In response to Spike Lee’s all male list of films every aspiring filmmaker should see

Spike Lee is all up in the blogosphere at the moment because of the awesome Kickstarter campaign for his new film which received a $10,000 donation from Steven Soderbergh recently. Spike Lee’s list of films was fantastic yet immensely disappointing because of its all-male flava.

Lists always suck since there will always be omissions but here is BlackmanVision’s list of films for aspiring filmmakers – because you should not just watch films made by people with the same body parts or sexual orientation as you. And if you are a fiction filmmaker you should look at documentaries and if you are a documentarian you should look at fiction too. And if you are all about the narrative, challenge yourself with experimental film.

Not in any order of brilliance or preference and some do overlap with Spike Lee’s list too.

The Battle of Algiers – (Gillo Pontecorvo 1966)
Some Like it Hot – (Billy Wilder 1959)
The Times of Harvey Milk – (Rob Epstein 1984)
Rear Window – (Alfred Hitchcock 1954)
Killer of Sheep – (Charles Burnett 1979)
Do the Right Thing – (Spike Lee 1989)
The Blues Brothers – (John Landis 1980)
Shawshank Redemption – ( Frank Darabont 1994)
Mi Vida Loca – (Allison Anders – 1993)
Tongues Untied – (Marlon Riggs 1989)
Looking for Langston – (Isaac Julien 1989)
Sebastiane – (Derek Jarman 1976)
Stranger Inside – (Cheryl Dunye 2001)
Pariah – (Dee Rees 2011)
The Happy Sad – (Rodney Evans 2013)
Weekend – (Andrew Haigh – 2011)
Midnight Cowboy – (John Schlesinger 1969)
Viva Riva – (Djo Munga 2011)
Who is Afraid of Vagina Wolf – (Ana Margarita Albelo 2013)
Taxi Driver – (Martin Scorsese – 1976)
Do I Love You? – (Lisa Gornick 2002)
Law of Desire – (Pedro Almodovar 1987)
Daughters of the Dust – (Julie Dash 1991)
Vito – (Jeffrey Schwarz)
The Life and Work of Audre Lorde – (Ada Gay Griffin, Michelle Parkerson 1995)
Burning an Illusion – (Menelik Shabazz 1981)
Divine Horsemen – (Maya Deren 1985)
Stages of Mourning – (Sarah Pucill 2004)
Set it Off  – (F. Gary Gray 1996)
Night on Earth – (Jim Jarmusch 1991)
Blow up (Michelangelo Antonioni 1966)
Fitzcarraldo – Werner Herzog (1982)
Yeelen – (Souleymane Cisse 1987)
Querelle – (Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1982)
Midnight Express (Alan Parker 1978)
Born in Flames – (Lizzie Borden – 1983)
Go Fish – (Rose Troche 1994)
Nitrate Kisses – (Barbara Hammer 1992)
Tomboy – (Celine Sciamma 2011)
Big – (Penny Marshall 1988)
Bhaji on the Beach – (Gurinder Chadha 1993)
Bound -(Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski 1996)
Somewhere – (Sofia Coppola 2010)
Pressure – (Horace Ove 1976)
Baby Boy – (John Singleton 2001)
Fire – (Deepa Mehta 1996)
Fish Tank – (Andrea Arnold 2009)
Orlando – (Sally Potter 1992)
A Dry White Season – (Euzhan Palcy 1989)
Karmen Gei – (Joseph Gai Ramaka 2001)
Handsworth Songs – (John Akomfrah 1987)