Shanghai (2010)

What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.

A trouble-making teenager spends the summer working at a Southern California beach learning about responsibility.

Pressure is an unambiguously great movie, lead by convincing performances, a well-crafted script, good direction, and at least some social awareness.

Two movies that do a fantastic job in conveying the ongoing struggle for racial justice are Selma (2014) and Just Mercy (2019).

The repeated actions, the blood on the petals, the rustling under the floor…An ambient short horror film takes us into another realm.

SPOILERS AHEAD. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song distinguished itself from Hollywood films of its time by introducing New Wave cinema storytelling methods into Black cinema.