from classic TV shows with commentary from TV producers, Black actors and scholars, Marlon Riggs blends humor, insight, and thoughtful analysis to explore the evolution of Black/White relations as reflected by America’s favorite addiction.

NewFest5 + NewFest8
SHE DON’T FADE chronicles the sexual pursuits of Shae Clarke, a Black lesbian. Clarke, played by Dunye herself, defines and readily demonstrates her “new approach to women.”

In THE WATERMELON WOMAN, Cheryl, a young Black lesbian, works a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a Black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical “mammy” roles relegated to Black actresses during that period. This was the first feature film directed by an “out” Black lesbian.

NewFest6
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the “Institute of Snap!thology,” where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.

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Black documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the Black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with Black intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

NewFest8
This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary Black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien’s “The Attendant” and Jocelyn Taylor’s “Bodily Functions”, this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.

NewFest9 + NewFest35
A band of queer, self-described “raging, atheist, meat-eating, HIV-positive, colored terrorists” fight back against homophobic conservative politicians on the streets of New York in Stephen Winter’s wild guerrilla satire. Calling out government apathy to the AIDS crisis—particularly as it affected communities of color—CHOCOLATE BABIES blends exuberant camp and searing political anger into a radical statement of Black queer power in this NewFest and SXSW award-winner.

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NewFest10 + NewFest35

Two disc jockeys have a friend’s murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.

NewFest10
Considered a ground-breaking film in its native Guinea, and filmed amidst a storm of controversy, Mohamed Camara’s DAKAN is the first of its nations films to directly address issues surrounding homosexuality. The story centers on the romance between two 20-year-old men, Manga and Sory who are first seen making out in a car. The trouble begins when Manga tells his widowed mother about his love for Sory, who is busy contending with his outraged father. The parents insist that the two never see each other again. Manga’s mother then uses witchcraft to cleanse her son and change him into a heterosexual. Time passes and eventually Manga begins to date a girl. But it soon becomes apparent that try as he might, Manga’s heart belongs to Sory.

NewFest10
A Black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.

NewFest10
Explores the life and work of the psychoanalytic theorist and activist Frantz Fanon who was born in Martinique, educated in Paris and worked in Algeria. Examines Fanon’s theories of identity and race, and traces his involvement in the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria and throughout the world.

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A documentary about the issues that confront homosexuals and transvestites in Haiti. The various caracters in the documentary have their own explanation as to why they are gay (all the interviewed people are male) and how the majority of them feel that the Voodoo godess Erzulie has made them into what they are.

NewFest16 + Queering the Canon: BIPOC
Taking its title from the incantatory chant which begins Marlon Riggs’ experimental documentary TONGUES UNTIED, this luminous, empowering drama stars Anthony Mackie as an art student contending with racism and homophobia who, through a friendship with an older Black, gay poet, discovers the hidden histories of the queer African-American artists who came before him. Vividly bringing to life the world and personalities of the Harlem Renaissance—from Langston Hughes to Zora Neale Hurston—Brother to Brother beautifully portrays the shared struggles between generations in this recipient of the 2004 NewFest Vanguard Award and the Special Jury Prize from Sundance.

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Campbell X’s London-set STUD LIFE is a sexy, young and cool look at a slice of British urban life and a post-modern queer SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT for the YouTube generation. JJ (charismatic British star T’nia Miller) is a hot Black British ‘Stud’ and together with her best friend Seb, a white gay pretty boy named Seb, they work as wedding photographers and run around the urban London LGBTQ+ scene. When JJ falls in love with a beautiful and mysterious woman, JJ and Seb’s friendship is tested. JJ is forced to choose between her hot new lover and her best friend. STUD LIFE is a provocative and edgy takes on gender, sexuality and urban street life as it also portrays a wonderful tale of love and friendship.

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An electrifying portrait of a young artist determined to live life on his own terms. Born Rashard Bradshaw, Cakes Da Killa is a 22 year old hip hop artist. As an openly gay man he is not your run of the mill rapper, but he just might be your new favorite.

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In this riveting Brooklyn-set tale, gay teens Naz and Maalik are friends, classmates, business partners and lovers. As the two closeted Muslim teens go about their regular daily routine on a Friday afternoon in Brooklyn they arouse the suspicions of an undercover FBI agent who begins to track them. This complex tale of race, religion and sexuality features a pair of tremendous performances from Kerwin Johnson Jr. as Naz and Curtiss Cook Jr. as Maalik. Intimate and meditative, NAZ & MAALIK examines the mysterious forces that animate teenage minds. Grand Jury Prize for Best Actor, Outfest; Official Selection, NewFest | Sundance Film Festival

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This epistolary short film invites us into the unsettling life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with his love for same-sex desire. Berlin International Film Festival 2016: Nominated Golden Berlin Bear for Best Short Film and Teddy Best Short Film.

NewFest30
Bursting with the colorful street style and music of Nairobi’s vibrant youth culture, RAFIKI is a tender love story between two young women in a country that still criminalizes homosexuality. Kena and Ziki have long been told that “good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives” – but they yearn for something more. Winner of the NewFest 2018 Audience Award for Narrative Feature

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Ninja is famous around the world for her fierce ballroom performances, but she is not as well-known in her native country of French Guyana. But a trip home to teach a workshop might change that.

NewFest32
Sometimes first loves are beautiful culminations of innocent flirtation and yearning sighs; other times, they’re set at Hebrew school after a classmate’s suicide and the result of years of gaslighting. Brooklyn-based director Olivia Peace’s feature debut is a bitingly dark comedy about growing up, growing into queerness, and growing out of toxic, lox-and-shmear-fueled horndog escapades in the synagogue library. Madeline Grey Defreece shines as the sensitive, sensible Carrie, whose crush on her destructively needy best friend Hannah (NewFest double-hitter Rachel Sennott [SHIVA BABY]) is about to be put to the test. With Jess Zeidman’s incisive and brilliant script evoking shades of 2001’s GHOST WORLD, and cinematographer Tehillah De Castro’s perfect portraiture of suburban Rochester, TAHARA was a breakaway hit out of this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. By turns hilarious, deeply felt, and deeply screwed up in the way only teenagers can be, TAHARA is the kind of coming-of-age story some might wish they had before they knew there was life after the bat mitzvah.

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2023 New Voices Filmmaker Grant Recipient, Terrance Daye

A Black boy learns contradicting lessons of manhood and masculinity on the day of his cousin’s funeral.

NewFest32
Caught in the midst of a depressive fugue, Lynn turns to debauchery to ease his troubled soul, only to discover that happiness is a complicated goal.

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2022 New Voices Filmmaker Grant Recipient, Blanche Akonchong

On a crazy day during Mercury retrograde, a family’s deepest secrets come to the surface, forcing them to realize they are not the model African family.

NewFest33
On the eve of her cotillion ball, a young Black girl grapples with her queer identity and questions her purity.

NewFest33
THE LEGEND OF THE UNDERGROUND follows two tight-knit groups communicating between New York and Nigeria on their journey to spark a cultural revolution and challenge national ideals about gender and civil rights. Don’t miss this triumphant new work from co-directors Giselle Bailey and Nneka Onuorah (NewFest 2015 Audience Award winner for THE SAME DIFFERENCE).

NewFest33
A submergence into the vivid realities of three transgender sex workers living in Cape Town, South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NewFest33
An experimental fairytale dedicated to the modern Black boy, in which four boys disappear one night, as many Black boys do, and find themselves on a fantastical journey to break the curses of Black boyhood.

NewFest33
In 1992, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, activist Terence Alan Smith made a historic bid for president of the United States as his drag queen persona Joan Jett Blakk. Today, Smith reflects back on his seminal civil rights campaign and its place in American history.

NewFest33
This powerful portrait of a young lesbian coming into her own continues to be celebrated as a monumental influence by critics and filmmakers alike. The debut feature from Academy Award nominee Dee Rees (MUDBOUND) remains an enduring exploration of the inner and outer lives of ​​17-year-old Alike (Adepero Oduye, in a breakthrough performance) as she navigates her burgeoning sexuality, familial frustrations, and talents as a poet in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene.

PARIAH occupies an essential place in queer and Black film canon, and is undeniably one of the 21st century’s greatest films.

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2022 New Voices Filmmaker Grant Recipient, Nyala Moon

A break-the-fourth-wall, dark comedy that follows the dating life of a Black trans woman and the problematic men she meets along the way.

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Amidst fiery urban wreckage, a blazing and bedazzled figure explores how Black trans femme performance offers space for creation and detonation.

NewFest34
A working-class Black family tries to keep their spirits up after the election of a right-wing president in Brazil’s official selection for the Oscar’s International Feature Award. As they figure out ways to cope and continue dreaming in the months that follow, the shifting political tides threaten to engulf them.

Each member of the family, including aspiring soccer player Deivinho and lesbian student Eunice, seeks to assert their independence and identity, all the while relying on each other more than ever before. Winner of Outfest’s Jury Prize for Best International Feature, MARS ONE is a searing indictment of Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, and is a powerful story as personal as it is political.

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Two young men fall in love while volunteering as ushers for their Baptist church.

NewFest34
In search of healing, a young woman returns to Nigeria, the country of her birth.

NewFest34
With unflinching honesty, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Micheal Rice interrogates the homophobia that characterizes many Black spaces. In the same week and same city that George Floyd was murdered in 2020, a young Black trans woman named Iyanna Dior was beaten by a group of peers in a convenience store. The brutal attack and the lack of attention it received marks the opening flashpoint of this incendiary documentary.

Taking the audience from inside a New York barbershop to the open city streets, Rice records honest testimonials from Black folks across generations and looks back to his Southern upbringing and his own internalized prejudice. BLACK AS U R reflects a step toward connection and catharsis, and is Rice’s attempt to confront the African-American community about queerphobia, through the searing stories of queer Black people.

NewFest34
Amari and Q, two Black gay men living in NYC, wake up on the morning of Amari’s 30th birthday thinking birthday angst and professional anxieties are the biggest problems they have. But when an explosion cuts off utilities across the city and forces them into a mandatory lockdown, the two men are forced to confront issues they’d just as soon ignore.

Sensitively directed by Ashton Pina, the intimate NANA’S BOYS features nuanced lead performances from Jared Wayne Gladly and NewFest alum David J Cork (THE EX CYCLE). As many of us have learned in the past few years, there’s nothing like an unexpected lockdown to test a relationship!

NewFest Pride 2023
Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.

NewFest35
Charting the life of poet Nikki Giovanni through tumultuous decades in American history — from the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements to present-day Black Lives Matter — this Sundance Grand Prize winner shatters any notions you may have had about what is possible in a biographical film. Directors Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster mix archival and contemporary footage to deliver an unvarnished portrait of Giovanni as she is: bold, fearless, and, most importantly, unapologetically herself. And just like the film’s subject, the kaleidoscopic filmmaking is risky and audacious in its depiction of a truly visionary artist.

NewFest35
Two young women decide to use their newly found drug-dealing business to get revenge against a conniving man of their past.

NewFest35
An imaginative queer teen weaves in and out of his own fantasy world while struggling to connect with his older brother.

NewFest35
In this surrealist Black comedy, a woman’s curiosity in her ex-crush’s new girlfriend complicates after their cosmic meet cute at a Brooklyn rooftop party.