The best cinema is not a product of a democracy; it is the singular vision of an auteur or craftsperson with a strong point of view and the skill to articulate it. While the question of cinematic authorship—meaning, who is a film “by,” the writer or director? —is as old as the artform itself, we have seen the legacies of many filmmakers take shape over time. Writers and directors provide us with the very fabric that is needed to tell a story and have the unique ability to equip us with a lens that allows us to view the world from different perspectives.
For too long, Black artists were deprived of the support and opportunity they needed to authentically tell their own stories. Beyond the difficulty of just getting the job, the nature of the stories they were able to tell was quite limiting. Rather than waiting for a “seat at the table,” many began to create their own work. In recent times, we've begun to witness a new age in cinema and television; one in which Black storytellers are being empowered to tell their stories. In turn, they’re helping to change the nature of the audience’s relationship to the material they see on screen.
Writers, directors … they are figureheads. They are the ones who craft the look, sound, and soul of the content we consume. They choose the stories to tell, and they decide how to tell them. And as opportunity and space are created to explore new ideas and themes, we are unlocking a wealth of cinema that some of us didn’t even know we were missing out on. This Black History Month, we want to call out a few of the many Black artists who are breaking barriers and exploring the storytelling space with fresh eyes and new ideas.
Ava DuVernay
After becoming the first Black woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, Ava Duvernay capitalized on her hard-earned momentum to create an illustrious body of work, notably starting with 2014’s Selma—a historical drama depicting the 1965 voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. For her work on Selma, DuVernay became the first Black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe and the first to have her film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. She was nominated for another Academy Award, this time for Best Documentary Feature, for her 2016 film 13th. In 2019, she co-wrote, produced, and directed When They See Us for Netflix. The limited series, based on the 1989 Central Park Jogger case, was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards and won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Limited Series. Last year, she debuted Colin in Black & White, her miniseries centered on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Tyler Perry
As a bit of a renaissance man, Tyler Perry is a successful actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and businessman. Coming into national prominence portraying his own character creation, Madea, in a series of films, Perry has ridden his creativity all the way to the bank, earning a place at the top of Forbes’ 2011 list of highest-paid entertainers. Often eschewing the traditional Hollywood pipeline (though he’s had plenty of success there as well), Perry created his own media infrastructure to produce content for a more diverse audience. In addition to his film output, he’s quite prolific in the TV space, having produced eight seasons of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne for TBS and multiple shows for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. A lauded writer, Perry has also filmed many of his staged plays for release. When he’s not generating content, he even pops up in major Hollywood fare as an actor with roles in Star Trek, Alex Cross, and Vice.
Jordan Peele
There are fewer filmmakers producing more interesting work than Jordan Peele. Period. Full stop. Since successfully navigating the tricky leap from television comedian to lauded genre filmmaker with the success of his directorial debut, Get Out, Peele has continued establishing himself as a once-in-a-generation auteur with follow-ups Us and (the upcoming) Nope. As an obvious fan of the rich history of genre filmmaking, Peele has managed to marry the techniques of John Carpenter with the social commentary of Spike Lee. With Get Out, he essentially created a new subgenre of filmmaking, the “social thriller.” His films are deeply personal and incredibly entertaining. And as both the writer and director, the vision is purely his. Through his work, Hollywood is gaining a new perspective on the Black experience, one that challenges audiences to rethink what they know in order to grow. Each new Jordan Peele film generates buzz, demands our attention, and piques our curiosity. In the end, that’s what a writer and director is supposed to do with their work.