Black Film Gaze

“I don’t think I’ve necessarily been able to pick and choose in my career, I don’t know how many people do. But I’ll tell you what I’ve been able to do, I’ve been able to say no. It is the only thing you can hold on to sometimes, is that ability to say ‘no.’ And I think that in that way you can create some kind of career. And then you can sort of lobby for the parts you want. Because I also don’t want to do parts that I don’t think I’d be any good at. I don’t need to be everywhere, I don’t need to be working all the time. I don’t need to be doing parts just because I think it’s a stepping stone to getting somewhere else. What I have wanted to do is take roles that are unexpected for people who look like me. Roles that the establishment would say, ‘Oh, she couldn’t possibly be that.’ Because, why not?” (2016)

TAYLOUR PAIGE IN ZOLA (2020)

GIRL 6 (1996) dir. Spike Lee

Cane River (1982) // dir. Horace B. Jenkins

Guns of the Trees (1961)

Ayo Edebiri as Ariel Ecton — OPUS (2025) dir. Mark Anthony Green

2025: Black Movies 🎬 🎞

Dahomey (2024) | dir. Mati Diop

Lynn Whitfield in Eve’s Bayou (1997). Photographed by Marietta Carter-Narcisse.

"What's with the arsenal, Bernadette? We're only going eight blocks." | "You're the one who got us dressed like cops." | "I said just dress up conservatively." | "Yeah, well we look like cops." Horror Character Appreciation - Kasi Lemmons as Bernadette Walsh in Candyman (1992) dir. Bernard Rose

Love, Brooklyn (2025) dir. Rachael Abigail Holder

Diana Ross in Mahogany (1975) Dir. Berry Gordy

With her début feature, “Atlantics”—a gothic romance, a political fable about labor and migration, and an homage to Dakar, Senegal—Diop won international renown. But she passed on big-budget Hollywood projects (including “The Woman King”) before making her latest film, a fantastical documentary about art restitution. “Dahomey,” which chronicles the repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France’s Musée du Quai Branly to Benin, has reignited a moribund international debate about art restitution and transformed Diop into a French media fixture. “I wanted to make a film that would restore our desire for ourselves,” she said. Read Lucas’s profile of the filmmaker: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/Vx_yXq

ONE OF THEM DAYS (2025) starring KEKE PALMER & SZA dir. Lawrence Lamont

Before the academy gala by Morgan Maher (October 2024)