The Black Worker

Black women confront exploitation in Ousmane Sembène’s 1966 debut feature, about a Senegalese woman working for an exploitative French couple, and a labor documentary about American hospital workers.

A West African immigrant worker navigates oppressive economic and racial systems in Paris, and a documentary short provides an expressive portrait of a Black woman domestic worker.

Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto portray auto assembly-line workers who hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters in Paul Schrader’s critically acclaimed directorial debut.

A chronically unemployed family man seeks solace in an affair that threatens his marriage, children, and everything he holds dear in Billy Woodberry’s 1983 feature, a key work of the L.A. Rebellion.

The second feature by Claire Denis is an unflinching portrait of two Black African immigrant workers scraping out a living through illegal cockfights on the outskirts of Paris.

Crucial documentations of labor organizers in and around Detroit auto factories during the late 60s and riots in 80s Britain offer vital insights into Black struggle.

Mati Diop’s debut feature is a ghostly love story and woman-centered indictment of neocolonial labor exploitation which won the Cannes Grand Prix.

Invited into a Brussels salon by its Cameroonian proprietor, filmmaker Rosine Mbakam documents the day-to-day lives and concerns of immigrant West African women in a space they can call their own.

Director Sidney Sokhona portrays Sidi, a Mauritanian immigrant hired for difficult, dangerous jobs in Paris, mixing documentary with surreal fiction to depict exploitation, bureaucracy, and squalor.

In her docu-fictional debut shot in collaboration with her family and the residents of her Senegalese home village, Safi Faye chronicles life rhythms and economic consequences of an agricultural crisis.

Weaving together fiction and non-fiction, director Safi Faye follows a young Senegalese student in Berlin, examining his social connections with loved ones back home and fellow immigrant workers.

Building from rare film, photographic, and sound archives, Xaraasi Xanne recounts the history of Somankidi Coura, a farming cooperative founded in Mali by West African workers living in France.