August 2023 Film Watches

Lorraine Touissant, Charli’ Gurl, and Pernell Walker star in Jenn Shaw’s Gaps. DP: Michelle Clementine.

I attended the Twelfth Annual Blackstar Film Festival virtually, watching over thirty films— shorts, documentaries, feature lengths, all wonderful, unique, and profound in their own way. Thus, this beautiful interlude in the final summer month offers cinematic replenishment directed and written by people of color showcasing profound truth. Many of us look forward to this three day weekend to bear witness to the things we either already know (physically or intuitively) or to discover, to relearn the stories and histories that exposes us. We are fully engaged, captivated, healed. 

Furthermore, Blackstar Film Festival continues to offer us reprieve from white centered narratives— at least for a sweet, humble while.  

August Film Watches


1.) “Beneath The Surface” (2023) Cai Thomas #*+ 8/10

2.) “Sol In The Garden” (2023) Débora Souza Silva and Emily Cohen Ibañez #*^ 8/10

3.) “What These Walls Won’t Hold” (2022) Adamu Chan #^ 8/10

4.) “This Place” (2022) V. T. Nayani #*^ 7/10

5.) “Sweatshop Girl” (2023) Selma Cervantes #*^ 9.5/10

6.) “Sundown Road” (2022) M. Asil Dukan #*+ 6.5/10

7.) “Living Proof” (2022) Tina Farris #*+ 8.5/10

8.) “The Vacation” (2022) Jarreau Carrillo #^ 9/10

9.) “The Freedom To Fall Apart” (2023) David A. Gaines #^ 6/10

10.) “A Place of Our Own” (2022) Ektara Collective #^ 8.5/10

11.) “Jonathan Thunder Good Mythology” (2023) Sergio Mata’u Rapu #^ 8/10

12.) “Sydney G. James: When We See Us” (2022) Juanita Anderson #*+ 10/10

13.) “Yo Soy Bella Negra” (2023) Vashni Korin #*+ 10/10

14.) “Fierceness Served! The EnikAlley Coffeehouse” (2021) Michelle Parkerson #*+ 9.5/10

15.) “Here, Hopefully” (2023) Hao Zhou #^ 8.5/10

16.) “The Script” (2023) Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus #^ 6.5/10

17.) “Pandemic Bread” (2023) Zeinabu irene Davis #*+ 9.5/10

18.) “Bone Black: Midwives Vs. The South” (2023) Imani Nikyah Dennison #*+ 9/10

19.) “The Aunties” (2022) Charlyn Griffith-Oro and Jeannine Kayembe-Oro #*+ 8/10

20.) “Mirasol” (2023) Annalise Lockhart #*+ 10/10

20.) “Gaps” (2023) Jenn Shaw #*+ 10/10

21.) “Looking Back At It” (2023) Felicia Pride #*+ 8/10

22.) “Team Dream” (2022) Luchina Fisher #*+ 7/10

23.) “MnM” (2023) Twiggy Pucci Garçon #^ 8.5/10

24.) “Accidental Athlete” (2023) Kevin Jerome Everton and Claudrena N. Harold #+*^ 8/10

25.) “Over The Wall” (2023) Krystal Tingle #*+ 10/10

26.) “Ampe: Leap Into The Sky, Black Girl” (2022) Claudia Owusu and Ife Oluwamuyide #*+ 10/10

27.) “The Alexander Ball” (2022) Jessica Magro #^ 9/10

28.) “Know Your Place” (2022) Zia Mohajerjasbi #^ 6/10

29.) “Spirit Emulsion” (2022) Siku Allooloo #*^ 9/10

30.) “Mother Just a Smile” 2022) Cyrielle Raingou #*+ 10/10

31.) “The After: A Chef’s Wish” (2022) Umar Riaz #^ 9/10

32.) “Sèt Lam” (2022) Vincent Fontano #^ 8.5/10

33.) “Between The Colony and The Stars” (2022) Lorran Dias #^ 8/10

34.) “Crooklyn” (1994) Spike Lee ^ 10/10

35.) “Coconut Head Generation” (2023) Alain Kassanda #^ 9.5/10

36.) “Is My Living In Vain” (2022) Ufuoma Essi #*+ 9/10

37.) “The Space Race” (2023) Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Lisa Cortés #*+ 10/10

38.) “Conversations With Ruth de Souza” (2022) Juliana Vicente #^ 10/10

39.) “Paid In Full” (2002) Charles Stone III ^ 6/10

# first time watch 

*woman filmmaker 

*+Black woman filmmaker 

*^ nonwhite woman filmmaker 

^nonwhite filmmaker 

Other notes: list of 39 films: 37 first time watches, 39 films directed/written by nonwhite filmmakers, and 26 films made and/or co-made by women.