Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.
Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.
See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992
All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980
Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998
Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984
Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Stanley Nelson, 2015
The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, Stanley Nelson, 1999
Bright Road, Gerald Mayer, 1953
Cake Walk, Ulysses Jenkins, 1983
Chez Jolie Coiffure, Rosine Mbakam, 2018
Citizen Ruth, Alexander Payne, 1996**
Company Line, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2009
Death on the Nile, John Guillermin, 1978
Delphine’s Prayers, Rosine Mbakam, 2021
A Different Image, Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Buñuel, 1972
Don’t Play Us Cheap, Melvin Van Peebles, 1972
Dream City, Ulysses Jenkins, 1983
Ears, Nose and Throat, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2016
Erie, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2010
Far from Heaven, Todd Haynes, 2002
Feathers, A. V. Rockwell, 2018
Floyd Norman: An Animated Life, Michael Fiore and Erik Sharkey, 2016
Freedom Summer, Stanley Nelson, 2014
Glenville, Kevin Jerome Everson and Kahlil Pedizisai, 2020
The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell, 1972
The Heartland, Marquise Mays, 2021
Hive, Blerta Basholli, 2021
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), Joe Angio, 2005
IFO, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2017
Imitation of Life, Douglas Sirk, 1959
Inconsequential Doggereal, Ulysses Jenkins, 1981
Kansas City, Robert Altman, 1996**
The Learning Tree, Gordon Parks, 1969
Les cinq cent balles, Melvin Van Peebles, 1963
Lost Horizon, Frank Capra, 1937
Love Meetings, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964
Magnificent Obsession, Douglas Sirk, 1954
Mass of Images, Ulysses Jenkins, 1978
The Metamorphosis of Birds, Catarina Vasconcelos, 2020
Mississippi Mermaid, François Truffaut, 1969
The Movement of Things, Manuela Serra, 1985
Mutual Native Duplex, Ulysses Jenkins, 1990
Native Son, Pierre Chenal, 1951
The Nomadics, Ulysses Jenkins, 1991
No Place Like Home, Perry Henzell, 2006
Notions of Freedom, Ulysses Jenkins, 2007
Odds Against Tomorrow, Robert Wise, 1959
Omega Rising Women of Rastafari, D. Elmina Davis, 1988
Personal Best, Robert Towne, 1982
Pier Kids, Elegance Bratton, 2019
A Place of Our Own, Stanley Nelson, 2004
Planet X, Ulysses Jenkins, 2006
Rambling Rose, Martha Coolidge, 1991
A Reggae Session, Stephanie Bennett and Thomas Adelman, 1988
Remnants of the Watts Festival, Ulysses Jenkins, 1980
Rockers, Theodoros Bafaloukos, 1978
Running on Empty, Sidney Lumet, 1988
Self Divination, Ulysses Jenkins, 1989
Shaft, Gordon Parks, 1971
Sound That, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2014
The Square, Ruben Östlund, 2017**
The Story of a Three Day Pass, Melvin Van Peebles, 1967
Sun Children, Majid Majidi, 2020
Sunlight, Melvin Van Peebles, 1957
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Melvin Van Peebles, 1971
Tell Them We Are Rising, Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, 2017
Three Pickup Men for Herrick, Melvin van Peebles, 1957
The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman, Rosine Mbakam, 2018
Two-Zone Transfer, Ulysses Jenkins, 1979
The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry, Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough, 2008
Uptown Saturday Night, Sidney Poitier, 1974
Watermelon Man, Melvin Van Peebles, 1970
We the Ragamuffin, Julian Henriques, 1992
Without Your Interpretation, Ulysses Jenkins, 1983
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, Ranald MacDougall, 1959
Written on the Wind, Douglas Sirk, 1956
Zebrahead, Anthony Drazan, 1992
*Available in the U.S. only