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I wasn’t expecting any other moviegoing experience this year to top my rambunctious screening of Don’t Worry Darling on opening day. Then I saw the premiere of Is That Black Enough for You?!?, a new Netflix documentary analyzing the legacy of 1970s Black cinema, at last month’s New York Film Festival. Based on the crowd’s sporadic cheers and applause–as well as one man on my left who was literally on the edge of his seat—you’d think we were watching a sporting event and not a 135-minute nonfiction film about Hollywood racism.
That reaction was entirely appropriate, considering one of Is That Black Enough for You?!?’s main arguments: not only does representation for Black people in film matter, it’s also exhilarating.
When I brought up the audience’s response to Elvis Mitchell, the documentary’s director and writer, over Zoom, he was pleasantly stunned. (I incorrectly assumed he sat in the audience after he introduced the film at the NYFF screening.) Yet it’s Mitchell’s infectious enthusiasm and fiery voice as a narrator that makes Is That Black Enough for You?!? , now streaming on Netflix, so effective and cathartic to consume.