Films about race
Notable films with a race theme, by year

Films about race

Section Title: Notable films with a race theme, by year
Table Section Text: None

Year	Film	Director	Notes

2018	Yardie	Idris Elba	Aml Ameen and Stephen Graham in a film of Victor Headley's novel about West Indian gangs in London.

2018	Crazy Rich Asians	John M. Chu	Constance Wu and Henry Golding star in a comedy/drama based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan.

2018	Whitney	Kevin McDonald	Documentary on the life of Whitney Houston.

2018	Black Panther	Ryan Coogler	Chadwick Boseman stars as the Marvel Comics character in a film that grossed $1.345 billion.

2018	Superfly	Director X	Trevor Jackson stars as Youngblood Priest in the remake of Super Fly.

2017	Detroit	Kathryn Bigelow	Shocking depiction of police brutality in the Algiers Motel incident during riots in Detroit in 1967.

2017	Get Out	Jordan Peele	Sci-fi horror about a predatory white conspiracy to implant their consciousnesses into black bodies grossed $252 million

2017	Kings	Deniz Gamze Ergüven	A South Central recluse helps a working-class mother during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, with Halle Berry and Daniel Craig.

2017	All Eyez on Me	Benny Boom	The biopic of rapper Tupac Shakur

2017	Mudbound	Dee Rees	Tragic drama of two farming families one white and one black, based on the novel of the same name by Hillary Jordan.

2017	Gook	Justin Chon	Two Korean-American brothers in the midst of the 1992 Los Angeles riots

2016	The Birth of a Nation	Nate Parker	Nat Turner's slave revolt in Virginia, in 1831

2016	Moonlight	Barry Jenkins	Tarell Alvin McCraney's story of growing up black and gay in America grossed over $65 million worldwide against a budget of $4 million

2016	Loving	Jeff Nichols	The story of Richard and Mildred Loving's marriage and the 1967 Supreme Court judgment against the State of Virginia's outlawing of interracial marriage, with Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton

2016	Hidden Figures	Theodore Melfi	Taraji P. Henson is Katherine Goble leading a section of black women mathematicians working at NASA to computerise the Mercury Seven space mission

2016	I Am Not Your Negro	Raoul Peck	The story of writer and activist James Baldwin told through contemporaneous footage

2016	Fences	Denzel Washington	The film of August Wilson's Pulitzer prize winning play about a father, frustrated at the stymying of his baseball career, and taking it out on his son

2016	A United Kingdom	Amma Asante	Based on the true-life romance between Sir Seretse Khama and his wife Ruth Williams Khama in Bechuanaland and the imperial authorities' attempts to prevent it

2016	Free State of Jones	Gary Ross	The story of Newton Knight's revolt against the Confederacy during the American Civil War

2016	Nina	Cynthia Mort	Biopic of jazz singer Nina Simone starring Zoe Saldana

2015	Straight Outta Compton	F. Gary Gray	The Story of rappers N.W.A grossed over $200, four times its budget

2015	The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution	Stanley Nelson Jr.	Documentary on the Black Panther Party and their repression under the FBI's Cointelpro program

2014	Selma	Ava DuVernay	About Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's arguments and preparations for the momentous 1967 Civil Rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Washington

2014	Dear White People	Justin Simien	A comedy about members of a black fraternity house negotiating the racial assumptions of their white counterparts at college

2013	12 Years a Slave	Steve McQueen	The English director's film of Solomon Northrup's memoir of the same name (1853) about a free man being abducted from the North to serve as a slave in the American South

2013	The Butler	Lee Daniels	Forest Whitaker plays 'Cecil Gaines' (drawn from Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election" about Eugene Allen) who works as a Butler at the White House through successive Presidencies

2013	Belle	Amma Asante	Loosely based on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lord Mansfield's ruling on the Zong massacre in Georgian England

2013	Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom	Justin Chadwick	Biopic of South African anti-Apartheid leader and President Nelson Mandela starring Idris Elba

2012	Django Unchained	Quentin Tarantino	Controversial western with a slave revenge theme, starring Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson

2011	Winnie Mandela	Darrell Roodt	Sympathetic biopic of anti-Apartheid leader Winnie Mandela

2011	The Help	Tate Taylor	Based on Kathryn Stockett's book of the same name about a black maids standing up to their white mistresses, with the help of an aspiring writer

2009	Precious	Lee Daniels	Grim story of parental rape and neglect in a deprived neighbourhood

2009	Invictus	Clint Eastwood	About the struggle to re-launch the Springboks rugby team in post-Apartheid South Africa

2009	Notorious	George Tillman Jr.	The life and murder of rap star Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G.

2008	Gran Torino	Clint Eastwood	The unlikely friendship between Korean War veteran and a Hmong family in Los Angeles

2005	American Gangster	Ridley Scott	Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) works his way up from sidekick to gang leader, pursued by Russell Crowe's lawman

2004	Manderlay	Lars von Trier	A disturbing allegory of slavery from the Danish avant garde director

2004	Crash	Paul Haggis	Multi-plotted state of the nation film with Don Cheadle's character harassed by a policeman, and other stories of the challenges of different migrants and citizens of Los Angeles

2002	Dirty Pretty Things	Stephen Frears	The struggles of migrants in London

2001	Ali	Michael Mann	Will Smith stars as the legendary heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali

1999	Introducing Dorothy Dandridge	Martha Coolidge	Biopic of the actress Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry made for television

1999	The Hurricane	Norman Jewison	Biopic of boxing champion Rubin Carter falsely accused and imprisoned for a triple murder, starring Denzel Washington

1998	Beloved	Jonathan Demme	horror-drama film based on Toni Morrison's 1987 novel of the same name

1997	Amistad	Steven Spielberg	The trial over the mutiny of the enslaved Mende people on board the Amistad in 1839

1997	Miss Evers' Boys	Joseph Sargent	HBO television film based on David Feldshuh's play about a U.S. Federal government experiment that led to men being left untreated for syphilis

1996	Ghosts of Mississippi	Rob Reiner	Courtroom drama based on the trial of Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers

1996	When We Were Kings	Leon Gast	Documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974

1995	Panther	Mario van Peebles	Dramatization of the Black Panther's struggle against racism, based on Melvin van Peebles' book

1995	Jefferson in Paris	James Ivory	On US President-to-be Thomas Jefferson's affairs as ambassador in Paris, and his relationship with Sally Hemings (played by Thandie Newton)

1994	Corrina, Corrina	Jessie Nelson	Interracial love story in fifties America with Whoopie Goldberg and Ray Liotta

1992	Sarafina!	Darrell Roodt	A coming of age story in the midst of the Soweto riots, filmed in South Africa

1992	Malcolm X	Spike Lee	Biopic of the inspirational Black Muslim leader starring Denzel Washington

1992	Juice	Ernest R. Dickerson	With Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps

1992	South Central	Stephen Milburn Anderson	Father and son learn to break ties with a street gang, an adaptation of the 1987 novel Crips by Donald Bakeer

1991	Boyz n the Hood	John Singleton	Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube star in this story of gang life in Los Angeles

1991	New Jack City	Mario Van Peebles	Wesley Snipes stars as Nino Brown, leader of a ruthless drug gang in the midst of New York's crack epidemic

1990	The Long Walk Home	Richard Pearce	A drama with the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 as a background, starring Whoopie Goldberg and Sissy Spacek

1989	Driving Miss Daisy	Bruce Beresford	Gentle comedy based on Alfred Uhry's play of the same name set in the civil rights era

1989	Mississippi Burning	Alan Parker	Parker's film of the Civil Rights era contest over desegregation

1989	Do the Right Thing	Spike Lee	Acclaimed comedy-drama of racial tensions and rioting in Brooklyn

1989	Glory	Edward Zwick	Matthew Broderick stars as the anxious white commander of an experimental all-black troop of the Union Army in the American Civil War

1989	For Queen and Country	Martin Stellman	Denzel Washington stars as a Falklands War veteran returning to riot-torn Tottenham, England

1988	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Keenan Ivory Wayans	A parody version of a Blaxploitation film

1987	Cry Freedom	Richard Attenborough	The story of Steve Biko's detention and murder, and his friendship with the journalist Donald Woods

1986	Absolute Beginners	Julien Temple	Based on Colin MacInnes novel of the same name the film revolves around the 1958 Notting Hill race riots and features Slim Gaillard and Steven Berkoff's impersonation of Oswald Mosley

1985	The Color Purple	Steven Spielberg	Based on Alice Walker's novel of the same name and starring Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey in a story of pre-civil rights Georgia

1978	The Wiz	Sidney Lumet	A black cast re-make of The Wizard of Oz (film) starring Diana Ross

1977	Roots	Marvin J. Chomsky	ABC-TV miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family starring Levar Burton

1976	The Last Supper	Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	Cuban drama about a pious planter inviting his slaves to a Christian dinner, only to encourage them to revolt

1975	Mandingo	Richard Fleischer	Ken Norton is a slave put to exhibition fighting by planters, with illicit sex between slaves and masters driving a lot of the action

1972	The Harder They Come	Perry Henzell	Jamaica-based story of an embattled Reggae star, played by Jimmy Cliff considered a breakthrough for reggae in the United States.

1974	Foxy Brown	Jack Hill	Pam Grier stars in this Blaxploitation film as a woman fighting back against exploitation

1973	Cleopatra Jones	Jack Starrett	Tamara Dobson stars in this Blaxploitation film as an undercover agent exposing the drugs industry

1972	Superfly	Gordon Parks, Jr.	Ron O'Neal stars in this Blaxploitation film as a drug dealer trying to get out of the business - notable for its Curtis Mayfield soundtrack

1971	Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song	Melvin van Peebles	A kaleidoscopic journey through race-torn America

1971	Shaft	Gordon Parks	Private detective John Shaft (Richard Rountree) is hired by a Harlem gangster to rescue his kidnapped daughter in a film that highlights black power, with a strong Isaac Hayes soundtrack

1970	Little Big Man	Arthur Penn	Dustin Hoffman stars as a boy who goes to live amongst the Cheyenne, witnessing the massacres carried out by Custer's Seventh Cavalry

1970	Soldier Blue	Ralph Nelson	Candice Bergen stars as a Cheyenne captured in the midst of a massacre of Native Americans

1970	Watermelon Man	Melvin van Peebles	An inveterate racist wakes up to find he has turned black in a caustic comedy inspired as much by Kafka's Metamorphosis as by John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me

1970	The Landlord	Hal Ashby	This Norman Jewison-produced film stars Beau Bridges as heir to a slum landlord, who's feelings for his black tenants - in particular Lanie (Marki Bey), a dancer at a local black club - run away with him.

1969	Slaves	Herbert J. Biberman	Dionne Warwick and Ossie Davis in a lurid tail of plantation slavery

1969	Burn!	Gillo Pontecorvo	Marlon Brando plays a political agent who foments a slave revolt in a Caribbean island, only to help reinstate an oppressive wage-slavery in its place

1967	To Sir With Love	James Clavell	Sidney Poitier plays a teacher arrived from the Caribbean to teach in a run-down school in London, based on E. R.

1967	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	Stanley Kramer	Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star in this comedy of manners about liberal parents confronted by their daughter's black boyfriend

1967	In the Heat of the Night	Norman Jewison	Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is a detective from Philadelphia investigating a murder case and confronting prejudice in small town Mississippi

1967	Hurry Sundown	Otto Preminger	The complex race relations of multiple couples and community problems of the contemporary South in 1946.

1964	Zulu	Cy Endfield	A white outpost is beset by thousands of Zulu warriors in the British Empire story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift

1962	To Kill A Mockingbird	Robert Mulligan	Gregory Peck stars in the film of Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the story of a black defendant falsely accused of rape

1961	West Side Story	Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins	Gang warfare between the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Anglo Jets in this film of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name (itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet).

1959	Porgy and Bess	Otto Preminger	Film of George and Ira Gershwin's opera of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge

1959	Black Orpheus	Marcel Camus	A reworking of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Brazilian carnival

1959	Imitation of Life	Douglas Sirk	Susan Kohner stars as a mixed race woman who passes for white, in a film adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel of the same name

1957	12 Angry Men	Sidney Lumet	A jury decide the fate of a 'boy' charged with murder - though the race of the accused is never stated, the film deals with prejudice as one juror denounces slum-born people, no better than animals who kill for fun

1954	Carmen Jones	Otto Preminger	Sidney Poitier's airman is seduced by Dorothy Dandridge in the film of the 1943 musical, itself a re-working adaptation of Bizet's Carmen

1954	The Salt of the Earth	Herbert J. Biberman	Hispanic American miners fight against injustice based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico.

1951	Cry, the Beloved Country	Zoltan Korda	Based on Alan Paton's 1948 novel of the same name about a black minister's journey to Johannesburg to find his son in Apartheid South Africa

1947	Hi-De-Ho	Josh Binney	A race film showcasing jazz performer Cab Calloway

1946	Song of the South	Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson	Walt Disney's mixed live action and animation film of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories

1941	Hellzapoppin'	H. C. Potter	Zany musical showcasing Slim and Slam (Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart) and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers

1940	Dark Command	Raoul Walsh	A Union-supporting John Wayne tries to uphold the law against the Confederate hold-outs of Quantrill's Raiders

1939	Gone With the Wind	Victor Fleming	Historical drama of a southern family in the American Civil War and Reconstruction era from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name.

1937	A Day at the Races	Sam Wood	Marx Brothers film showcasing Whitey's Lindy Hoppers

1936	Song of Freedom	J. Elder Wills	Paul Robeson stars as John Zinga, an African dockworker who becomes an opera singer

1936	Show Boat	James Whale	Irene Dunne stars in the story of the Mississippi show boat featuring music by Oscar Hammerstein II and performances by Hattie McDaniel and Paul Robeson - who sings 'ole man river'

1935	Sanders of the River	Zoltan Korda	Leslie Banks stars as the colonial officer who takes on Paul Robeson's African chief

1934	Imitation of Life	John M. Stahl	Fredi Washington stars as a mixed race woman who passes for white, in a film adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel of the same name

1933	The Emperor Jones	Dudley Murphy	Paul Robeson stars as Brutus Jones, a convict who escapes to make himself Emperor of a Caribbean Island, based on the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title

1930	Borderline	Kenneth Macpherson	A black American couple played by Paul and Eslanda Robeson stay at a hotel in Europe with group of hedonists. An interracial love triangle shocks the townsfolk

1915	The Birth of a Nation	D. W. Griffith	The American Civil War and Reconstruction era with the Ku Klux Klan saving the white nation from black carpetbaggers

Sentence(s)

Films such as Justin Simien's 2014 comedy Dear White People, Moonlight and Jordan Peele's 2017 horror film Get Out show that these films were gripped about race.

final_sentence: Films such as Justin Simien's 2014 comedy Dear White People, Moonlight and Jordan Peele's 2017 horror film Get Out show that these films were gripped about race.