My favorite movies in 2011 are all about untold histories (ourstories) and powerful truth-telling. As I peruse the award nomination lists from film critics groups with which I am affiliated, I am reminded that mine is not a conventional “best” list for many reasons. It is a list, however, that reflects my perspectives and experiences—as well as the perspectives and experiences of my immediate and expanded community that don’t make the national news cycle.


Sure, the declining number of “Black” movies that I outlined earlier this year in my essay for The Crisis magazine still exists but I have found some satisfaction in documentaries such as “Hot Coffee” that tackle serious social issues or movies like “The Help” that give voice to individual struggles.


Onward to 2012, a year that promises many challenges: cultural, social, political and otherwise. In no particular order, here is the SeeingBlack.com Best Movie List of 2011:


The First Grader

Oliver Litondo stars as Maruge in "The First Grader."

Combine the story of an 84-year-old man attending elementary school with the story of his torture and triumph over the British in colonized Kenya, and you have me hooked. Oliver Lintondo, with his aged eyes and energetic stride, is amazing in the lead role of Maruge. Naomie Harris, who you will remember from "28 Days," is the school teacher who holds together the story. Based on a true story, this BBC production reminds me of how recent is the history of colonialism, apartheid and Jim Crow, how so many stories of that centuries-long era have not been told and how, when they are told, they are powerful.


Hot Coffee
Review excerpt: “Hot Coffee” is an exhaustive expose of how corporations and the Republican Party machinery have colluded to weaken the right of Americans to seek redress in civil court—to bring lawsuits, to sue—particularly corporations. Even more sobering is the revelation of how big business, with help from a lazy news media, has employed a sophisticated public relations campaign (that is a polite way of saying they have lied) to turn Americans against their own interests—and to turn Americans against each other.


The Help
Review excerpt: I admit it, I went to the theater weary and leery of another nostalgic romp about mammy—especially in these times when so many in power seem to yearn to return to their “good old days,” which happen to be before the Civil Rights Movement. Even at the start of the film, when it was clear that the main character maid, Aibileen Clark (played by Viola Davis), would be interviewed and asked to tell her story, the result felt intrusive and voyeuristic. Always, it’s the same question: Who will get to tell their story? Who is this movie about? Even if, in the process, the plot reveals the nauseating racism of these particular White Southern housewives, does the exposé really touch on the emotional terror faced by Black domestic servants? Is it worth it to endure these employers, these bitches? Happily, “The Help” does not ask me to endure too much nausea.


The Curious Case of Curt Flood
Review Excerpt: Curt Flood lived an amazing life. Even though he was an All-Star baseball player and played his part in supporting the Civil Rights Movement, he will always be remembered—when he is remembered at all—for paving the way for free agency and better earnings, not only for baseball players but all professional athletes. The story of his meandering life journey, which took him from the bright lights of stardom to the depths of destitution, is movingly told in “The Curious Case of Curt Flood." The narrative paints a complex portrait of a talented man who came of age at just the right time—to walk through newly opened doors in professional sports, to explore his own varied interests and to live as a citizen of the world.


Thurgood
Review Excerpt: One measure of the excellence of an actor’s performance is if he or she can make you forget that you’ve seen them in countless other roles, costumes and sets. This realization came to me immediately while settling down to watch “Thurgood,” the one-man play that has been made into movie premiering February 24 at 9 p.m. on HBO. Any jokes I had made about getting ready to watch Morpheus or the father from “Boyz in the Hood” snapped right out of my head when Laurence Fishburne took the stage in his blue suit and tie. As he began addressing the audience as if they were students at his law school alma mater, Howard University, he instantly became Thurgood Marshall, the iconic civil rights lawyer who became the first African-American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. This is, by far, Fishburne’s most important role to date. For this year, this is our "King's Speech."


Beautiful Boy
Review Excerpt: “Beautiful Boy” is a thoughtful meditation on what happens to a family after a campus massacre like the one that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007.The couple hears that, at their son’s school, 17 people have been shot to death. And then they hear even worse—that their son committed the murders and then killed himself. What happens after that life-altering moment forms the bulk of the movie. Writer-director Shawn Ku, along with writer Shawn Armbruster, do a good job at exploring the obvious emotional complexity of the situation, and how that complexity might differ for a mother and for a father.


Sing Your Song
This documentary about the life of artist and activist Harry Belafonte is moving sweep of the 20th century history—particularly of African Americans and the African Diaspora. From the Great Depression of the 1930’s to his years of stardom in the 1940’s and 1950’s, to the Civil Rights Movement to the current global movements against war and for economic equality, “Sing Your Song” is an eloquent tribute to a life-long warrior who made the choice to make a difference.


Pariah
Newcomer writer-director Dee Rees steps into the feature film world with this raw coming-of-age story about a high school student exploring her own identity and sexuality. Though some of the production—the script, direction and acting—feels underdeveloped, the film offers as fresh and often funny insight into the world of young Black lesbians. Adepero Oduye is convincing in the starring role and Kim Wayans is surprising and solid in her supporting dramatic role.


Mooz-Lum
“Mooz-Lum” suffered from inadequate promotion but it honors the promise of the “New Wave” of Black film by telling a particular, complex African American story from an African-American perspective. One slice of the complex reality for Black Muslim life comes to the big screen in this story of a Muslim college student coming of age against the backdrop of 9/11. The cast, including Nia Long, Roger Guenveur Smith, Danny Glover and, in the lead role, Even Ross, is stellar.


Amigo
The Philippine-American War, also know as the Philippine War for Independence, left up to one million Filipinos dead at the turn of the 20th century. This early foray of American imperialism provides the historic backdrop for director John Sayles in "Amigo." Sayles explores these big issues, which still resonate today, through an intimate, tense and violent drama about two brothers on either side of the war.


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