February is Black History Month, and with streaming services aplenty, there’s more opportunity than ever to watch content created by and about black people and the black experience in all its various forms. There’s so much to watch this month, whether you’re looking for a straightforward, informative documentary, a film about historic events, or groundbreaking TV shows that feature fully-fleshed out black characters instead of one-dimensional stereotypes.

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The only drawback is that there is so much content that you must make a decision. Is tonight your night to watch ‘Black Panther’ or ‘Luke Cage’? Or maybe, you want to check out ‘The Photograph’ or ‘Love & Basketball’? There’s a lot to think about, before choosing your next watch.

Queen Sugar

Streaming channel: Prime Video

No. of seasons: 6

Watch if you’re interested in: Stories about Black families, heartfelt dramas.

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The Bordelon family is at the heart of this Louisiana-set drama about what happens when estranged daughter Charley Bordelon-West (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) returns home to avoid a public divorce and buys a sugar mill on her father’s farmland. Her decision alters the lives of her family, bringing both prosperity and complications. Throughout the show’s four seasons, expect plenty of storylines about adultery, power and influence, police brutality, and the legacy of slavery.

Watchmen

Streaming Channel: Disney+

No. of seasons: 1

Watch if you’re interested in: Superhuman crime fighters, Black history in the United States, and the Blue Man Group.

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In this 2019 adaptation of the dark comic book series, Dr Manhattan returns. However, not in the way you think. The Damon Lindelof show, starring Regina King, is set in a futuristic, alternate version of Oklahoma in which descendants of those affected by the 1921 Greenwood Massacre are eligible for reparations and police wear masks to protect their identities. Despite being in a different timeline, one thing truly connects the world of Watchmen to our own: racism, which takes on a similarly menacing face in this Emmy-winning series.

One Night in Miami

Streaming Channel: Prime Video

Run-time: 114 minutes. 

Watch if you’re interested in: Civil rights heroes or bar jokes.

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With this adaptation of Kemp Powers’ 2013 play, Regina King makes her directorial debut. The film takes place on one night in 1964 in Miami, as the title suggests. Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) meet on this night to discuss their respective roles in the current Civil Rights Movement. While their conversations are fictitious, they help viewers understand the real-life black heroes who paved the way for civil rights nearly 60 years ago.

Judas and the Black Messiah

Streaming Channel: Prime Video

Run-time: 126 minutes

Watch if you’re interested in: The Black Panther party, revolutionary movements.

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The true story of William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), an FBI informant who infiltrated the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party and helped orchestrate the assassination of the party’s chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), is told in this biopic directed by Shaka King and produced by Ryan Coogler. The film has already received critical acclaim, being named one of the top ten best films of 2020 by the National Board Review, and has generated a lot of Oscar buzz.

Soul

Streaming Channel: Disney+

Run-time: 107 minutes

Watch if you like: Cosmic journeys to self-discovery, jazz.

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Joe Gardner (played by Jamie Foxx) is almost there. He’s been putting off his dream of becoming a professional jazz musician for years in favour of a more practical career as a high school band teacher, so he’s more than ready when a famous singer asks him to play in her band one night. Joe must find a way back to the world of the living in time for his big gig after an accidental fatal fall down a manhole sends him to the Great Before, a pre-existence cosmic space. It’s an ambitious Pixar film, with a Black lead for the first time and themes about chasing your dreams, death, and the meaning of life.