For Queen and Country Denzel Washington stars as a British paratrooper who returns to the London council estate of his youth, only to find his wartime service counts for nothing. Drama 1989 101 mins Martin Stellman Black Girl The first major work by African master Ousmane Sembène, about a Senegalese maid’s despair, brims with both New Wave vitality and African heart. Drama 1965 59 mins Ousmane Sembène Within Our Gates Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director – presents a fascinating black counterpoint to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Drama 1919 74 mins Oscar Micheaux Birthright Oscar Micheaux directs the story of a Harvard graduate whose attempts to establish a rural school runs into opposition from both races. Drama 1938 74 mins Oscar Micheaux Blood of Jesus Spencer Williams feverish melodrama about a woman’s flirtation with Satan was independently produced out of Texas with an amateur cast and a budget of $5,000. Drama 1941 56 mins Spencer Williams Bullet Boy Ashley Walters impresses in the hard-hitting Hackney drama that’s still one of the best of Britain’s black urban crime films. Drama 2005 86 mins Saul Dibb One Love Rick Elgood and the legendary Don Letts direct this reggae romance about a rasta musician whose affair with a gospel-singing preacher’s daughter causes a stir in Kingston. Romance 2005 96 mins Rick Elgood and Don Letts Pressure Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted black youths in 1970s London; now available in its new restoration. Drama 1978 121 mins Horace Ové Playing Away A cricketing comedy of manners exploring white and black stereotypes, from pioneering British filmmaker Horace Ové. Sport 1986 102 mins Horace Ové The Stuart Hall Project Composed of film, music and photographs from the archives, a fascinating portrait of the life and times of the founder of cultural studies and the New Left Experience. Documentary 2013 99 mins John Akomfrah The Nine Muses John Akomfrah mixes archive material, literary and musical quotations and newly shot silent footage in a wry, rapt meditation on memory and migration. Documentary 2012 92 mins John Akomfrah Burning an Illusion Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London. Drama 1982 102 mins Menelik Shabazz Young Soul Rebels The Queen's Silver Jubilee beats to the sounds of Funkadelic, Sylvester and the O'Jays in Isaac Julien’s feature debut. Drama 1991 105 mins Isaac Julien B.D. Women Sassy, stylised documentary exploring the hidden histories of black lesbians. 1994 20 mins Campbell X Straight to Hell Alex Cox’s anarchic homage to the spaghetti western, with arguably cinema’s wildest cast: Dennis Hopper, Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Grace Jones and Shane MacGowan. Comedy Western 1987 86 mins Alex Cox Julius Caesar Gregory’s Doran’s innovative Shakespeare interpretation transplants the action to post-independence Africa. Drama 2012 151 mins Gregory Doran
