A message picture is a motion picture that, in addition to or instead of being for entertainment, intends to communicate a certain message or ideal about society.
Andrea Desiree Lewis is a Canadian actress and singer, known for her role as Hazel Aden in the long-running TV series Degrassi: The Next Generation.
A sexploitation film is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films. The term "sexploitation" has been used since the 1940s.
Black women filmmakers have made contributions throughout the history of film. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for The Root, "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. In 2020, 74.6 percent of movie directors of theatrical films were white, showing a small decrease from the previous year. In terms of representation, 25.4 percent of film directors were of ethnic minority in 2020. Of the 25.4 percent of minority filmmakers, a small percentage was female.
Céline Sciamma is a French screenwriter and film director. She wrote and directed Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), Girlhood (2014), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), and Petite Maman (2021). Sciamma has received various awards and nominations for her films, including two BAFTA nominations for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Sydney Freeland is a Native American (Navajo) filmmaker. She wrote and directed the short film Hoverboard (2012) and the film Drunktown's Finest (2014), which garnered numerous acclaims after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Her second film, Deidra and Laney Rob a Train, debuted at Sundance and was released on Netflix in 2017.
Maïmouna Doucouré is a French filmmaker. She made her feature film directorial debut with Cuties in 2020, which became controversial following the film's international release on Netflix. On 8 March 2019 coinciding with the International Women's Day, she received the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women from the Academy Women's Initiative.
Ashleigh Murray is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her breakthrough role as Josie McCoy, the lead singer of the fictional band Josie and the Pussycats, on The CW television series Riverdale, which she starred in from 2017 to 2019. Murray reprised her role as Josie McCoy in the Riverdale spin-off series Katy Keene (2020) and returned to Riverdale as a guest star in 2021 and 2023. Murray has also starred in the films Deidra & Laney Rob a Train (2017) and Valley Girl (2020), as well as the television series Tom Swift (2022) and The Other Black Girl (2023).
Caila Marsai Martin is an American actress and producer, best known for her role as Diane Johnson on the ABC sitcom Black-ish (2014–2022).
Nikyatu Jusu is an American independent writer, director, producer, editor and assistant professor in film and video at George Mason University. Jusu's works center on the complexities of Black female characters and in particular, displaced, immigrant women in the United States. Her work includes African Booty Scratcher (2007), Flowers (2015), Suicide By Sunlight (2019), and Nanny, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She has endorsed the use of Generative artificial intelligence in filmmaking and uses the technology in her work.
Nefertite Nguvu is a writer, director, and producer and founder of the production company Hollywood Africans. Her multiple award-winning first feature film, In the Morning, was shot in eight days. Shadow and Act said of In the Morning, “Nguvu crafts each relationship and character as its own poem, evoking a certain emotion that is elevated by the cinematography of renowned image-maker Arthur Jafa.” She created her short film, The Last Two Lovers at the End of the World with AT&T Hello Lab.
Gary Lennon is an American playwright, television writer and executive producer. Lennon is currently the showrunner of Power Book IV: Force on Starz, and he is credited with elevating the series to critical acclaim after he stepped into the role in its second season. Lennon is also reported to be working on expanding the Power universe to additional spinoffs in his overall development deal with Lionsgate Television. Lennon was previously the co-showrunner of Power and Hightown, both for Starz and Lionsgate. He is also an executive producer on Euphoria for HBO. In 2013, Lennon won a Peabody Award for the first season of Orange is the New Black along with his fellow writers and producers.
Cuties is a 2020 French drama film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré in her feature directorial debut. The film's ensemble cast is led by Fathia Youssouf who portrays Amy, a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing who is caught between traditional Muslim values and Internet culture when she joins a twerking dance crew.
Diarra Kilpatrick is an American actress, writer and producer. She produced, wrote and starred in the ABC web-series, American Koko (2017), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series nomination. From 2020 to 2023, Kilpatrick starred in the HBO period drama series, Perry Mason. Kilpatrick created, produced and plays the leading role in the BET+ mystery comedy-drama series, Diarra from Detroit.
Tahara is a 2020 American drama film directed by Olivia Peace and written by Jess Zeidman. It premiered at the 2020 Slamdance Film Festival and was released to wide audiences on June 10, 2022. Tahara received awards from Outfest, Newfest, and the Denver International Film Festival.
Alma's Rainbow is American coming-of-age film directed by Ayoka Chenzira originally released in 1994. A restoration of the film, presented by Julie Dash, was released to theaters and streaming in 2022. The film received positive reviews from critics and was included in Slate's 2023 list of the 75 greatest movies by Black directors.
Diarra from Detroit is an American mystery dark comedy drama television series created by Diarra Kilpatrick and executive produced by Kilpatrick and Kenya Barris. The series stars Kilpatrick as a divorced schoolteacher who believes that she has been ghosted by her rebound Tinder date. Her search for the missing man pulls her into old mystery involving the Detroit underworld.
