In the wake of the demonstrations in support of the American Black Lives Matter movement, which were ignited following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we are back to talk about racism and discrimination.

We have selected from the web for you a list of 6 movies, to see or rewatch, that talk about racism, discrimination and minorities, yesterday and today.

I’m Not Your Negro by Raoul Peck (opening film of FESCAAAL 2017) – 95′

What has changed in 50 years of anti-racist struggles? Samuel L. Jackson tells us, the exceptional narrative voice accompanying us in a screen transposition of the never published manuscript Remember This House by the American intellectual and activist James Baldwin.

Recalling the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, which marked the history of the struggle for rights in the United States, the documentary is a powerful testament to the question of black identity between past and present.

The film is available for rental on Chili.com. Also, in celebration of the global protests, the film is streaming for free on Cinemafrica.se, in original language without subtitles.

13th by Ava DuVernay – 100′

The documentary, nominated for a 2017 Academy Award, draws its title from the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the one that abolished slavery in the United States of America in 1865.

Through interviews with activists of the caliber of Angela Davis, politicians, historians and representatives of the African-American community, it chronicles prejudices based on the concept of race that are still very much present in the American prison system today.

The documentary is available on Netflix which, in support of the #blacklivesmatter movement, has also released it for free on YouTube.

LA92 by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin – 114′

The documentary LA 92, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017, traces the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the verdict in the Rodney King case, the African-American taxi driver brutally beaten by police officers.

The reconstruction through unpublished archival material and interviews, transports us to those tumultuous days of protest, providing a multi-faceted and in-depth perspective on a very important moment in the past, and today so relevant.

The film can be viewed on Netflix.

BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee – 140′

The film is the film adaptation of the book Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film tells his story as Colorado Spring’s first African-American cop who, in the early 1970s, posed as a racist white man and infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.

“Infiltrate Hate” quotes the original poster of this film, which mixes genres and registers to render a lucid, cynical and very contemporary fresco, between entertainment and denunciation, of some of the issues most dear to the director and a subject of constant debate for American society. The film won in 2018, the Oscar for Best Non-Original Screenplay.

The film is available on Amazon Prime Video.

The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975 by Göran Olsson – 100′

An invaluable documentary film that collects images, sounds and valuable testimonies of many significant activists and personalities of the struggles against racial discrimination of, just to name a few Angela Davis, Erika Badu and Harry Belafonte.

The Black Power Movement, its struggles and its hopes are told historically and politically, in their complexity, in an alternation of voices of scholars and scholars and ordinary people who give an in-depth and unpublished reading, seasoned with a catchy soundtrack signed by Ahmir Questlove Thompson and Om’Mas Keith, member of the hip hop group Sa-Ra.

The film can be seen on Amazon Prime Video. More information and insights on the site of the Italian distributor Wanted Cinema.

What to do when the world is in flames? by Roberto Minervini – 120′

In his documentary, Roberto Minervini, an Italian author transplanted in the States, tells of that underground America which is often denied an identity. On the occasion of the protests of the black community in 2017, his camera welcomes and collects real characters who help paint an empathetic and lucid picture that captures the poetic nuances of places of strong cultural métissage.

A film dedicated to minorities that does not diminish the complexities of reality, thanks in part to the director’s approach built on the relationship of trust and affection with his protagonists.

The film is available for rental in the virtual theatre of the MioCinema platform, for a limited period.