Yoruba Richen

Directing

Yoruba Richen

Born 1972-01-01 · New York City, New York, USA

Yoruba Richen (born 1972) is a film director, screenwriter and producer. She produced and directed The New Black (2013), which won the audience award at AFI Docs, Frameline Film Festival and Philly Q Fest. It also won best documentary at Urbanworld Film Festival. The New Black was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. She is director of the documentary program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Crooked Lines poster
NR

Meet two women fighting against race-based gerrymandering in North Carolina: Val Applewhite, a plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case, and Moon Duchin, a mathematician who empowers organizers to use data to advocate for fairly drawn electoral maps.

Crooked Lines

2018

Crooked Lines poster
NR

Meet two women fighting against race-based gerrymandering in North Carolina: Val Applewhite, a plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case, and Moon Duchin, a mathematician who empowers organizers to use data to advocate for fairly drawn electoral maps.

Crooked Lines

2018

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom poster
7.8

In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom

2019

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom poster
7.8

In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom

2019

No artwork available
NR

Free Joan Little tells the story of the 1975 groundbreaking case of Joan Little, who was the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. At 20 years old, Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Little was incarcerated in North Carolina when she killed a white jailer she said tried to rape her. Her trial drew international attention, becoming a rallying point for civil rights, women’s rights and prison reform. The case brought together activists, including Angela Davis and Rosa Parks, and catalyzed an international conversation about sexual assault and racial justice that has reverberations to this day. With rare archival footage, contemporary interviews and the folk anthem that carried her cause, Free Joan Little captures the spirit of resistance that made history. The film features Oscar-nominated actress Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) as the voice of Joan.

Free Joan Little

2025

The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show poster
5.9

For one week in February 1968, Johnny Carson gave up his chair to Harry Belafonte, the first time an African-American had hosted a late night TV show for a whole week.

The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show

2020

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks poster
5.7

Beyond her historic role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this comprehensive dive into Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks sheds light on her extensive organizing, radical politics, and lifelong dedication to activism.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

2022

American Factory: A Conversation with the Obamas poster
5.5

Barack and Michelle Obama talk with the directors of the documentary American Factory about the importance of storytelling and the impact of their film.

American Factory: A Conversation with the Obamas

2019

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 poster
NR

The little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898 — the only coup d’état in the history of the US. Stoking fears of 'Negro Rule', self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants — Black and white — seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898

2024

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 poster
NR

The little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898 — the only coup d’état in the history of the US. Stoking fears of 'Negro Rule', self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants — Black and white — seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898

2024

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 poster
NR

The little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898 — the only coup d’état in the history of the US. Stoking fears of 'Negro Rule', self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants — Black and white — seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898

2024

The Recall: Reframed poster
NR

Who actually bears the burden when we demand harsher punishment for a privileged white defendant?

The Recall: Reframed

2022

How It Feels to Be Free poster
NR

Tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.

How It Feels to Be Free

2021

American Reckoning poster
8.0

In this feature-length documentary from FRONTLINE and Retro Report, an unsolved 1960s murder reveals an untold story of the civil rights movement and Black resistance. “American Reckoning” examines Black opposition to racist violence in Mississippi, spotlighting a little-known armed resistance group called the Deacons for Defense and Justice, woven alongside the Jackson family’s decades-long search for justice amid a federal effort to investigate civil rights era cold cases.

American Reckoning

2022

American Reckoning poster
8.0

In this feature-length documentary from FRONTLINE and Retro Report, an unsolved 1960s murder reveals an untold story of the civil rights movement and Black resistance. “American Reckoning” examines Black opposition to racist violence in Mississippi, spotlighting a little-known armed resistance group called the Deacons for Defense and Justice, woven alongside the Jackson family’s decades-long search for justice amid a federal effort to investigate civil rights era cold cases.

American Reckoning

2022

American Reckoning poster
8.0

In this feature-length documentary from FRONTLINE and Retro Report, an unsolved 1960s murder reveals an untold story of the civil rights movement and Black resistance. “American Reckoning” examines Black opposition to racist violence in Mississippi, spotlighting a little-known armed resistance group called the Deacons for Defense and Justice, woven alongside the Jackson family’s decades-long search for justice amid a federal effort to investigate civil rights era cold cases.

American Reckoning

2022

Out in the Night poster
4.5

Under the neon lights in a gay-friendly neighborhood of New York City, four young African-American lesbians are violently and sexually threatened by a man on the street. They defend themselves against him and are charged and convicted in the courts and in the media as a 'Gang of Killer Lesbians'.

Out in the Night

2014

The Cost of Inheritance poster
NR

The decades-long debate surrounding reparations is fraught, mired in racial tension and the semantics of restorative justice. While the national conversation remains stalled due to legislative inaction, communities across the country examine their histories and take it upon themselves to arrange their own form of reparations. This detailed investigation of restitution presents accounts of everyday people confronting the past and exploring the possibilities of wealth transfer.

The Cost of Inheritance

2023

The Cost of Inheritance poster
NR

The decades-long debate surrounding reparations is fraught, mired in racial tension and the semantics of restorative justice. While the national conversation remains stalled due to legislative inaction, communities across the country examine their histories and take it upon themselves to arrange their own form of reparations. This detailed investigation of restitution presents accounts of everyday people confronting the past and exploring the possibilities of wealth transfer.

The Cost of Inheritance

2023

The New Black poster
4.8

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar-the black church and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

The New Black

2013

The New Black poster
4.8

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar-the black church and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

The New Black

2013

The New Black poster
4.8

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar-the black church and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

The New Black

2013

No artwork available
NR

Promised Land examines post-apartheid South Africa's efforts to bring about racial reconciliation through land redistribution. The film follows two black communities that are trying to get back land they say their ancestors were removed from during apartheid. The land is currently owned by white landowners and the film follows the mutli-year efforts of both groups to get and keep possession of the land. Through these two stories, the epic battle of over race and land is played out with very real consequences for all sides. The audience will see why many inside the country call the land issue the 'ticking time bomb' that has the potential to destroy the fragile racial compact that the new South Africa was built on.

Promised Land

2009

The Killing of Breonna Taylor poster
6.0

A New York Times investigation examines what happened at 3003 Springfield Drive in Louisville, Kentucky, just after midnight on March 13, 2020 when police executed a warrant that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor.

The Killing of Breonna Taylor

2020