A historic BAFTA win; Ryan Coogler for Sinners

Ryan Coogler at a Q&A for Sinners in Los Angeles, California. Kevin Paul - Own work

Sinners is a film that arrived at a charged moment in American culture: a work of narrative intensity and moral interrogation that earned praise for its storytelling, performances, and craft that became a landmark in the 2025/2026 awards season for the writers, directors, and actors who brought the characters to life.

Sinners shines in how Coogler built moral pressure and layered in small, everyday injustices onto larger systemic currents, showing how institutional failure and personal compromise intersect. The film asks audiences to sit with discomfort with performances that feel lived-in rather than performative.

Sinners gained many notable awards and recognition; one being the first Black winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the film. The victory was widely celebrated as a milestone: an acknowledgment not only of Coogler’s craft but of the overdue recognition of Black writers at international awards institutions.

Why was he the first? Several converging factors help explain the historical gap:

To be blunt, BAFTA had diversity goals. By late 2025 BAFTA mostly met its five-year diversity goals after 2020, expanding from a narrow group to a more diverse membership of about 14,000. After criticism in 2020 for lacking diverse nominees, the Academy made over 120 changes. This significantly changed the makeup of its voters.

• Institutional history and demographics: For much of BAFTA’s existence, the British film academy’s membership and voting base reflected narrow demographic patterns. Those patterns shaped which films were nominated and which storytellers were visible within the awards ecosystem. Even as global cinema diversified, nomination and voting processes tended to favor established networks and canonical narratives that marginalized black writers.

• Global film flows and genre bias: Awards bodies have tended to privilege certain genres, storytelling modes, and production scales. Films that center Black lives, especially those that interrogate social realities unflinchingly, have at times been sidelined or pigeonholed, treated as niche rather than universal. That dynamic reduced nomination opportunities for Black writers.

• Late-stage recognition of contemporary Black storytelling: While there has been growing appreciation for Black filmmakers in the 21st century, institutional recognition often lags behind cultural visibility. Ryan Coogler’s win represents both progress and the belatedness of that progress: his work was judged by BAFTA’s standards and voters — but the fact that he is the first Black winner in the category underscores how long these gates remained closed.

The win is therefore a breakthrough and a sign of necessary change, but also evidence of how long exclusionary patterns persisted. Celebratory moments like Coogler’s BAFTA carry symbolic weight: and they open doors for new generations–let’s keep them open.

Visit > Proximity Media, a multi-media company founded by Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian https://www.proximitymedia.com/about-us

A vertical black drama film by Nate Parker

They called it a merger of fortune and fate — a glossy press release, a guard of chauffeurs, and an engagement ring that belonged more to dynasties than to hearts. But this is not a press release. This is ‘The Heiress, The Baller & The Secret Society’: a serialized, vertical, mobile-first story that reads like gossip in your palm. It’s Parker’s newest series under Mansa’s initiative to elevate emerging Black creators, and it arrives with the kind of confidence that says: we are rewriting the rules of dynasty dramas.

What makes the series scintillating is how it balances spectacle with the interiority of being Black and privileged in a society that both admires and surveils that privilege. The Sinclairs are gatekeepers, beneficiaries of access, but they are also relentlessly policed by public expectations and private history.

The series thrives in episodic beats that favor cliffhangers and character revelations optimized for mobile reading—short, punchy chapters, each closing on a tilt of suspense.

Visit > Mansa https://www.mansa.com/?title=movie-998

If you’re Black and Broke, it’s time to wake up

An deep dive into the Black construct related to generational wealth and the pshycological changes that must align in order to create wealth and resources to pass on for generations to come. It's time to wake up.

Created by: Jason Black

Ava DuVernay's critically-acclaimed film, 13TH

Nominated for the Academy Award and winner of the BAFTA for Best Documentary, Ava DuVernay's 13TH is one of the most critically-acclaimed films of 2016. In 2015, DuVernay directed the historical drama SELMA, which garnered four Golden Globe nominations and two Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Other directorial works include television series, Queen Sugar, When they see us, and A wrinkle in time, and Cherish the day.

Icon James Baldwin, I am not your negro

JAMES BALDWIN, AN AMAZING, ICONIC & PROPHETIC VOICE OF HIS ERA.  

The film, I Am Not Your Negro captures the essence of the era, the person and in many ways a nostalgia that compares to today.James stated, “One writes out of one thing only - one’s own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give.” 

Written: James Baldwin  |  Director: Raoul Peck  |  Starring: Samuel L. Jackson

Birth of a Nation Directed by Nat Parker

"Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities - against himself and his fellow slaves - Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom."

Hidden Colors is a Must See Documentary for all people

"Hidden Colors is a documentary series, created and directed by Tariq Nasheed, about the real and untold history of people of color around the globe. This film series discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history. Traveling around the country, the film features scholars, historians, and social commentators who uncovered such amazing facts about things such as: The original image of Christ; The true story about the Moors; The original people of Asia; The great west African empires; The presence of Africans in America before Columbus; The real reason slavery was ended and much more."

THE DIRECTOR

"Tariq Nasheed (also known as Tariq Elite) is a New York Times best selling author, radio host, who has several top selling books under his belt. Tariq is also a television personality and social commentator who talks about social history and the psychology of dating. He has appeared on tv shows such as The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and several shows on MTV and VH1. Tariq is also very popular on the lecture circuit, and has spoken at venues such as Yale University and The Learning Annex."

- source: hiddencolorsfilm.com

The Original Black Miami: Documentary

A feature of the documentary showing how Blacks were the original inhabitants of Miami, Florida. 

Too often the stories of Blacks Take a journey through history and learn the importance and significance that blacks played in the creation and progress of Florida and Miami. The Black Miami revisits the past to understand how the race lines in South Florida were created and eventually transcended. The Black Miami takes you into a history that is rarely told but is not forgotten.

Provider: Syndicado Films

Actors: Dr. Marvin Dunn Ava Moore Parks Dr. Paul George

Directors: Michael Williams Carlton Smith

View Documentary >

Out of Darkness: The untold history of African people

“When someone tells the perfect lie, the truth becomes unbelievable."

Out of Darkness is a profound documentary that accounts for numerous missing pieces of the African history around the world. It is mentally awakening in its narrative style of presenting our history and accomplishments.

Awaken the African spirit and knowledge that is locked within.

If the following information interest you, then this is a documentary that you must watch today.

• There are more pyramids in Sudan than their are in Egypt

• There are over 100 pyramids along the Mississippi River in the U.S

• John D. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago who funded the science and research to go to Africa and find a white presence

• Ancient Africans were in America long before the Olmecs and Gulf of Mexico area

This is a great documentary to not only watch, but to also take notes on. Knowledge of oneself is knowledge for the future and generations to come.

Film Narrated by: Kaba Kamene

Featuring: Dr. Umar Johnson, Tony Browder, Dr. Claud Anderson, Tim Wise, Prof. James Small, and Dr. Joy DeGruy.

The betrayal of Black Panther Party leader, Fred Hampton

Judas and the Black Messiah is a movie by Warner Bros. Pictures starring Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, and LaKeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, that recounts the betrayal and assassination of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther Party.

Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party.  But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever.

I am a revolutionary!

Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police.  But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate.  The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest.  But the perception of the Panthers was not reality.  In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education.  And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.

Judas and the Black Messiah is playing on all major digital platforms.

Regina King, Idris Elba and Jonathan Majors in 'The Harder They Fall'

The Harder They Fall is a western story told with flare and cultural characters that ballbust the status quo of roles in period pieces, especially those that depict people who are Black as subservient to others. It showcases powerful women as they are today, after all “women give birth to men” says director Jeymes Samuel. This story is filled with cultural dialogue and panache.

Samuel, who is an English writer, director, singer-songwriter and music producer from London, wanted to bring his own signature to the film that infuses an eclectic genre of music into the film to help bring the storyline and characters to life in a powerful and soulful way, while maintaining an 1890 western perspective.

The Harder They Fall on Netflix stars Regina King, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, RJ Cyler, Edi Gathegi, Danielle Deadwyler and Deon Cole. It is produced by Shawn 'Jay Z' Carter, James Lassiter, Jeymes Samuel and Lawrence Bender.

How Black Cuisine Transformed America

A Netflix original, High on the Hog: How African America Cuisine Transformed America, and from Academy Award® winner, Roger Ross Williams, and based on Jessica B. Harris’ award-winning book, High On The Hog, this amazing story traces the history of how Blacks (“African Americans”) cultivated and transformed the cuisine in America. Hosted by Atlanta, Georgia’s very own, Stephen A. Satterfield, this Netflix gem is a wonderful cultural awakening and journey that not only demonstrates the importance of history, but also the urgency in preserving our truths. After the show aired, Satterfield said, it was another reminder that the results are wonderful when you give Black folks the space to create unencumbered.

“I know well that any demonstration where Blackness is celebrated and centered will be critiqued. I’m not tripping off that. Instead I’m yellin PRO-BLACK for the folks in the back until my vocal cords are coarse. The protection of our heritage is a matter of justice. Whoever owns the power owns the story because stories outlive, refute or abet power. No flex, High on the Hog is a potent narrative correction.”

Stephen A. Satterfield is a food writer, producer, and the founder of media company Whetstone Magazine, which is dedicated to educating and preserving the origins and culture of food. He has an unwavering passion to deconstruct the colonial and racist systems that plague rich histories and cultures around the world.

For more stories like this, subscribe to @whetstonemagazine.

Follow Stephen A. Satterfield @isawstephen

Get into some 'Good Trouble'! Honoring John Lewis

A Black American freedom fighter, human rights activist, politician, nonconformist, leader, trailblazer, author and change agent. He changed and influenced the world in many ways in which we all benefit from today, no matter your color, gender, religion or disability. Lewis was the real deal and as stated by Dr. Cornel West, is a “National Treasure”.

Lewis, who was born in the United States in Alabama from parents who were sharecroppers, later moved to Tennessee, the epicenter for the civil rights struggle in the 1960s. He practiced non-violent techniques and methods, which set in motion a legacy as being one of the most courageous and charismatic leaders of the movement in the 1960s. From Selma marches, the Freedom Rides, Bloody Sunday and many other protests, he was there. Lewis’ tenacity and activism led to him being arrested more than 40 times and he endured and suffered from multiple severe physical attacks.

Later on in his life, Lewis served as the U.S. representative for the 5th Congressional District of Georgia from 1987 to July 17, 2020. Lewis’ has authored several books such as, "Walking with the Wind," his eyewitness account and testimony of the movement. Lewis has won several awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Lillian Smith Book Award for Non-Fiction and The New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

The film, Good Trouble, is an intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism — from the bold teenager on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement to the legislative powerhouse he was throughout his career. After Lewis petitioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, King sent “the boy from Troy” a round trip bus ticket to meet with him. From that meeting onward, Lewis became one of King’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides that left him bloodied or jailed, and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble” until his passing on July 17, 2020.

DIRECTED BY Dawn Porter

PRODUCED BY Laura Michalchyshyn, Dawn Porter, Erika Alexander and Ben Arnon

sources: loc.gov, johnlewisgoodtrouble.com (Sept. 2021)