The American Film Institute (AFI) and Universal Pictures announced the launch of a week-long AFI Movie Club event called “Black Stories Matter,” spotlighting diverse and unique narratives from celebrated Black films. Born from a recent AFI/Universal collaboration honoring Do the Right Thing and Academy Award®-winning director Spike Lee, the expanded partnership will pay tribute to notable films BlacKkKlansman, Get Out, Girls Trip, Loving and Straight Outta Compton with free digital movie rentals available all week. Enhanced AFI Movie Club content will feature new interviews with composer Terence Blanchard (BlacKkKlansman), Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip), cinematographer and AFI Alum Matthew Libatique (Straight Outta Compton), Ruth Negga (Loving), writer Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip), Ron Stallworth (BlacKkKlansman) and more.
Each of the Universal films will be available to rent for free on Amazon, Apple, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Dish, FandangoNOW, Redbox, Verizon and Vudu, among others, beginning August 24 through August 30.
“For decades, Universal has supported thought-provoking stories and powerful perspectives that have served to enlighten, enrich and entertain,” said Donna Langley, Chairman, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, and AFI Trustee. “Through this partnership with AFI, we are proud to further shine a light on these distinctly important works that continue to so poignantly amplify today’s conversation.”
AFI Movie Club will enrich the free rentals by highlighting each day’s film with a conversation between film critic Shawn Edwards and filmmakers and talent involved with the films; “Behind the Scene” featurettes about a specific scene examined by an artist from the film; and exclusive clips sourced from AFI’s extensive archive of Master Class Seminars, as well as curated trivia researched from the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
“The mission of AFI and the AFI Movie Club has always been to educate and inspire audiences – and to drive culture forward,” said Bob Gazzale, President and CEO of the American Film Institute. “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Universal and to further the conversation about stories that are culturally and nationally significant.”
The moderated conversations, featurettes and exclusive AFI Archive material will be available on AFI.com/MovieClub and the AFI YouTube channel at YouTube.com/AFI.