2021 American Black Film Festival Movie Guide

A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard.

When a African-American couple move into their new home, their 2 year-old daughter becomes a terrifying messenger from the other side.

Class and culture clash when a college educated journalist from Brooklyn and a homeboy-bike messenger from Harlem fall in love.

Bitter Sugar follows two dancers balancing ambition, and friendship in the extremely competitive world of dance.

'Doutor Gama' is based on the life of Luiz Gama, one of the most important characters in Brazilian history. A black man who used the law and the courts to free over 500 slaves. Born a free man, Gama was sold as a slave at the age of 10 as payment for his father's debts. Even as a slave, he learned to read and write, studied and then gained his own freedom, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. He was an abolitionist and a republican who inspired an entire nation.

When a recently widowed mother becomes houseless, she convinces her 8-year-old daughter that they are only camping for fun while working to get them off of the streets.

An author fights for his life while reconciling his past.

A short-tempered trigger happy gun fiend terrorizes his community until he meets a charming girl named Margarine who drives him to question his ways.

The mundane life of a 39 year old introvert is disrupted when she begins a steamy but contentious affair with a much younger Man.

A Black high school student finds himself under suspicion after his classmate's mysterious disappearance.

Gia and her best friend, Lila, try to survive a rough childhood in a neighborhood where every kid has a sad story to tell. As teenagers, their problems become more complicated, and the stakes get raised.

Three sisters from a fishing village in the West Indies take refuge in Berkeley, California, following a traumatic event that threatens to reveal a centuries-old family secret.

In April of 1994, four women from different backgrounds and beliefs are trapped and hiding during the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Their fight for survival against all odds unites the women in an unbreakable sisterhood.

In 1936 Harlem, the first all-Black cast production of 'Macbeth' struggles to make it to opening night amid the downward spiral of their young and untested director - Orson Welles.

Mamie Lang Kirkland was seven years old when she fled Ellisville, Mississippi in 1915 with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. John Hartfield returned to Mississippi in 1919 and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era. Mamie's son, Tarabu, had grown up hearing stories of John Hartfield, but didn't know if his mother's stories were fact or folklore until one day in 2015. Tarabu discovered an article describing Hartfield's murder before a crowd of 10,000 spectators. For over 100 years Mamie vowed never to return to Mississippi. Yet with Tarabu's remarkable find, he urged his mother to finally confront her childhood trauma by returning to Ellisville. Mamie was 107 when they began the journey to connect her story to the larger impact of America's legacy of racial violence, which echoes today from Ferguson to New York, Atlanta to Los Angeles. Like many of the six million African Americans who left the Deep South, Mamie's story is a testament to the courage and hope of her generation. Her indomitable will and contagious joy of living is exceeded only by her ability to tell her story now 111 years later.

What is only supposed to last 10-weeks turns into a 10+ year journey for 10 Baltimore City Girls who frame how their cinematic story is shared with the world.

An exploration into effects of gentrification, COVID -19, and other issues The Culture faces in New Orleans, through the eyes of the youngest Black Masking Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief in the city.

The secret daughter of Louis Armstrong.

In December 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from public grounds. A forceful group of critics protested the decision, and fearing retaliation, no crew would agree to remove the statues.

Subjects of Desire is a culturally significant, thought-provoking documentary that ultimately deconstructs what we understand about race and the power behind the beauty.

Feature doc about the growing affordable housing crisis in America. Filmmakers follow families in iconic Venice CA 90291 while investigating plans for a controversial new homeless shelter.

The story focuses on Newark's Baraka family and its involvement in social activism, poetry, music, art and politics.

Mockumentary follows Los Angeles-based visual artist Sabina on her journey of self-destruction during the global pandemic.

In a world of smoke and mirrors where appearance is everything, a struggling actor in his late 20's tries to hold on to his last redeeming quality - his hair.

Dr. Royce Shakir finds himself trapped in a game of revenge after being kidnapped via teleportation by a former colleague and lover.