Just Mercy, 13th, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, I am Not Your Negro

Free films to stream right now to help you understand #BlackLivesMatter Please protest (wear a mask), register to vote, affect change.

Just Mercy

A powerful true story that follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his battle for justice as he defends a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence.

Just Mercy
Michael B. Jordan in Just Mercy – Courtesy Prime Video

13th

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.

13TH, Angela Davis, Courtesy Netflix

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

David France’s The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, is a deeply compelling look at the murder of a transgender legend, known as “the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement.” The powerful, haunting film is France’s follow-up to his Academy Award® nominated How to Survive a Plague. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is presented by Public Square Films; Joy A. Tomchin and Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy) served as executive producers; L.A. Teodosio produced.

Marhsa P Johnson, Courtesy Netflix

I am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America, using the writer’s original words, as read by actor Samuel L. Jackson. Alongside a flood of rich archival material, the film draws upon Baldwin’s notes on the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. to explore and bring a fresh and radical perspective to the current racial narrative in America.

Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.