What’s filmmaker Justin Simien, the director of “Dear White People,” the film and the Netflix series been up to, you ask? Well, following “Haunted Mansion” in 2023, Simien’s next gig is directing all the episodes of “Hollywood Black,” a four-part documentary series coming to MGM+ in August. The doc series chronicles the history of cinema from a radically Black perspective and is inspired by film historian Donald Bogle’s 2019 book, “Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers.”
The series tracks the silent era to the late 1960s, the unrest of the 1960s, the 1990s, and the post-President Barack Obama era, all filtered through the perspective of Hollywood, Black storytellers, celebrating Black Culture, the ongoing struggle for recognition, and the various milestones of critical and commercial success.
The documentary features talking heads such as Simien himself, W. Kamau Bell, Steven Caple, Jr., Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Gabrielle Union, Lena Waithe, Forest Whitaker, and more.
Producers on the series include Culture Machine’s Justin Simien and Kyle Laursen; Significant Productions’ Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi; RadicalMedia’s Dave Sirulnick, Stacey Reiss, and Jon Kamen; Jeffrey Swartz; and Shayla Harris, who also serves as showrunner.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Inspired by the book from historian Donald Bogle, Hollywood Black, directed by Justin Simien, chronicles the history of cinema, but from a radically Black perspective. By unearthing personal stories from actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen, the series provides a critical reexamination of a quintessentially American story—in brilliant color.
“Hollywood Black” debuts on August 11, 2024, on MGM+. Watch the trailer below.