Television series
Small Axe
- Period drama
- Dip in and out
Steve McQueen's five-part anthology of intimate, urgent dramas set in London's West Indian community from 1969 to 1982. Each film is a different story—a photographer, a mantelpiece, a church, a lover, a boy—but together they're a portrait of resilience and dignity amid institutional racism. Beautifully shot, often angry, always human. Essential.
If you liked this
Moonlight2016
Three chapters of a Black man's life in the American South, moving between intimacy and violence, tenderness and silence. Like Small Axe, it finds profound humanity in lives shaped by systemic harm. Shot like a poem.
But Deliberately paced, minimal dialogue. The emotional register is so quiet it can feel remote until suddenly it shatters you.
Selma2014
Civil rights drama focused on Dr. King and the 1965 voting rights march. Like Small Axe, it's about systems of oppression and the people who resist them. Propulsive and moral without being preachy.
But Very American and very familiar if you know the history. Some find the direction workmanlike after the stylistic boldness of better films.
I Am Not Your Negro2017
Documentary essay on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript about the assassinations of MLK, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. Baldwin's voice and intelligence remake the form. Unbearably relevant.
But Not a narrative film. It's an argument, a meditation, sometimes a sermon. If you need plot momentum, this will feel static.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Small Axe
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Stalker1979
Both understand that cinema's power lies in duration, specificity, and refusal to rush. Both are about desire and obstacle, though in wildly different keys.
A science fiction film by Andrei Tarkovsky about a guide leading two men through a mysterious zone to a room that grants wishes. Meditative, metaphysical, hypnotic. Absolutely the opposite of Small Axe in form—but both trust cinema as a means of truth rather than entertainment.
But 164 minutes of slow tracking shots through overgrown Soviet landscapes. If you are watching for plot or pace, you will be miserable. It is not a film for distraction.
More like this (2)
Kidulthood2006
British realism about young Black Londoners. Shot on mini-DV with documentary urgency. Not McQueen's artistry, but the same commitment to specificity and the refusal to make suffering beautiful or safe.
But Bleakly bleak. Also dated now in some aesthetics. The performances are raw rather than polished, which some read as amateurish.
Boyz n the Hood1991
Both are rigorous portraits of Black communities shaped by institutions designed to contain them, told by Black artists who refuse to centre white compassion. But where Small Axe is formally experimental, this is classically structured—another way to tell the same truths.
John Singleton's directorial debut follows three young Black men in South Central LA over one pivotal summer. It has the same clarity about systemic racism, the same specificity of place and voice, but it's a narrative film with dramatic momentum. A masterpiece that shaped a generation.
But Made over 30 years ago now. Some of the film language feels of its era. And it sometimes edges toward didacticism in ways McQueen avoids.
People
Writing
- Steve McQueenCreator
Production
- David TannerExecutive Producer
- Steve McQueenExecutive Producer
- Tracey ScoffieldExecutive Producer
- Anita OverlandProducer
- Michael ElliottProducer