Every year, Black History Month gives the whole country a chance to stop and think about what African Americans have done for society, the arts, and sports. Toni Morrison, Jackie Robinson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and so many other people who came before or after them can be honored in a lot of different ways.
As part of CinemaBlend’s ongoing partnership with Plex, where you can find dozens of films and documentaries by or about incredibly strong and influential Black filmmakers, actors, characters, and other figures, we’ve put together a list of some of the free streaming movies you can watch to celebrate Black History Month. There are a lot of great choices, whether you want a powerful drama, an interesting documentary, or something funny…
Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017)
Jean-Michel Basquiat will always be remembered as one of the most prolific and unique artists in New York City in the 1980s. He started out as a graffiti artist before becoming a major player in the Neo-expressionism movement. In her 2017 film Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sara Driver focuses less on the late artist’s huge impact on the art world in the 1980s and his tragic death at age 27 in 1988 than on his rise to fame in the 1970s. The documentary uses interviews with Lee Quiones, Fab 5 Freddy, Jim Jarmusch, and others to show how the young artist’s work affected them.
Dolemite (1975)
Rudy Ray Moore started making movies in 1975 with the blaxploitation movie Dolemite. For years, he had taken his comedy act on the road and sold hundreds of thousands of records. Moore mostly paid for the movie with his own money. It’s about a pimp and nightclub owner who is let out of prison to get back at the corrupt cops who put him there. It’s easy to see why Dolemite was such a huge financial success and cult classic after it came out. It’s funny, has a low-budget charm, and has a lot of kung fu.
Good Hair (2009)
In the 2009 documentary Good Hair, which was directed by Jeff Stilson, Chris Rock looks into different issues about how Black women style their hair. The documentary is an honest and informative look at African American culture. It talks about the history of hairstyles, the billion-dollar styling industry, and a number of other related topics. Rock sits down with Nia Long, KRS-One, Eve, Al Sharpton, and the late Paul Mooney, among others, and talks to them about the cultural impact of women’s hairstyles. The documentary is sometimes funny, but it never loses its power.
Hurricane Season (2009)
Tim Story’s Hurricane Season came out while much of southern Louisiana was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina’s long-term effects. The movie is about high school basketball coach Al Collins (Forest Whitaker), who gives his players, their families, and the community of Marrero, Louisiana, something worth fighting for: hope for a better future and rebirth after the disaster.
I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
In 2016, director Raoul Peck took James Baldwin’s unfinished book Remember This House, filled in the blanks, and made one of the most powerful and important documentaries of the last ten years. I Am Not Your Negro, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, looks at the bad parts of America’s history and how they affected people like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. The late Baldwin was interviewed for the documentary, which gives an honest look at how racism affected almost every part of American life.
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel If Beale Street Could Talk was turned into a movie by Barry Jenkins in 2018. It tells the story of Fonny Hunt (Stephan James) and Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne), who are torn apart when Fonny is falsely accused of raping a woman. Tish turns to people in her community, like her Oscar-winning mother Sharon (Regina King), to find the strength to go on when she gets pregnant with her boyfriend’s child.
Nelson Mandela: Resistance (2017)
Nelson Mandela: Resistance is a documentary about the life and legacy of the famous anti-apartheid activist and president of South Africa. It was made by NJ Silva and came out four years after Mandela died in 2013. This short but insightful documentary uses old footage and interviews with people who knew Mandela best to show how he changed not only South Africa but also the rest of the world.
As part of Black History Month, all of these movies and documentaries, as well as many more, are streaming for free on Plex throughout the month of February.
This article was made by CinemaBlend as part of a deal with Plex. The information in this article comes from CinemaBlend alone and is not influenced by anyone else.
Ruby’s Bucket Of Blood (2001)
Ruby’s Bucket of Blood is a 2001 TV movie directed by Peter Werner. It is about Ruby Delacroix (Angela Bassett), a black nightclub owner in Louisiana whose professional and personal lives are changed forever when she hires a white singer, Billy Dupre (Kevin Anderson), to perform at her club. Ruby doesn’t know it yet, but what she does will hurt her business and her relationship with her husband, Earl.
The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
Just a few years after breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson, star of the Brooklyn Dodgers and future Hall of Famer, played himself in Alfred E. Green’s dramatization of the Civil Rights leader’s life. The Jackie Robinson Story is the name of the movie, which shows how Robinson went from being a star on the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues to becoming an American icon when he played in the Major League for the first time.
The Jackie Robinson Story is available on Plex.
Hurricane Season stars Forest Whitaker.
The Temptations (1998)
The Temptations, a 1998 miniseries on NBC, tells the story of the influential Motown group that wrote songs like “My Girl,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” as well as their meteoric rise to fame and continued success. It also shows the problems the group’s members had outside of the spotlight. This two-part celebration of the group’s impact on the music industry and society as a whole features amazing performances by Leon Robinson, D.B. Woodside, Terron Brooks, Charles Malik Whitfield, and Christian Payton as the original Temptations.
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019)
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, a documentary by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, came out just a few months before the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner died. It looks at her life, writings, and impact on American society and culture over the course of her career. The documentary is narrated by Morrison herself and talks about her most famous books, like The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and her children’s books. People like Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, and Barack Obama, who was the former president of the United States, also show up.
