In 2017, she was nominated for the Oscar for best documentary feature for her film "13th." Two years later, "Selma" helped DuVernay become the first Black woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe for best director and the first Black female director to be nominated for best picture. She was the first Black woman to win this award. The film received a number of key critics' prizes, including best film from the National Board of Review and one of the top 10 films of the year by the American Film Institute.Īva DuVernay first made a name for herself in Hollywood with her 2012 film "Middle of Nowhere." The film earned her the directing award in the U.S.
His most recent feature was "Da 5 Bloods," which was released on Netflix last year. In 2019, Lee finally claimed his first Oscar for best adapted screenplay for his work on "BlacKkKlansman." Lee was nominated for best documentary feature in 1998 for "4 Little Girls" and best original screenplay in 1990 for "Do the Right Thing." He received an honorary Oscar in 2016 for his directorial accomplishments. He was one of the few Black filmmakers making movies for a wide audience during that time and, while his films were not breaking box-office records, they were gaining critical attention. He has released a movie almost every year since 1986. Over the next 40 years, Lee would become known for his exploration of race relations, colorism in the Black community and urban crime and poverty. In the mid-'80s Spike Lee emerged in the film industry with "She's Gotta Have It," a film about the love life of a contemporary Black woman. Greaves, who passed away in 2014, is a member of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association. The meta-documentary, as it has come to be called, featured a documentary, a documentary about a documentary and a documentary that documented a documentary about a documentary. Greaves used three sets of camera crews: One documented the audition process and the actors, the second documented the first film crew and the third documented the actors and the two other film crews. The documentary focuses on actors as they prepare to audition for a dramatic piece. In the late 1960's Greaves garnered attention for his experimental film "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One." The avant-garde film chronicles a fictional documentary titled "Over the Cliff," which is directed by Greaves, who acts in it. His films captured social issues as well as key African American figures such as Muhammad Ali and Ida B. Kathleen Collins' work in the '80s paved the way for Julie Dash to become the first Black woman to have a film get a wide release in 1991.Įach of these directors helped push back barriers and inspire a new generation of Black filmmakers such as Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and Barry Jenkins, who have been recognized not only critically for their work but commercially at the global box office.Īn influential independent documentary filmmaker, William Greaves produced and directed more than 100 films. "I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable."ĭuring that time, Black female filmmakers were making strides.
"I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media," Lee wrote in a companion novel to "Do the Right Thing" published in 1989.
Then in the '80s and '90s, Spike Lee and John Singleton used their films to examine urban and racial tensions, providing a mainstream audience with more nuanced Black characters. Directors such as Melvin van Peebles and Gordon Parks put Black narratives at the forefront of their storytelling in the 1970s, creating a subgenre known as "blaxploitation." These films used Black stereotypes about poverty and drug abuse to put Black actors at the center of the action.