My favorite African-American independent films

It's inevitable. With the release of Pariah, Dee Rees' uniquely personal, enlightening new film of self discovery, the first thing people are going to do is compare it to Precious. A shame, because Pariah is far superior, which relays it's perspective with nuance where Precious had the subtlety of a jackhammer. Pariah is an amazing breakthrough feature for Rees, a film about a 17-year old Alike, a black girl in Brooklyn struggling to find a way to "come out" to her parents.

As Pariah prepares to start it's run here in DC this weekend, it got me thinking about a few of my favorite African-American independent features. After far too many years of being left behind, the 1980s and 90s proved to be a renaissance for black independent cinema, presenting a totally different point of view than many people had seen before. Unfortunately that included African-Americans, who hadn't seen themselves portrayed realistically on screen in decades. From Spike Lee down to Rusty Cundieff, there are now more black filmmakers making waves in and out of the Hollywood system than ever. But for me, these are my five personal favorites...


5. Cooley High
As much as I may adore American Graffiti as the quintessential coming-of-age film, Cooley High speaks to me on a totally different level. It's our own personal John Hughes flick, set in the 1960s and following two high school students in a rough 'n tumble Chicago 'hood, getting their first taste at real freedom. They use it to bust up parties, hit on women, and run afoul of the criminal element that leads to the film's sudden and tragic finale. Fast paced, hilarious, but with a poignancy few can match, Cooley High remains a personal favorite of mine.
4. She's Gotta Have It
Thank you, Spike Lee. If it wasn't for him, we'd be looking at a very different landscape for African-American filmmakers right now, and a lot of it has to do with the phenomenal success of this 1986 black & white comedy. Shot guerilla-style on a budget of around $200k, She's Gotta Have It would go on to gross over $7M and redefine how blacks could be portrayed on screen. It was one of the first recent films to show how universal the romantic entanglements of African-Americans are, presented through the eyes of it's sexy star, Tracy Camilla Johns. There may be other Spike Lee films I reach for off my DVD shelf(School Daze, anyone?), but She's Gotta Have It was fresh and innovative in a way no other was.
3. Straight Out of Brooklyn
Pre-dating Boyz in the Hood by little over a month, and doing a more effective job chronicling the utter hopelessness of inner city life, Straight Out of Brooklyn was written and directed by a then 19-year old Matty Rich. Aided by the recent successes of Spike Lee, Rich put the film together for roughly $450K, and with the heat it generated off the festival circuit, took in more than six times that amount at the box office. Rich hasn't done much of note since then(except for The Inkwell), but his first feature will stand as a triumph of African-American cinema.
2. Hollywood Shuffle
Enroll in 'Black Acting School' with Robert Townsend and learn to play a pimp, street hustler.....um, a pimp...and an ummm...drug dealer...and...a corpse. In the 1980s, Townsend was at his razor sharp best, picking apart Hollywood for it's treatment of black actors, typecasting them in the most demeaning roles imaginable. Townsend had more than enough venom to go around, though, as he wasn't afraid to jab a finger at the actors who were willing to give up every shred of dignity for a film credit. Townsend followed in the footsteps of others in producing the film solely on credit cards for around $100K, and ended up grossing around $5M and  catapulting him into stardom. He would quickly springboard off the film's success with a string of hilarious HBO specials, Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime, which is actually where I first saw him in action.
1. Menace II Society
If it hasn't become apparent yet, I'm no fan of Boyz in the Hood. I think it's a Hollywood version of what the "hood" should look and feel like, but not at all real. At least not in my experience. There were too many urban flicks that were superior to it, and I've mentioned two of them here on this list. The second is Menace II Society, an unflinchingly real and terrifying look at life in South Central Los Angeles, where drugs and violence turned the area into a crime-infested wasteland. Directed by the then 21-year old Hughes Brothers, it's essentially a really screwed up coming-of-age story, following Caine(Tyrin Turner) as he navigates the paths of becoming a man while trying to remain "gangster" in the eyes of his bloodthirsty peers. The film was both a critical and financial success, and the Hughes Brothers have been around ever since. In fact they've only expanded their influence, broadening their horizons to movies that fall far outside the field of just "black film".