12 Black Female Filmmakers Who Struck Gold at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
Reframing Hollywood Through the Black Female Gaze: A Black History Month Series (Part 4)
Image: Rye Lane, Searchlight Pictures
Congratulations on making it through the series!
Hopefully, you either discovered or re-acquainted yourself with the incredible Black female talent reshaping Hollywood.
In this last installment, we’ll look toward the future.
Exceptional moviemakers premiered their passion projects this year at America’s mecca of independent cinema, The Sundance film festival (Sundance).
Sundance offers the biggest stage and the brightest lights for art house films and their respective maestros behind the camera.
Glitzy LA may drive box office success with its big budgets and popularity contests. Still, Park City, Utah, a picturesque, snow-capped mountain town, is where complex storytelling reigns supreme on the big screen.
What started as a small outlet for independent voices has broadened into a showcase for underrepresented talent.
The Robert Redford-founded institution remains committed to prioritizing innovative artists over interchangeable intellectual property, especially regarding women storytellers.
The institute appointed veteran filmmaker and executive CEO Joana Vicente in September 2021. She’s the first Latina woman to helm the festival, and her vision to feature more female voices shows.
In 2023, female directors comprised more than half of the entries in the U.S. and World Cinema Competition categories.
These entries include award winners A. V. Rockwell’s, A Thousand and One, and Michèle Stephenson’s, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, who took home the festival’s top honors.
Unlike most major award organizations, Sundance continuously expands its line-up of diverse creatives. And this year marks its highest number of women and BIPOC filmmakers yet.
“Of the 101 feature films announced so far, 54 (53%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as women; 5 (5%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as nonbinary individuals; 46 (45%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as people of color; 20 (20%) by one or more filmmakers who identify as LGBTQ+; 3 (3%) by one or more filmmakers who identify as a person with a disability.” - Sundance 2023 Line-up via Women in Film
While the festival showcased a record number of female filmmakers from around the globe, Black women distinguished themselves by telling poignant narratives reflective of their myriad experiences.
From a struggling mother surviving a shifting 1990s New York landscape to a vibrant British rom-com embodying Black joy, their vivid films explore the unique challenges facing marginalized communities, including transgender sex workers.
These gifted auteurs use the camera as an empathy machine to redefine why connection and belonging matter. They encourage us to impart more tolerance to each other and ourselves.
Here are eleven exciting Black female filmmakers who made a big impression at this year’s Sundance film festival with their genre-defying feature films.
Image: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Penetrating documentaries showcase courageous game-changing trailblazers.
1. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster
Film: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, 2023
Starring: Nikki Giovanni, famous American poet, writer, activist, and educator
What It’s About: An intimate verité that chronicles the extraordinary life and legacy of one of America’s greatest poets
Why It’s Worth Watching: Stephenson and Brewster’s dreamlike mindscape is a mesmerizing, sublime exploration into the life and legacy of Black America’s premier Afrofuturist. They introduce Giovanni and her long-standing efforts to eradicate inequality to audiences unfamiliar with her work. Their visually innovative film won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize for U. S. Documentary.
2. Bethann Hardison, Frédéric Tcheng
Film: Invisible Beauty, 2023
Starring: Bethann Hardison, fashion trailblazer turned agent and activist
What It’s About: A tribute to a revolutionary Black supermodel who ushered in an era of radical change within the fashion world
Why It’s Worth Watching: Hardison’s evolutionary spirit and awe-inspiring contributions generated representational shifts within beauty and fashion. As the founder of the first multiracial modeling agency, she helped Tyson Beckford land his historic Ralph Lauren deal. Her tireless advocacy and mentorship laid the groundwork for the inclusive images we see in the industry today.
3. D. Smith
Film: Kokomo City, 2023
Starring: Black transgender sex workers.
What It’s About: This provocative film follows the lives of four Black transgender sex workers who expose unspoken taboos, complicated identities, and rigid societal and cultural norms.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Shot in stunning black and white, transgender filmmaker Smith gives audiences an unfiltered, unabashed, raw view into the lives of these marginalized women. They share their unapologetic truths and hard-earned wisdom about the hateful aversion they face from Black culture and mainstream society. Smith’s heart-wrenching film won the festival’s NEXT Innovator Award.
Image: Little Richard: I Am Everything, Magnolia Pictures
4. Lisa Cortés
Film: Little Richard: I Am Everything, 2023
Starring: Little Richard, legendary American musician, singer, and songwriter.
What It’s About: A revealing portrait of the most significant rock-n-roll artist in history
Why It’s Worth Watching: Cortés proves how Richard influenced the entire music world. She exposes the white-washed canon of American pop music that overlooked Richards’ contributions. Her treasure trove of footage shows how Richard sought inner peace by reconciling his sexuality with his spirituality. The film also illuminates how he came to terms with never receiving proper credit for his monumental achievements.
5. Milisuthando Bongela
Film: Milisuthando, 2023
Starring: Milisuthando Bongela, a Black child oblivious to the apartheid regime surrounding her.
What It’s About: Bongela’s coming-of-age, personal essay probes her memories of growing up in a middle-class Xhosa community in the Transkei—an unrecognized state formed by the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Bongela reminisces on the protected childhood environment that afforded her and her family upward mobility, free from the white gaze. It shielded her experiences separate from apartheid’s brutal decades-long rule. Her perplexing dichotomy reflects how lineage and ancestral influences determine our identity and dictate our myopic view of race.
6. Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker
Film: The Stroll, 2023
Starring: New York City transgender women of color
What It’s About: The untold history of NYC’s Meatpacking District, told by the transgender sex workers who created it
Why It’s Worth Watching: Drucker and Lovell’s thoughtful analysis features the transgender women who are an integral part of Manhattan’s queer history. They uncover how heavy policing, violence, gentrification, and homelessness almost eradicated these disadvantaged women and their livelihoods. For Lovell, who worked alongside them, it’s a reluctant trip down a hallowed memory lane that was once a haven for survival and a launching pad to promote transgender rights.
Image: A Thousand and One, Focus Features
Thrilling dramas reinforce our battle-tested faith in humanity.
7. A.V. Rockwell
Film: A Thousand and One, 2023
Starring: Teyana Taylor, Aaron Kingsley Adetola, William Catlett
What It’s About: Free-spirited ex-felon Inez (Taylor) kidnaps Terry (Adetola), her six-year-old son, from the New York foster system. The inseparable pair reclaim their home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing urban landscape.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Rockwell’s stunning directorial debut infuses Black motherhood with a profound sense of heart and hope. She chronicles a tumultuous decades-long mother-son journey anchored by Taylor’s breakout performance. Rockwell’s insightful lens focuses on the inexperienced pair navigating an unforgiving world that doesn’t recognize their humanity. Her touching film won the festival’s top honor, Grand Jury Prize, in the U. S. dramatic competition.
8. Raven Jackson
Film: All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, 2023
Starring: Sheila Atim, Moses Ingram, Chris Chalk
What It’s About: A generational exploration of a Black woman’s life in rural Mississippi
Why It’s Worth Watching: Jackson’s experimental film oozes a surreal, existential vibe. She captures the beauty of Black bodies through a poetic allegory, emphasizing the emotional interconnectedness of the people, places, and memories that define us. Her spiritual, singular, slow burn is a loving tribute to Black women of the African Diaspora scattered around the globe.
9. Savanah Leaf
Film: Earth Mama, 2023
Starring: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Kita Price
What It’s About: Gia (Nomore), a young pregnant mother, juggles court-mandated classes, counseling sessions, and part-time jobs to regain custody of her two kids.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Leaf, an Olympic volleyballer turned filmmaker, delivers a melancholic coming-into-your-own tale. She eloquently balances the unrealistic expectations of motherhood with the crippling realities of Gia’s life choices. Nomore’s visceral performance, coupled with Leaf’s pervasive vision, eloquently examines the varying shades of a mother’s love.
Image: Girl
10. Adura Onashile
Film: Girl, 2023
Starring: Déborah Lukumuena, LéShantey Bonsu, Danny Sepani
What It’s About: The curious, contentious relationship between Ama (Bonsu), a young girl, and Grace (Lukumuena), her mother, and the hostile Glasgow community around them
Why It’s Worth Watching: Onashile’s impressive debut is a seamless blend of trauma and maturation. She imparts regal grace and arresting sensitivity to these tortured immigrant souls as a foreign land tests their impenetrable mother-daughter bond. Onashile conveys heartfelt compassion concerning the painful sacrifices we must make to love ourselves and those around us.
11. Raine Allen-Miller
Film: Rye Lane, 2023
Starring: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, Poppy Allen-Quarmby
What It’s About: Dom (Jonsson) and Yas (Oparah), two British star-crossed lovers in their twenties reeling from bad breakups, connect over an eventful day in South London.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Allen-Miller captures joyous mayhem in this inventive, vibrant rom-com. Jonsson and Oparah’s charismatic chemistry leaps off the screen and into our hearts. Allen-Miller underscores the frustrating pursuit of meaningful connections in a saturated and superficial dating world. Her irresistible comedy breathes fresh air into the stale genre, overdue for a modern make-over.
12. Thembi L. Banks
Film: Young. Wild. Free., 2023
Starring: Algee Smith, Sierra Capri, Sanaa Lathan
What It’s About: Cassidy (Capri), a bedazzled bad girl, robs Brandon (Smith), a Compton teenager. The unlikely pair form a South-central LA version of the flamboyant crime duo Bonnie and Clyde.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Thembi carefully inspects what it’s like to be young, reckless, and Black. Her exquisite debut addresses addiction and mental illness through the juxtaposition of adolescence and independence. She reels audiences with a unique visual language that’s an intoxicating, unpredictable, dark thrill ride.
Final Thoughts
Representation and inclusion matter, especially on the big screen.
It will take filmmakers, executives, producers, and allies working together to create sustainable, genuine change.
Keep these BIPOC and LGBTQ+ directors and their fantastic Sundance films on your radar.
Cinema prospers when a diverse spectrum of risk-takers thrives.
Remember to subscribe and spread the word! More must-watch recommendations arrive next week.