Halfway through 1972, Angela Davis was acquitted in her infamous murder trial and later appeared in McIlvaine’s film, in which she expounds on a myriad of topics including US imperialism, socialism, the prison industrial system, the Black Panthers and her trial.

Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) was commissioned by the Public Broadcast Laboratory of National Public Television to make a documentary, and he bravely set out, along with cinematographer James Hinton, to document Black Power in Newark, New Jersey. Beginning as a city-symphony of Newark streets, buildings and people set to wordless chanting, The New-Ark quickly arrives at its political imperatives: Black Power must be accomplished through nationalism, and “a nation is organization.” The film focuses on black education, urban public theater and political consciousness-raising inside and outside of Spirit House—Baraka’s black nationalist community center. Lost for years and recently rediscovered at Harvard in 2014, The New-Ark was restored and preserved by the Harvard Film Archive.

Horace’s Ové’s first film is a provocative conversation with writer James Baldwin and comedian Dick Gregory who speaking frankly and openly with a group of West Indian students in London. They discuss how the black experience in America relates to racial problems in Great Britain, the danger of “white liberals” and why racism is an issue of attitude, not of skin color.