Black History Month Film: Pariah

Pariah is a 2011 American film written and directed by Dee Rees. It tells the story of Alike (Adepero Oduye), a 17-year-old Black teenager embracing her identity as a lesbian. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award.

It has since been considered to be one of the best films of the 2010s and of the 21st century. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”, making it the first narrative feature from the 2010s chosen to be in the registry.