Ten movies that are worth watching, or re-watching, to celebrate Black History Month

Clarke Peters starred in Spike Lee’s 2012 film, “Red Hook Summer.”

The government is ignoring Black History Month this year. But that doesn’t mean we have to.

Although the new administration and its allies see it as just another way to promote the dreaded DEI — diversity, equity, inclusion — celebrations like it offer an opportunity to honor lives that sometimes get ignored. A recent UCLA report on diversity said that people of color accounted for just 22 percent of the lead performances in American theatrical films — or only about half their proportion of the population. We can’t understand each other if we don’t see each other. Black History Month is one way to start to address that.

Too often, though, any list of works from Black filmmakers hits the same old titles — “Sounder,” “Shaft,” “12 Years a Slave.” The advice is well-meaning but can go unheard; as good as those classics inarguably are, who needs to be told to watch “Do the Right Thing” again?

So here is an updated list (in alphabetical order) of 10 relatively recent films, many of which you may have missed the first time around — and all of which are worth seeing now.

Taraji P. Henson and Tyrese Gibson in “Baby Boy.”

“Baby Boy” (2001). In between his breakthrough “Boyz n the Hood” and his blockbuster “2 Fast 2 Furious,” John Singleton directed this sometimes trippy, always tense drama, a meditation on fatherhood, family and Black masculinity. Tyrese Gibson — cast after Singleton’s original choice, Tupac Shakur, was murdered — leads a fine cast, with Mo’Nique, Snoop Dogg and Taraji P. Henson among the stars. And despite the bursts of violence, there is levity, too — including a scene of Ving Rhames, naked but for an apron, happily cooking breakfast.

“BlacKkKlansman” (2018). Although this film was nominated for a number of Academy Awards — and finally got Spike Lee an Oscar, for co-writing the screenplay — it deserved more attention, not only for its worth as a movie but as a signpost in Lee’s development. While previously his pictures often offered only a binary, Martin-or-Malcolm choice in fighting racism, here he makes a cogent case for parallel approaches (and, also, interracial alliances). And while he can’t help but lecture, occasionally, who cares when it’s Harry Belafonte delivering the lesson?

“The Hate U Give” (2018). At a time when “young adult” stories usually meant tearful romances and sci-fi dystopias, George Tillman Jr. directed this adaptation of a different kind of YA bestseller — the story of a teenage girl caught up in a routine traffic stop turned police shooting. Amandla Stenberg is terrific as the unbeatable heroine, but look for Common, Regina Hall, Anthony Mackie and a young Sabrina Carpenter in the cast — and sharp insights into the not-so-subtle snubs a Black student can face after getting into a “good” white school.

Regina Hall in “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

“If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018). The narratively audacious “Moonlight” made Barry Jenkins’ career (and won a Best Picture Oscar) but this, also unconventionally told, is at least as good: A heart-rending story of one Black man’s travels through the injustice system, as a cop with a grudge and a lying witness combine to get him railroaded on a rape charge. Regina King won a well-deserved Oscar for her role as a supportive parent, but just as stellar is James Laxton’s richly hued cinematography. Based on the James Baldwin novel.

“Lift” (2001). No, not last year’s Kevin Hart action-comedy (or any of the other, similarly titled films out there) but an indie crime story from DeMane Davis about a young woman who deals with the emotional hole in her life by filling it with stolen goods, all “boosted” from the upscale Boston department store where she works. Of course, things can’t really replace feelings — and the dangerous urge for bigger and bigger payoffs can’t long be denied. A smart little sleeper of a film, and an early look at just what budding star Kerry Washington was capable of.

“Love Jones” (1997). Here is a brief but probably necessary break from all these stories of crime, poverty and racism — a genuine romance, directed and written by Theodore Witcher. The hugely appealing leads are Nia Long and Larenz Tate; the setting is Black Chicago’s world of jazz-and-poetry clubs; the story is a bittersweet one of lovers seemingly stuck in a break-up-and-make-up cycle. Some of the poetry is courtesy of Sonia Sanchez; some of the music from Cassandra Wilson and The Refugee Camp All Stars featuring Lauryn Hill.

From left, Michael Potts, Chadwick Boseman and Colman Domingo in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020). This film only got a brief release before streaming on Netflix, and then seemingly got buried in the algorithms. Too bad. The classic August Wilson play about a fabled blues singer is smartly, simply brought to the screen by esteemed theatrical director George C. Wolfe, who isn’t afraid to let things occasionally get stagy — especially when the actors in the spotlight include Colman Domingo, a fierce Viola Davis and, in one of his last roles, Chadwick Boseman, who got a posthumous Oscar nomination. (watch trailer below)

“Mudbound” (2017). Another film that Netflix helped get made — then seemed to forget about, even after it garnered four Oscar nods, including one for Rachel Morrison, the first female cinematographer to be so acknowledged — “Mudbound” is an ambitious, sprawling story from director Dee Rees that follows two Mississippi families, one white and one Black, over decades. Harsh and sometimes almost Biblically brutal, especially in its last act, but marvelously, moodily photographed and with fine performances by Carey Mulligan and Jason Mitchell.

“Pariah” (2011). This first feature from director Dee Rees focused on a story rarely explored onscreen: a Black, working-class teenager in Brooklyn not only coming of age, but coming out to her conservative family. With young Adepero Oduye a standout as Lee, ably supported by such veterans as Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell, it’s a strong debut that showed the influence of Rees’ film-school mentor Spike Lee, while exploring its own fresh territory — particularly the collision between old-school values and modern LGBT lives.

“Red Hook Summer” (2012). Spike Lee returns to his beloved Brooklyn for the sixth time in this small-scale drama about a spoiled Atlanta teen who is sent up North to spend a few months with his stern grandfather, a fire-and-brimstone preacher. The usual conflicts ensue (and there is a plot twist you may not see coming, or accept when it does), but the film is carried by its two true stars: Englewood’s Clarke Peters, formidable as the preacher, and cinematographer Kerwin DeVonish, whose camera captures all the color and vibrancy of the neighborhood’s life.