To Our Creative Community:

We join the numerous voices around New York University and stand with our Black staff, artists, students, alumni, faculty, colleagues, and friends in mourning and in anger at the continued senseless killings of Black people.  

In the words of our friend and colleague Kasi Lemmons, “As a filmmaker, I help people imagine what it’s like to be someone else, to experience things from a character’s point of view — things they will never experience outside the theater. But when it comes to black life in America, there is only one conclusion I can reach about some white people: You don’t care to put yourself in our shoes. The consequences of this lack of imagination for black Americans are deadly.”

We believe in the power of storytelling and the power of imagination to create empathy and make change and will fight to elevate and amplify the Black voices and storytellers inside and outside of our community. #BlackStoriesMatter

Please find below resources for Anti-Racism Education, Opportunities for Protest, Giving, and Wellness Resources for those who are struggling, and more.

We will continue our own education and utilize these resources to challenge the biases in our own thoughts, processes, and work. And we reaffirm our foundational value of inclusivity — an exclusive entertainment industry is precisely the paradigm we are seeking to change. We want a crowded table of diverse stories and storytellers paving the way for change.

To our Black staff, artists, students, alumni, faculty, colleagues, and friends: we see you, we hear you, and we stand with you.

In solidarity,

The Production Lab

Action & Education Resources

Below is a list of resources that may be of assistance. While we do not endorse any of the non-NYU sites listed or provide legal advice in any way, we have compiled these resources to support your search.

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Art/Watch List 

*Members of the NYU creative community

FILM

  • 13th, Documentary Feature, Dir. Ava DuVernay (Streaming FREE on YouTube, Netflix)
  • Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Documentary Feature, Dir. Göran Olsson (Rent: YouTube, Google Play)
  • Blindspotting, Narrative Feature, Dir. Carlos López Estrada (HBO, Rent: YouTube)
  • Cronies, Narrative feature, Dir. Michael J. Larnell (Rent: YouTube)
  • Death of Two Sons, Narrative documentary, Dir. Micah Schaffer, Prod. Alrick Brown
  • Evolution of a Criminal, Narrative documentary. Dir. Darius Clark Monroe (Rent: YouTube)
  • Eyimofe (This is My Desire), Narrative feature. Dir. Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
  • Harriet, Narrative feature, Dir. Kasi Lemmons (Rent: YouTube)
  • I Am Not Your Negro, Documentary Feature, Dir. Raoul Peck (Rent: YouTube)
  • Just Mercy, Narrative Feature, Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton (Streaming FREE on Amazon)
  • A Kid From Coney Island, Documentary Feature, Dir. Coodie, Chike Ozah, Prod. Jason Samuels, Forest Whitaker, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Kevin Durant (Rent: AppleTV, iTunes, YouTube)
  • Kinyarwanda, Narrative feature. Dir. Alrick Brown (Rent: Amazon)
  • Luce, Narrative feature, Dir. Julius Onah (Hulu, Rent: Amazon)
  • Mediterranea, Narrative feature. Dir. Jonas Carpignano
  • Monsters and Men, Narrative Feature, Dir. Reinaldo Marcus Green (Hulu, Rent: YouTube, Vudu)
  • Mudbound, Narrative Feature, Dir. Dee Rees (Netflix)
  • Newlyweeds, Narrative feature. Dir. Shaka King (Rent: YouTube)
  • Nigerian Prince, Narrative feature. Dir. Faraday Okoro
  • Premature, Narrative feature, Dir. Rashaad Ernesto Green (Rent: Amazon)
  • See You Yesterday, Narrative Feature, Dir. Stefon Bristol (Netflix)
  • Sorry To Bother You, Narrative Feature, Dir. Boots Riley (Hulu, Rent: YouTube)
  • Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement, Documentary Short Subject, Dir. Laurens Grant (iTunes, YouTube)
  • Whose Streets?, Documentary Feature, Dir. Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis (Hulu, Kanopy)
  • List of films distributed by Array 
  • Black Women Directors – Director Index
  • IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) Spotlight on Black Filmmakers & Organizations

TV

  • American Crime, Anthology Series, Creator John Ridley (Netflix, YouTube)
  • Atlanta, Series, Creator Donald Glover (Hulu, FX)
  • When They See Us, Limited Series, Creator/Dir. Ava DuVernay (Netflix)

PODCASTS

PLAYS/MUSICALS *Many of these plays are available for purchase on dramatists.com

MUSIC

FILMMAKER RESOURCES

  • Array – The rebirth of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) founded by filmmaker Ava DuVernay in 2010: an independent film distribution and resource collective comprised of arts advocacy organizations, maverick volunteers and rebel member donors worldwide. 
  • Blackhouse Foundation – Helps Black creative voices and executives gain a better foothold in the industry by showcasing the best-of-the-best in film and television and highlighting the power of both budding and experienced Black writers, producers, directors, and executives.
  • Black Creators Forum – Designed to ease the barrier of entry for Black artists who would like to work in film, the Forum hosts a two day symposium of panels, discussions, and workshops for Black filmmakers, scholars, and critics, as well as year-round screenings, meet-ups, and artist support programs, including a free-for-all Pitch Rally during the festival, with a $10,000 bounty prize. 
  • Black Documentary Collective – Founded by documentarian St. Clair Bourne, The Black Documentary Collective (BDC) provides filmmakers, video producers and media professionals of African descent, with the opportunity to network and promote each others’ work.
  • Black Women Directors – An ever-growing digital library, newsletter and list of resources that celebrate Black women and nonbinary filmmakers around the globe.
  • Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) – An initiative advocating for women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary film industry around the world.
  • The Melacast Network – Founded by Tisch students to provide space for creatives of color in the film industry to find community, this network is “making diversity in the industry the norm.” Check out the platform built to connect actors, directors, and crew of color with the opportunities, talent and resources needed to tell culturally rich/diverse stories in film.
  • New Negress Film Society – A core collective of Black women filmmakers whose priority is to create community and spaces for support, exhibition and consciousness-raising, including the annual Black Women Film Conference. 
  • Southern Producers Lab – The program produced and presented by the New Orleans Film Society, designed to bring together 10 emerging, diverse producers from around the South for an intensive series of workshops, panels, one-on-one mentoring sessions, and community-building opportunities over the course of three convenings throughout the year.

Education-based Resources

READING *Most titles can be purchased on bookshop.org

Non-fiction

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindess by Michelle Alexander
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 
  • Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo
  • For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Christopher Emdin
  • Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
  • How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
  • The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
  • New York Times An Antiracist Reading List

Fiction 

  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
  • The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  • This Is What America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar
  • The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
  • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

ARTICLES, GUIDES & WEBINARS

Wellness