Our film critics, looking at the complex history of black filmmaking in America, chose 28 essential works. We’ll be highlighting a film from their list each day in February. nyti.ms/2DVxhcI
1. “Within Our Gates” (1920): A stunning rejoinder to white supremacy that was written, directed and produced by Oscar Micheaux, a pioneering director of race movies nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
2. "Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage" (1928): The author and anthropologist's look at ordinary black Southerners is her indelible contribution to cinema nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
3. “Black and Tan” & “St. Louis Blues” (1929): Built around Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith, these 2 shorts pay tribute to African-American art and acknowledge the hard circumstances in which it flowered nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
4. “Hell-Bound Train” (1930, directed by James and Eloyce Gist): Nearly everyone here may be headed straight to hell, but most look as if they’re having a swell time getting there nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
5. "Imitation of Life" (1934): A product of its segregated moment, the movie’s power comes from the relationship between a maid and her daughter, a restlessly unhappy soul who passes as white nyti.ms/2BMQKpU 
6. “Show Boat” (1936): This version of the 1920s musical is notable for the frankness of its subplot about passing and for the galvanic presence of Paul Robeson nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
7. “Stormy Weather” (1943): An anthology of great performances featuring Bill Robinson, a.k.a. Bojangles; Lena Horne; Fats Waller; and other celebrated dancers, comedians and musicians. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
8. “Dirty Gertie From Harlem U.S.A.” (1946): If Francine Everett — the star of this all-black drama — had been born decades later, she might have been a name everyone remembers. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
9. “Intruder in the Dust” (1949): A movie that Ralph Ellison said was the only film of its era "that could be shown in Harlem without arousing unintended laughter" nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
10. “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950): The filmmakers stuck to the truth (more or less), and in doing so made a mockery of the mainstream industry’s screen segregation. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
11. “The Defiant Ones” (1958): There's plenty to roll your eyes at in this movie. But Sidney Poitier’s wit and charisma transcend the material and render it believable. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
12. “Shadows” (1959): John Cassavetes’s landmark independent film about 3 black siblings of varying skin tones — only one of whom was played by a black actor, a casting decision that speaks to the time nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
13. “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One” (1968): All but forgotten until the early 2000s, the film is mischievously eloquent on the struggles of the black artist in a supposedly liberal society nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
14. "The Story of a Three-Day Pass" (1968): An affair between a black soldier and a young Frenchwoman becomes a prism for a 1960s theme: the longing for liberation in the face of deeply entrenched, absurd obstacles nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
15. "The Learning Tree" (1969): The moment Gordon Parks called "action" on the set, he broke decades of Hollywood apartheid, becoming the first African-American director of a major studio production nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
16. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970): Ossie Davis's movie gave Blaxploitation its literary and Hollywood pedigree. The volatile, often contradictory politics are especially pointed here. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
17. "I Am Somebody" (1970): The director, Madeline Anderson, lets striking female workers speak for themselves, a choice that puts their fight for self-determination into stirring terms nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
18. "Ganja & Hess" (1973): Directed by Bill Gunn, a fixture of the New York black independent film movement, the movie's a sensual, scholarly, magic-realist exploration of black history and black desire nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
19. "Killer of Sheep" (1977): One of the essential films of American cinema, “Killer of Sheep” sings a song of love, family, brutalizing despair and ineffable, persistent human dignity. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
20. “Stir Crazy” (1980): For movie fans who came of age in the late '70s, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor were an unparalleled interracial buddy act. As a director, Sidney Poitier shows a silly side behind the camera that he rarely indulged in front of it. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
21. “Losing Ground” (1982): Identity is among the themes that wend through Kathleen Collins’s film, which feels just as personal and vital now as it did over 35 years ago. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
22. “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986): Spike Lee’s debut feature remains a loving, lovely portrait of black bohemia. (That said, the sexual politics may look problematic in hindsight.)
23. “Tongues Untied” (1989): This passionate, angry mix of documentary, memoir and poetry is a milestone in both New Black and New Queer cinema. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
24. “House Party” (1990): The rap duo Kid ’n Play star in an exuberant teenage comedy that mixes rebellious mischief and respect for elders. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
25. "Daughters of the Dust" (1991): Beyonce’s "Lemonade" sparked the latest revival of interest in this masterpiece, a beautiful work of historical reconstruction and feminist imagination. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
26. “Malcolm X” (1992): Denzel Washington dominates almost every frame of this electrifying epic, one of Spike Lee’s most enduring films. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
27. "Devil in a Blue Dress" (1995): As a man traverses both black and white L.A., the film offers up a rich vision of African-American life almost entirely absent from Hollywood’s fantasies. nyti.ms/2BMQKpU
