Each year, Black History Month is acknowledged in the month of February in several countries across the world. Dating as far back as the 1970s, this month is set aside to recognise and celebrate the moves made by black folk as well as the accomplishments made by the black community throughout the years. As part of the celebration of blackness, here are a few movies worth the watch, that in some way or form encapsulate the idea of black history.

A Time To Kill (1996)

Thriller/Drama . 2hr 29min

A Time To Kill tells the heartwrenching story of a 10-year girl who was brutally raped by two white men.

A heartbroken and enraged father takes justice into his own hands and kills the two men who raped his child. He is then put on trial and calls upon a friend, who is a white lawyer, to win the case.

Amistad (1997)

Drama/History . 2hrs 35mins

The movie tells the story of Joseph Cinque, who led the revolution aboard a slave ship with Mende slaves.

Cinque sails from the United States to Cuba and tries to lead his people back home. However, due to misdirection, things go terribly wrong.

The courts must now decide whether or not the Mende slaves are legally free.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)

Drama/Music . 1hr 34mins

The 2020 film is based on the life of American blues singer Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey.

Audiences bear witness to rising tensions when the trailblazing blues singer and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.

12 Years A Slave (2013)

Drama/History . 2hrs 14mins

Solomon Northup, a free African-American man, is promised a fortnightly job. However, he is instead kidnapped in Washington DC and sold into slavery.

Selma (2014)

Historical Drama . 2hrs 8mins

Chronicling the life of civil right’s activist Martin Luther King Jr, he along with hundreds of others journey from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights for the black community.

Malcolm X (1992)

Drama . 3hrs 22mins

This biographic film tells the story of the African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist, Malcolm X, who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement.

The film goes as far back as Malcom’s past with gang violence and then after hitting rock bottom, we see his evolution into what he is known for today.

The Colour Purple (1985)

Drama/Historical Film . 2hrs 34mins

This Steven Spielberg masterpiece tells the story of a young African-American woman who is tragically raped by her father and bears two of his children.

She is subsequently married off to an abusive man where she is forced to endure a life of struggle and pain, all while trying to find her identity.

Just Mercy (2019)

Legal Drama . 2hrs 16mins

Just Mercy shadows the world renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson. The 2019 movie sees Stevenson working to free a wrongly convicted death row prisoner, Walter McMillan.

The film dramatises the real life injustice with solid performances from each of its characters.

The Help (2011)

Drama/Romance . 2hrs 26mins

This touching two-hour long film tells the story of an aspiring author who decides to write a book from the point of view of African maids during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Each of the maids, who are at first reluctant, prefer to remain anonymous in their detailed stories of the hardships they have to endure on daily basis.

The controversy the release of the book causes in the town is quite dramatic and entertaining, to say the least. The Help was based on the 2009 Kathryn Stockett novel of the same name.

Hidden Figures (2016)

Drama/History . 2hrs 7mins

Black people in the United States have always been creators and innovators, but for a long time they were treated unfairly despite their major accomplishments and lived in the shadows of whites who rode the wave of their success.

It was hard to be black, let alone a black WOMAN.

This phenomenal and historical film tells the true story of three brilliant African American mathematicians who play more than a pivotal role at NASA during the early years of the space programme, all while dealing with constant racial and gender discrimination at work.

When They See Us (2019)

True Crime

This four-part miniseries is a heartwrenching tale based on an unfortunate but true story. Although a four-part series, this tear-jerking project ought to be treated as one long movie to feel the film’s full effect.

Released in 2019, When They See Us tells the story of four black males wrongly accused and convicted of raping and murdering a young white woman over a quarter of a century ago inside New York’s Central Park.

We bear witness to impact and toll it takes on each of the boys labelled as the Central Park Five, as well as their families. We also get to bear witness to the corrupt and unjust legal system set up to make black people guilty until proven guilty.

This story, which gripped the United States, must be watched with multiple napkins as you’re sure release some tears.