The Top 10 Black Films of 2001 are¾1. "Ali," 2. "The Visit," 3. "Monster's Ball," 4. "From Hell," 5. "Training Day," 6. "O," 7. "Caveman's Valentine," 8. "Stranger Inside," 9. "Baby Boy," and 10. "Lumumba." I recommend that you save this article to assist you in renting or buying films over the course of 2002. On the web site these films are listed with a one-line review along with the star rating. You might put this in your glove box for trips to the video store.

The best news about blacks in film for the year 2001 is, of course, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington winning Academy Awards as best actress and actor. There were a number of other positive elements as well. Will Smith received an Oscar nomination for "Ali." The Hughes Brothers directed "From Hell," a mainstream film, about Jack the Ripper, which starred Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. What was notable about this is that the Hughes' broke out of just making ethnic films.

On the art house side, Kasi Lemmons gave us "Caveman's Valentine," the story of a homeless man, starring Samuel L. Jackson, who finally got the sex he was not allowed to have in "Shaft." Mekhi Phifer played a Shakespearean role in "O," in one of the best adaptations you'll see of Othello.

We've come to learn that a release on HBO, rather than "opening wide" in theaters is not a bad thing. Cheryl Dunye, who directed "Stranger Inside," toured film festivals in Chicago and San Francisco with her film about a young woman in prison who has an opportunity to meet and know her mother for the first time. She was given up at birth and the mother is now serving a life sentence.

"The Visit" was so overlooked that it crossed well over the border of being shameful. The story is about a family that experiences a spiritual awakening as they learn to live with the disappointment and shame of a son and brother in prison. This principally African-American cast delivers a universal story all can relate to. Somewhere, in every family, there's an ache to be healed. The film stars Hill Harper and if there is a black actor already the equal of Denzel Washington, Harper is it. But because the film was viewed as a "black film," in spite of its universal appeal, it got zilch in marketing dollars to make people aware of it.

John Singleton's "Baby Boy" helped blacks keep in touch with the hood. The majority of blacks in films seem to be in middle-class portrayals or the supporting cast for white stars in such films as "Novocaine," "Ocean's Eleven," "Swordfish" and "Heist." "Baby Boy" did not do as well as it deserved at the box office because many blacks seem to want to put the ghetto in the past. I suggest that we take a page from the Italians and Jews, and ensure that while we remember our past, all of our past, that we also help others to do so. Without that, history has a tendency to repeat itself. Not only was "Baby Boy" not a remake of "Boyz in the Hood," it was by far the best film showing that black men can be responsible in a blue collar, or a no collar world, and still be very sexy on screen.

"Lumumba" rounds out the Top Black Films, with its unflinching look at the last days of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Congo after independence in 1960. He would remain in office for only two months. This is a true story made in France with English subtitles.

These additional films are definitely worth a look, an extension of the Top 10. Some have a principally black cast and others feature black actors in pivotal roles. They are number 11. "Apocalypse Now Redux," 12. "Along Came a Spider," 13. "Two Can Play That Game," 14. "Save the Last Dance," 15. "One Week," 16. "Rat Race" 17. "When Brendan Met Trudy," 18. "The King is Alive," 19. "Jackpot," and 20. "Heist."

While there are films featuring blacks that I hated, I'm not going to write anymore about them, as my focus is on encouraging people to see the best films, which will help ensure that more good rather than bad films are made. Many of you saw "Along Came a Spider," but how many of you have seen "Apocalypse Now Redux?" You'll find out what really happened to Laurence Fishburne in the original "Apocalypse Now" in 1976. In "One Week," a black independent movie from A to Z, you'll see the best in independent black film. "The King is Alive" (a Dogme film--which dictates the use of hand held cameras, natural light only and filming on location) and "Jackpot" with Garrett Morris cast Africans and African-Americans in pivotal roles. If you are wondering what Garrett Morris from SNL is up to, now you will know.

Following those 20 films are 16 more that merit "honorable mention" and are listed alphabetically: "Bones," "The Brothers," "Down to Earth," "Dr. Doolittle 2," "Hardball," "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius," "Jump Tomorrow," "Kingdom Come," "Novocaine," "Ocean's Eleven," "Osmosis Jones," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Score," "Songcatcher," "Swordfish" and "Waking Life."

Who says there is no black film industry? There is plenty to select from at your local theaters and at your neighborhood video store. Many are at the nearby multiplex and others are at the art house theaters. When you hear about these films, go to see them. If they don't make money, then blacks will continue to be too small a minority in front of and behind the camera. Then there's the all-important position of being able to "green light" a project, which means the ability to say "yes" or "no" on a film being made.

Films like "One Week" fit that category and it may be the only film in this list of 36 in which blacks were the decision makers from the day the film was conceived to when it opened in the theaters. The road to success is found at local film festivals, where the buzz is created to get funding and distribution on just about everything that makes it to the big screen¾that is not under the total control of the Hollywood studio system.

If you support blacks in film by going to the movie on opening weekend, the future for blacks in films will be brighter than ever. Knowing what to support is easier when you visit the Ethnic section of our web site; buy and read black owned newspapers, and purchase tickets to films directed by blacks at film festivals and theaters around the country.

Film festivals are a great way to have fun and become more informed. When you support such films, including those from Africa, the Caribbean, all of the Americas (remember we cover the Diaspora) and particularly some French films featuring black actors, you will create jobs and see more characters and subjects on the big screen that you care about. Blacks tend to be the primary rather than secondary focus of the films you are likely to see. Who cares more about you than you do? No one will do more for you than you, so the key word is "DO."