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Black women filmmakers facts for kids

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Black women filmmakers have made amazing contributions to movies and TV throughout history! Even though the film industry is mostly white and male, Black women have worked hard to share their stories and show different perspectives on screen.

About 30% of filmmakers are women, and only about 7% of all filmmakers in the industry are African-American. Many movies made by Black women filmmakers have shown real-life challenges faced by women in the African-American community. Films like Daughters of the Dust and Middle of Nowhere are great examples of how they tell these important stories.

Since the early 1900s, Black women have used film to highlight the experiences of African-American women.

Pioneers in Film History

Five African-American women filmmakers were very important in starting the US cinema industry and improving how African-Americans were shown in movies. Some of the very first Black women filmmakers were Eloyce King Patrick Gist, Zora Neale Hurston, Tressie Souders, Maria P. Williams, and Madame E. Touissant. They produced, directed, or wrote films in the early 1900s. For example, Tressie Souders wrote, directed, and produced a movie called A Woman's Error in 1922.

Film expert Jacqueline Bobo says that Black women filmmakers have been active throughout the 20th century. Another expert, Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson, explains that these filmmakers created a special way of telling stories. This style came from the social and historical situations they experienced.

Black women were very active in making films between 1910 and the 1920s. During this time, many independent films were made by Black filmmakers, often called race films. These were different from movies made by white filmmakers about Black life. Archivist Pearl Bowser notes that Black women worked behind the camera on many of these films. Historical records show that Black women were especially important in filmmaking during the 1900s.

Filmmaking in the 1970s

The 1970s saw many Black women directors achieve great things in film and television. Some of these directors include Julie Dash (who directed Daughters of the Dust), Alile Sharon Larkin, Fronza Woods, and the late Jacqueline Shearer (known for Eyes on the Prize).

Alile Sharon Larkin released two films in the 70s: The Kitchen Filmmaker and Your Children Come Back to You. Her film Your Children Come Back to You explores the strong bond between a mother and child, and their hopes for a better life. In Killing Time, Fronza Woods shows the funny side of life through a woman's story. In Fannie's Film, Woods shares the dreams and feelings of a domestic worker. Jacqueline (Jackie) Shearer was an independent producer and director who made documentaries about African Americans, including Minor Quarrel.

Filmmaking in the 1980s

Kathleen Collins (1942-1988) was a writer, teacher, and filmmaker. Her movie, Losing Ground, was one of the first feature films directed by a Black woman. It tells the story of a teacher and her husband, a painter, and their challenging marriage.

Jessie Maple is known for Twice as Nice (1989). She was the first African-American woman to join the International Group of Film and Television Photographers.

Euzhan Palcy (born 1958) is a director, screenwriter, and producer from Martinique. Her films explore topics like identity and politics, often focusing on the lasting effects of historical events. Palcy's first film, Sugar Cane Alley (1983), won many awards. In 1989, she directed A Dry White Season, becoming the first Black female director to have a film produced by a major studio.

Filmmaking in the 1990s

In the 1990s, Black filmmakers started to make their mark in Hollywood. They began to be seen more both in front of and behind the camera. In 1991, Julie Dash made history with her film Daughters of the Dust. It was the first full-length movie by an African-American female filmmaker to be shown widely in theaters across the U.S.

Daughters of the Dust was recognized in 1999 as one of the most important Black cinema achievements of the 20th century. In 2004, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry. This means it's one of 400 American films preserved as national treasures.

In 1996, Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman became a groundbreaking film. Dunye's work has been very important in Black filmmaking.

Filmmaking in the 2000s

Gina Prince-Bythewood developed her romantic drama Love & Basketball in the late 1990s. She won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay when the film was released in 2000. She later premiered her TV drama Shots Fired in 2016.

Ava DuVernay became the first Black female filmmaker to win the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her film Middle of Nowhere. She is a leader in telling important social stories and helping films by people of color and women get seen. She was the first Black woman to direct a $100-million-dollar studio film. She has also received nominations for prestigious awards like the Academy Award and Emmy Award. In 2010, DuVernay started Array, a group that helps distribute films by people of color and women.

Filmmaking in the 2010s

Ava DuVernay continued to achieve great things. She won the US Dramatic Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She received an Oscar nomination for her documentary 13th (2016), which explored social justice issues. She also made history as the first Black woman director to be nominated for a Golden Globe.

DuVernay directed A Wrinkle in Time in 2018. With a budget over $100 million, this made her the first Black female to direct a live-action film of that size. More recently, she created, co-wrote, produced, and directed the Netflix drama series When They See Us. This series, based on a real-life case, received many awards and nominations, including 16 Emmy nominations. Her film Selma helped her become the first Black woman nominated for a Golden Globe for best director.

Issa Rae is a talented writer, director, producer, and actress, known for the HBO show Insecure. She started her filmmaking journey in college, which inspired her YouTube series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. In 2013, she partnered with Pharrell Williams for the second season of her YouTube series. Since Insecure premiered, Issa Rae has received two Golden Globe nominations and an Emmy nomination. She has also partnered with Columbia Pictures to support new stories through ColorCreative, a mentorship program.

Mati Diop, a French-Senegalese director, made history in 2019. She was the first Black female filmmaker to have a film included in the main competition at the famous Cannes Film Festival. Her film Atlantics was nominated for the Palme d'Or, the festival's top award.

Dream Hampton produced Surviving R. Kelly in 2019. This documentary received a Peabody Award and an MTV Movie Award for "Best Documentary."

Chinonye Chukwu is a Nigerian-American filmmaker. She directed The Dance Lesson in 2010 and produced her first feature film, Alaska-Land, in 2012. In 2019, she wrote and directed Clemency. She won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance for this film, becoming the first Black woman to win this major award.

Marsai Martin became the youngest Black female to produce a movie at just 13 years old. She was the executive producer for the movie Little and also the youngest to get a deal with a film studio.

Filmmaking in the 2020s

Recent studies show that there's been "real progress behind the camera" in top films from 2007 to 2021. However, only 5.4% of directors were women, and just 2% of those were Black women. At the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, three Black women directors won awards.

Maïmouna Doucouré is a French filmmaker whose movie, Cuties, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Radha Blank made her first feature film, The 40-Year-Old Version, in 2020. Blank went on to win the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.

Regina King's film One Night in Miami... was her first time directing a feature film. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 7, 2020, making her the first African-American female director to achieve this.

Selected Black Women Filmmakers and Their Films

Zora Neale Hurston

  • Zora Neal Hurston Fieldwork Footage (1928)
  • Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina 1940 (1940)

Madeline Anderson

  • A Tribute to Malcolm X (1967)
  • I Am Somebody (1970)
  • Being Me (1975)
  • Sesame Street (1974-1975)

Liz White

  • Othello (1980)

Kathleen Collins

  • The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy (1980)
  • Losing Ground (1982)

Euzhan Palcy

  • Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
  • Simeon (1995)
  • The Wonderful World of Disney (1998)

Zeinabu Irene Davis

  • Filmstatement (1982)
  • Re-creating Black Women's Media Image (1983)
  • Crocodile Conspiracy (1986)
  • Sweet Bird of Youth (1987)
  • Cycles (1989)
  • Trumpetistically, Clora Bryant (1989)
  • A Powerful Thang (1991)
  • Mother of the River (1995)
  • Compensation (1999)

Debbie Allen

  • Fame (1982-1987)
  • A Different World (1988-1993)
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)
  • The Sinbad Show (1993-1994)
  • The Old Settler (2001)
  • Life Is Not a Fairy Tale - The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006)
  • Alex In Wonderland (2008)
  • Christmas on the Square (2020)

Maya Angelou

  • Down in the Delta (1998)

Cheryl Dunye

Julie Dash

Kasi Lemmons

  • Eve's Bayou (1997)
  • Talk To Me (2007)
  • Harriet (2019)
  • Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madame C.J. Walker (2020)

Neema Barnette

  • The Cosby Show (1989–1990)
  • American Playhouse- Zora Is My Name (1990)
  • A Different World (1990–1991)
  • Run For the Dream- The Gail Devers Story (1996)
  • Civil Brand (2002)
  • All You've Got (2006)
  • Super Sweet 16: The Movie (2007)
  • Heaven Ain't Hard to Find (2010)

Mara Brock Akil

  • Moesha (1998-1999)
  • The Jamie Fox Show (1990-2000)
  • Girlfriends (2001-2008)
  • The Game (2006-2015)

Debra Martin Chase

  • Cinderella (1997)
  • The Princess Diaries (2001)
  • The Cheetah Girls (2003)
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
  • Just Wright (2010)

Stephanie Allain

  • Biker Boyz (2003)
  • Hustle & Flow (2005)
  • Something New (2006)
  • Dear White People (2017)

Darnell Martin

  • I Like It Like That (1994) - the first production of a major film studio directed by an African-American woman
  • Prison Song (2001)
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)
  • Cadillac Records (2008)
  • The Lost Valentine (2011)

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Dee Rees

  • Pariah (2007)
  • Bessie (2015)
  • Mudbound (2017)

Numa Perrier

  • That Guy (2013)
  • Hello Cupid (2014)
  • Becoming Nia (2014)
  • Jezebel (2019)

Shola Lynch

  • Jazz (2001)
  • Do You Believe in Miracles: The U.S. Hockey Team (2001)
  • Chisolm '72 Unbought & Unbossed (2004)
  • American Gangster (2006-2007)

Victoria Mahoney

  • Yelling to the Sky (2011)
  • Exhale (2012)

Mati Diop

  • Atlantiques (2009)
  • Snow Canon (2011)
  • Big in Vietnam (2012)
  • Mille Soleils (2013)

Amma Asante

  • A Way of Life (2004)
  • Belle (2013)
  • A United Kingdom (2016)
  • Where Hands Touch (2018)

Tina Gordon

  • Drumline (2002)
  • ATL (2006)
  • Peeples (2013)
  • Good Girls (2018)

Stella Meghie

  • Jean of the Joneses (2016)
  • Everything, Everything (2017)
  • The Weekend (2018)
  • The Photograph (2020)

Shonda Rhimes

  • Bridgerton (2020)
  • Inventing Anna (2022)
  • Greys Anatomy (2005-2022)
  • How to Get Away with Murder (2014-2020)

Issa Rae

  • Insecure (2016-2020)
  • The Lovebirds (2020)
  • The Photograph (2020)
  • Sweet Life: Los Angeles (2021)

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay's drama “Queen Sugar” has helped many female directors of color get their start. DuVernay also created Array Crew, a database to help diverse film crews find work.

  • Selma (2014)
  • Queen Sugar (2016)
  • A Wrinkle In Time (2018)
  • When They See Us (2019)
  • Colin in Black and White (2021)
  • Naomi (2022)

Lena Waithe

Lena Waithe has created many successful TV series. She has developed interesting Black characters who are connected through family, friendships, and social roles.

  • The Chi (2018-2021)
  • Twenties (2020-2021)
  • Queen & Slim (2019)
  • Boomerang (2020)
  • Them (2021)

Nia DaCosta

In 2021, Nia DaCosta's film Candyman opened at the top of the box office. This made her the first Black female filmmaker to have a movie debut at the number one spot.

  • Little Woods (2018)
  • Ghost Tape (2020)
  • Candyman (2021)
  • The Marvels (2023)

See also

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