Protesting on Screen: Black Protest Films in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter

Abstract

This article examines the recent (2012–2019) work of Black filmmakers, television show runners, and directors whose aim is to directly engage and bring attention to the #blacklivesmatter movement through film by staging protest scenes in their work. Melina Matsoukas and Lena Waithe’s feature film Queen & Slim (2019), George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give (2018), and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) will serve as the anchoring texts for this article. The films were marketed as “a Black Lives Matter picture,” “protest art,” and “a Black Lives Matter odyssey” because of their explicit tackling of police brutality, state-sanctioned violence, critique of racial capitalism, and ability to challenge notions of criminality and justice.