Movie

Black Is… Black Ain’t

1995 · 87 min

A deeply personal and intellectually rigorous essay film that feels like a warm, urgent conversation about identity, loss, and belonging.

Directed by: Marlon Riggs
Genres: Documentary
Starring: Marlon Riggs, Angela Davis, bell hooks

Tagline: A personal journey through Black identity
Overview: African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

Directed by: Marlon Riggs
Genres: Documentary
Starring: Marlon Riggs, Angela Davis, bell hooks

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: earneststrength 3 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 2 of 3
warmstrength 1 of 3
Pacing: measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: identity
race
sexuality
family
power
Places: big city
countryside
home
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: documentary
true story
nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore none
Language strong
Violence mild
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	1
Humour	2
Realism	9
Romance	2
Tension	5
Darkness	6
Complexity	8
Emotional weight	9

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: documentary
Directed by: Marlon Riggs
Starring: Marlon Riggs, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Essex Hemphill, Cornel West, Maulana Karenga, Barbara Smith, Michele Wallace
Cinematography: Robert Shepard
Runtime: 87 min
Country: United States of America
Languages: English

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Black Is… Black Ain’t

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Where to watch in the UK

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