10 Black Filmmakers Who Deserve More Respect

Whenever Spike Lee releases a new film, it’s cause for attention and celebration, even if the project is ultimately more She Hate Me than Malcolm X. That’s what happens when you’re universally regarded as one of modern-day cinema’s most important filmmakers, a reputation earned from the Brooklyn native’s early days of do-it-yourself, brave moviemaking that spawned independent classics like She’s Gotta Have It (1986) and Do the Right Thing (1989) and lesser heralded but also singular works like Bamboozled (2000) and 25th Hour (2002).

This weekend, Lee’s latest film, the indie coming-of-age drama Red Hook Summer, opens in limited release. Set in the writer-director’s BK homeland, it’s about a 13-year-old kid (played by newcomer Jules Brown) from Atlanta who spends the summer with his grandfather (The Wire alum, and current Treme star, Clarke Peters), an intensely God-fearing bishop. And, in typical Lee fashion, it’s a controversial crowd-divider, with a third act plot-turn that inspired both vitriol and adoration from critics when Red Hook Summer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Thanks to Lee’s undeniable legacy, Red Hook Summer has easily attracted film buffs of all backgrounds; indirectly, however, it’s also a sharp reminder that films of its nature—ones made by gifted black directors with intelligence, virtuosity, and other attributes not applicable to Tyler Perry’s résumé—are sadly rare.

Lee isn’t the be-all and end-all of such filmmaking, though; tracing back to the 1910s, we’ve compiled a list of 10 Black Filmmakers Who Deserve More Respect, searching beyond names like John Singleton and the Hughes Brothers to shed light upon the important visual creators who far too often get left off countdowns of essential cinematic talents.

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Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

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Best movies: The Homesteader (1919), Within Our Gates (1920), Body and Soul (1925)

Something tells us that, if randomly surveyed on a street corner or in a multiplex, many film lovers wouldn’t be able to successfully answer the following question: Who was the first-ever black director?

The answer is Oscar Micheaux, an Illinois author who, after producers expressed interest in adapting his 1918 novel The Homesteader but wouldn’t allow him to be directly involved, founded the Micheaux Film and Book Company, directed The Homesteader himself, and single-handedly began the history of black filmmakers.

After The Homsteader, Micheaux produced over 40 movies, from silent flicks to “talkies,” all of which tackled issues of racism head-on but from his own unique perspective. At the time, black characters in cinema were being depicted stereotypically from the perspectives of white directors, giving Micheaux’s much-needed, alternative point-of-view an importance one is unable to overstate.

Best movie: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

The term “Blaxploitation” brings to mind images of a young Pam Grier, with her stunning beauty and ass-kicking panache, or Richard “Shaft” Roundtree aiming his pistol with authority while decked out in all-black attire.

For many, what mentions of the ’70s-era genre of cinema don’t immediately inspire, unfortunately, is the 1971 game-changer Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, the independently made pic from Melvin Van Peebles. Executed on a humble $150,000 budget, the film, which starred Van Peebles himself as a militant renegade evading “The Man,” went on to haul in a whopping $15 million—a direct result of Hollywood’s void of films starring black actors and delivered from such an authentic and revolutionary perspective.

Unsurprisingly, producers throughout the California film community wanted to emulate the success of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, leading to the rise of Blaxploitation and the previously mentioned likes of Grier, Roundtree, and their peers.

Best movies: The Learning Tree (1969), Shaft (1971), Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)

Two years before Melvin Van Peebles and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassssss Song triggered the rise of black filmmakers’ exploitation cinema, renown photojournalist Gordon Parks had woken Hollywood’s shotcallers up to the possibility of black directors telling genuine, thought-provoking black stories.

The Learning Tree, based on Parks' 1964 semi-autobiographical novel, was the first major studio movie to be helmed by a person of color, a monumental achievement that indirectly led to the later careers of Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Albert and Allen Hughes, who’ve all dabbled in the studio system.

The Learning Tree remains a widely respected film, but Parks is best known for Shaft, the “bad mutha…” hit that’s been quoted endlessly and stands as one of the ’70s-era’s best action movies. A year after Shaft’s 1971 release, Parks’ son, Gordon Parks, Jr., followed in daddy’s footsteps with Super Fly, another of the Blaxploitation movement’s strongest pics. Excellence ran in the family.

Best movies: La Noire de... (1966, also known as Black Girl), Mandabi (1968), Xala (1975), Guelwaar (1972), Faat-Kine (2000), Moolaadé (2004)

One of black film’s unsung heroes, the late Ousmane Sembène was a true pioneer, using cinema to broadcast the lives and struggles of African men and women, who, otherwise, wouldn’t have been given the platform.

Hailing from Senegal, Sembène started his career as an author, penning novels, like O Pays, mon beau peuple! (1957) and Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (1960), centered on attacking the social injustices in his native country.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that his messages could reach wider audiences through the medium of film, and in 1963, Sembène discovered his behind-the-camera calling. From there, he made a series of profound cinematic works that, despite falling below the radars of international viewers, earned Sembène predominantly positive reviews.

Those looking to catch up with his filmography should start with 1966’s Black Girl (originally released as La Noire de…), Sembène’s first official feature, which follows a Sengalese woman who leaves her homeland to work for a heartless, tyrannical, and wealthy French couple. After that, move onto to 1992’s Guelwaar, a harrowing examination of how handouts from richer countries harmed Senegal’s residents.

Best movies/TV show episodes: Juice (1992), Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995), “Unconfirmed Reports" (The Wire, 2008), “What Lies Ahead" (The Walking Dead, 2011), “18 Miles Out” (The Walking Dead, 2012), “Beside the Dying Fire” (The Walking Dead, 2012)

Ernest Dickerson must be plenty thankful that he chose New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as his desired institution in which he’d study film; it was at NYU that the Newark, NJ, native met classmate Spike Lee, with whom he forged a strong, fruitful working relationship. Lee called upon Dickerson to serve as cinematographer on several of his earlier films, including She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Malcolm X (1992).

The same year that Malcolm X came out, Dickerson proved that he was capable of directing his own provocative, noteworthy material, with Juice, the NY-set answer to John Singleton’s Boyz N Da Hood starring a young Tupac Shakur.

Since then, however, Dickerson has indulged in his genre-heavy preferences, which he first exercised from 1984 through 1986, when he collected checks as a cinematographer on the horror anthology TV series Tales from the Darkside. In 1995, Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight, his gory dark comedy starring an on-the-verge Jada Pinkett, showed the filmmaker’s knack for gruesome splatter and palpable, shivery tension.

Working mostly in television these days, Dickerson is a regular on-call director for AMC’s The Walking Dead, responsible for the show’s exceedingly violent, and blood-soaked second season standouts “18 Miles Out” and “Beside the Dying Fire.” If the Emmy committee won’t give the man his justifiable props, we’ll gladly show Dickerson some love.

Best movies: Friday (1995), Set It Off (1996), The Negotiator (1998), The Italian Job (2003)

F. Gary Gray certainly hasn’t done much to help his own cause in recent years. After an impressive eight-year streak of quality films, the veteran music video director—whose camera skills benefited recording artists like Ice Cube (“It Was a Good Day”), TLC (“Waterfalls”), and Outkast (“Ms. Jackson”)—kicked off a stretch of shocking ineptitude in 2005, with Be Cool, a mess of a comedy featuring Vince Vaughn in wigger mode, amongst other offenses. The less said about A Man Apart (2006) and Law Abiding Citizen (2009) here, the better.

Instead, let’s focus on the films that made Gray a perennial filmmaker to watch, and that give us hope that his next assignment, whatever that may be, will be completely up to snuff. His 1995 debut, Friday, is an undisputed stoner comedy classic, and its follow-up, the female-centric heist flick Set it Off, afforded Gray the chance to switch genres without abandoning his established audience.

So when 1998’s The Negotiator came around, with its high tension, mainstream thriller appeal, and tit-for-tat rapport shared between Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, the fact that it was helmed by the same guy who popularized Chris Tucker’s Smokey wasn’t an issue.

Recently, Gray’s name was bandied about as a possible director for next year’s Captain America sequel; while he didn’t land the job, the news loudly hinted that he’s eyeing blockbuster material for his next gig. Yet, if you ask us, he’d be better served returning to his smaller, more character-driven, Friday roots.

Best movies: Hunger (2008), Shame (2011)

It’s only a matter of time until Steve McQueen scores a Best Director nomination from the prestigious, discerning Academy. Arguably, he should’ve received two already, for his phenomenal 2008 dramatic powerhouse Hunger and last year’s polarizing but nonetheless emotionally riveting Shame.

Partial to extended takes and a fearlessness to commit to a scene’s hardest, most challenging moments, the English artist-turned-filmmaker has, in only four years, established himself as a true auteur, one who also comes equipped with a reputable, A-list, go-to actor, Michael Fassbender, who starred in both Hunger (his breakthrough role, no less) and Shame.

Think of them as the modern-day Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Recently, McQueen and Fassbender started work on their third collaboration, the jam-packed Twelve Years a Slave (based on real-life slave Solomon Northup's memoirs), which also stars Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, and emerging talents Benedict Cumberbatch, Scoot McNairy, and Adepero Oduye.

One gets the impression, from looking at such a formidable cast, that actors all throughout Hollywood are itching to work with McQueen. Who can blame them?

Best movies: Eve’s Bayou (1997), Talk to Me (2007)

When actress-turned-director Kasi Lemmons’ critically adored, hugely impressive Eve’s Bayou premiered in 1997, the emergence of a new, exciting voice, one both black and female, seemed imminent. Fifteen years later, though, Lemmons has only helmed a miniscule total of three motion pictures, and one of them, 2001’s The Caveman’s Valentine, wasn’t anything special.

But her other two features, the aforementioned Eve’s Bayou and the underrated Don Cheadle/Chiwetel Ejiofor dramedy Talk to Me (2007), are both excellent. Having captured the drama, fragility, and fears of a pre-teen girl in Eve’s Bayou, Lemmons shifted gears into a more comically rich territory for the Petey Greene biopic Talk to Me, balancing genuine laughs with deftly handled social relevance and historical, civil rights era resonance.

Next up for Lemmons is Nativity Story, a musical set to star Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Hudson that’s based on the Bible’s account of baby Jesus’ birth. As cautious as we are around song-and-dance flicks, we’re more than willing to give Lemmons’ addition to the genre a chance.

Best movies: Pariah (2011)

One of the unfortunate sleepers during last year’s awards season hoopla, Pariah, a powerful look at a teenage girl’s (Adepero Oduye) struggles with coming out of the closet and declaring her homosexuality to her uptight mother, ranked high on several critics “Best of 2011” lists. Sadly, it was nowhere to be seen amongst the bigger awards show nominations.

Which makes first-time filmmaker Dee Rees’ tremendous debut all the more worthy of after-the-fact respect. It’s the kind of eye-opening, emotionally raw work that leaves viewers both floored and excited to see what else its maker has to offer. And hopefully, next time, the nominating powers that be don’t mess up again.

Best movies: Submarine (2011)

Don’t hold The Watch against Richard Ayoade—the guy was lured in by the proposition of working with Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, and Vince Vaughn. And who wouldn’t be? Especially considering that the London-born funnyman has yet to fully break into the Hollywood conscience, despite his popular, cult-followed work on the quirky British sitcom The IT Crowd.

The Watch, unfortunately for Ayoade, bombed worse than Adam Sandler’s recent mishap That’s My Boy, meaning that the Brit isn’t going to become the next Simon Pegg anytime soon. What he could turn into, however, is the lower-fi version of Shaun of the Dead/Scott Pilgrim vs. the World director Edgar Wright.

Last year, Ayoade’s directorial debut, Submarine (produced by Stiller), charmed the imaginary socks off of art-house audiences, with its tender yet awkwardly hilarious portrayal of a Welsh teenager looking to pop his cherry. The film clearly has some famous fans: Ayoade’s next film, The Double (based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic story), will star Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska, two of Hollywood’s most respected young actors.