Cinema can be a powerful tool for education. Back in February, for Black History Month, Rotten Tomatoes' sister site Fandango reached out to members of the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) to curate a list of 100 important films about the Black experience.
In the spirit of creating a dialogue, Rotten Tomatoes is republishing Fandango's list, which has been updated by AAFCA members with an additional 10 titles like George Tillman Jr.'s The Hate U Give and Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk. We also arranged the movies in descending chronological order, starting with newer films like 2019's Just Mercy with Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan and finishing with Oscar Micheaux's ground-breaking 1919 movie, The Homesteader.
The original list was created by Shawn Edwards, co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association.