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Black Star
Our subscription selection celebrating black stardom, focusing on British talents and pioneering performers.
Our highlights here range from Ousmane Sembéne's groundbreaking 1965 film Black Girl all the way up to 2004’s acclaimed British crime drama Bullet Boy and beyond. Begin a mesmerising journey through the talent of black cinema right here.
For Queen and Country
Drama1989101 minsDirector: Martin Stellman
Denzel Washington stars as a British paratrooper who returns to the London council estate of his youth, only to find his wartime service counts for nothing.
Black Girl
Drama196559 minsDirector: Ousmane Sembène
The first major work by African master Ousmane Sembène, about a Senegalese maid’s despair, brims with both New Wave vitality and African heart.
Honeydripper
Drama2007124 minsDirector: John Sayles
Acclaimed writer-director John Sayles brings the birth of rock 'n' roll to life with electrifying effect, with Danny Glover heading up a stellar cast.
Bullet Boy
Drama200486 minsDirector: Saul Dibb
Ashley Walters impresses in the hard-hitting Hackney drama that’s still one of the best of Britain’s black urban crime films.
Of Good Report
Drama2013110 minsDirector: Jahmil Xolani Thandikhaya Qubeka
Disturbing but deeply stylish South African drama about a teacher who becomes obsessed with an under-age pupil in his class, with tragic consequences.
Looking for Love
Documentary2015115 minsDirector: Menelik Shabazz
Leading filmmaker Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) explores intimacy and relationships within Britain’s black community.
One Love
Romance200396 minsDirector: Rick Elgood
The legendary Don Letts directs this reggae romance about a rasta musician whose affair with a gospel-singing preacher’s daughter causes a stir in Kingston.
Pressure
Drama1975121 minsDirector: Horace Ové
Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted black youths in 1970s London.
Playing Away
Sport1986102 minsDirector: Horace Ové
A cricketing comedy of manners exploring white and black stereotypes, from pioneering British filmmaker Horace Ové.
The Stuart Hall Project
Documentary201399 minsDirector: John Akomfrah
Composed of film, music and photographs from the archives, a fascinating portrait of the life and times of the founder of cultural studies and the New Left Experience.
The Nine Muses
Documentary201092 minsDirector: John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah mixes archive material, literary and musical quotations and newly shot silent footage in a wry, rapt meditation on memory and migration.
Burning an Illusion
Legal and Courtroom drama1981101 minsDirector: Menelik Shabazz
Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.
Young Soul Rebels
Drama1991105 minsDirector: Isaac Julien
The Queen's Silver Jubilee beats to the sounds of Funkadelic, Sylvester and the O'Jays in Isaac Julien’s feature debut.
B.D. Women
199420 minsDirector: Campbell X
Sassy, stylised documentary exploring the hidden histories of black lesbians.
Straight to Hell
Comedy198786 minsDirector: Alex Cox
Alex Cox’s anarchic homage to the spaghetti western, with arguably cinema’s wildest cast: Dennis Hopper, Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Grace Jones and Shane MacGowan.
Fear Eats the Soul
Melodrama197493 minsDirector: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder’s international breakthrough, this unconventional love story combines lucid social analysis with devastating emotional power.
Julius Caesar
Drama2012151 minsDirector: Gregory Doran
Gregory’s Doran’s innovative Shakespeare interpretation transplants the action to post-independence Africa.
My Brother the Devil
Drama2012107 minsDirector: Sally El Hosaini
Sally El Hosaini's feature debut tells of the love and disenchantment of two British-Egyptian brothers. Gangs, drugs and sexuality come between them
Within Our Gates
Drama191974 minsDirector: Oscar Micheaux
Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director – presents a fascinating black counterpoint to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.
Blood of Jesus
Drama194156 minsDirector: Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams feverish melodrama about a woman’s flirtation with Satan was independently produced out of Texas with an amateur cast and a budget of $5,000.
Birthright
Drama193874 minsDirector: Oscar Micheaux
Oscar Micheaux directs the story of a Harvard graduate whose attempts to establish a rural school runs into opposition from both races.
More Black Star films in our Rentals collection.