October marks Black History Month in the UK, and whilst we believe it should be celebrated all year round, it’s still an important, essential time to engage with the achievements and stories of Black people around the world.
Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime & Disney+ can give us access to the history that we weren’t taught in school, showing us through storytelling the work that’s already been done in the fight for racial equality and reflecting the Black experience past and present.
Check out our list of must watch films, documentaries and series:
Just Mercy
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. One of his first cases is that of Walter McMillian, who is sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Stevenson encounters racism and legal and political maneuverings as he tirelessly fights for McMillian’s life.
Watch on Now TV / Sky Cinema
Harriet
From her escape from slavery through the dangerous missions she led to liberate hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad, the story of heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman is told.
Watch on Amazon Prime
Queen and Slim
Slim and Queen’s first date takes an unexpected turn when a policeman pulls them over for a minor traffic violation. When the situation escalates, Slim takes the officer’s gun and shoots him in self-defense. Now labeled cop killers in the media, Slim and Queen feel that they have no choice but to go on the run and evade the law. When a video of the incident goes viral, the unwitting outlaws soon become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people all across the country.
Watch on Amazon Prime
Selma
Ava DuVernay’s powerful drama Selma tells the incredible story of how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the epic march from Selma to Montgomery to secure equal voting rights in an event that forever altered history.
Watch on Netflix
Black Panther
Long Live The King!
Watch on Disney+
When They See US
In 1989 a jogger was assaulted and raped in New York’s Central Park, and five young people were subsequently charged with the crime. The quintet, labeled the Central Park Five, maintained its innocence and spent years fighting the convictions, hoping to be exonerated. This limited series spans a quarter of a century, from when the teens are first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, going through their exoneration in 2002 and ultimately the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014.
Watch on Netflix
BlacKkKlansman
Ron Stallworth is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman, into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the extremist hate group as the organization aims to sanitize its rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream.
Watch on Netflix
Lovecraft Country
Based on Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country follows Atticus Freeman as he meets up with his friend Letitia and his uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.
Watch on Sky Atlantic / Now TV
13th
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
Watch on Netflix
Da 5 Bloods
Four African American veterans return to Vietnam decades after the war to find their squad leader’s remains — and a stash of buried gold. From Spike Lee.
Watch on Netflix
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
The six-episode series tells the story of the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, and follows the rise of Black Lives Matter movement.
Watch on Amazon Prime
A United Kingdom
An English woman’s marriage to Botswana’s royal heir causes diplomatic uproar, but the couple fights against all odds to follow their hearts.
Watch on Netflix