Movies About Social Injustice

Films which explore the struggles for equality.

Selma (2015) - Movies can have an incredible impact on social change. From Crash to Fruitvale Station, a dramatized version of events offers the kind of human perspective that news reports and statistics can't. With the recent tragic deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — young, innocent Black men killed by police brutality — films about social injustice are more important than ever. Our list kicks off with this year's Best Picture nominee at the Oscars, Selma. Ava DuVernay's civil rights drama celebrated the protests of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf of the voting rights act, and inspired protests among those who believe the film was snubbed for Best Director and Best Actor (David Oyelowo) noms. This Sunday, President Obama will make a speech on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the march, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the televised ...
Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee's urban drama Do the Right Thing makes a powerful point about how little things have changed in New York from 1989 to 2014. If you compare footage of Garner's death with that of Lee's fictional character Radio Raheem, you'll see that Lee held up an uncomfortable mirror to the way society marginalizes minorities that is still relevant today. (Photo: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks)
Fruitvale Station (2013) - A big winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Fruitvale Station is based on the heart-wrenching story of Oscar Grant, an young, unarmed Black man who was shot by police officers at a BART station in the Bay Area. Sadly, the story bears too many resemblances to that of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen who was fatally shot by a police officer in Missouri last year. (Photo: The Weinstein Company)American History X (1998) - In this drama, actor Ed Norton plays a directionless young man who gravitates toward a neo-nazi skinhead gang following the murder of his father by a Black drug dealer. While doing time in prison, Norton sees the error of his ways and wants to save his impressionable younger brother (Edward Furlong), who's also become a skinhead.  (Photo: New Line Cinema)

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Selma (2015) - Movies can have an incredible impact on social change. From Crash to Fruitvale Station, a dramatized version of events offers the kind of human perspective that news reports and statistics can't. With the recent tragic deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — young, innocent Black men killed by police brutality — films about social injustice are more important than ever. Our list kicks off with this year's Best Picture nominee at the Oscars, Selma. Ava DuVernay's civil rights drama celebrated the protests of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf of the voting rights act, and inspired protests among those who believe the film was snubbed for Best Director and Best Actor (David Oyelowo) noms. This Sunday, President Obama will make a speech on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the march, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the televised ...

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