Three, Must-See, Powerful Films on the Black Experience this Holiday Season

Winter break is almost here and you most-likely already have your holiday plans scheduled out. I plan on rejuvenating, shopping, and spending quality-time with family, something well-deserved after a challenging semester. Also on my winter break itinerary is to catch up with my favorites on Netflix and catch new films that are out in theater.  Recently, a lot of great films focused on the Black American experience have caught my eye, and 2016 has been a great year for black cinema in general. Here are three powerful films on the Black experience you have to see this holiday season.

1. Moonlight
The trailer for Moonlight is reason alone to see this film. The one-minute preview is breathtakingly beautiful and staunchly painful, It exposes the strife in the collision between homosexuality and black masculinity. Directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight follows the story of Chiron (Trevante Rhodes), a man who is poor, black, and gay, as he grows up in  a world that shows no mercy in particular for people in his intersectionality. Also starring Andre Holland as Kevin, a mentor to Chiron, Moonlight is perfect in it's imagery, dialogue, and what is read in between the lines. Chiron, in a world that accepts neither his gayness nor blackness, is invisible. His invisibility is painfully heavy and adds to the isolated beauty of the film. What Moonlight accomplishes is to reveal the humanity within a group of people the world constantly dehumanizes. Moonlight is in theaters now.

2. Barry
As President Barack Obama's term comes to an end, the soon-to-come to Netflix film, Barry, feels very appropriate. Barry follows a young Obama in his college days at Columbia University and shows us a a side of the President that is both familiar and unfamiliar. The film reveals Barack before he was Barack and when he was just a college kid full of hope and finding his way. I can't wait to Netflix and Chill with a bowl of popcorn as I watch this movie. Barry comes to Netflix December 16.

3. 13th
Ava DuVernay is an amazing director, which truly shows in her recent documentary, 13th. The trailer for 13th is powerful, and the movie as an entirety is a master-piece of historical and political proportions. The documentary presents the history behind what has made America one of the largest producers of prisons in the United States and the battle that continues for minorities to maintain their rights. 13th is now on Netflix.