The first two episodes of Simone Biles Rising offer fans a behind-the-scenes look at the resilience of the beloved 37 Olympic and World Championship medal-winning gymnast, Simone Biles. The Netflix docuseries catapults the viewer into the whirlwind of fame, pressure, and challenges that engulfed the superstar athlete on her journey from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through her successful 2024 U.S. Classic competition. Biles invites the viewer into a closer look at her life beyond the spotlight via interviews where she discusses her feelings behind some of her historic events. In this docuseries, she also pays homage to her loving family and community who she honors as the nourishment for her comeback and career.

‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ released by Paramount Pictures, is a genre-bending horror film that redefines death for lead character, Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), in an apocalyptic New York City. Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o enthralls the viewer with stellar performances of quietness, care, resilience, and sacrifice in the face of an alien invasion that demands silence from a cacophonous New York City. In this prequel to ‘A Quiet Place’ film series, director Michael Sarnoksi takes fans back to the beginning where it all began: an explosion, a hunt, silence, and sacrifice. Nyong’o’s evocative performance as a terminally ill character who insists on reuniting with her late father, highlights the multiplicity of the apocalypse in the film and defines death as a reconnection to life.

Lagueria Davis’ Black Barbie: A Documentary is an informative, archival project that highlights the important history and genealogy of Mattel’s first Black Barbie. This film celebrates the beauty, diversity, and power of Black womanhood responsible for the boundary-pushing representation in the toy industry. Black Barbie, produced by Shondaland, champions Black women’s storytelling via intimate conversations featuring Mattel’s game-changers: Davis’ own aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, and Stacey McBride-Irby.

Origin (2023), a biographical film drama based on Pulitzer Prize-winning Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, is a thoughtful and honest portrayal of the global connections of oppression by way of the caste system. Emmy Award-winning producer and director Ava DuVernay offers this filmic connection through the lens of Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), a Black renowned journalist and author who synchronously disassembles social containers in her romantic life and in the caste system by tracing the interconnections between African American people in the U.S., Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and Dalit people in India. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor delivers a beautiful and empathetic performance as Isabel Wilkerson, while Ava DuVernay brings to life this significant research through cinematic intimacies with archives, memorials, statues, and ethnography. On this Juneteenth Day, Origin is a reminder that African American emancipation is linked to broader struggles for freedom that traverses both time and space.

Abi Damaris Corbin’s Breaking (2022) is a heart-touching film that highlights and humanizes the life of former U.S. Marine war veteran, Brian Brown-Easley (John Boyega) in a thrilling drama. Using a part-documentary style approach, the film illuminates Brian’s intimate experiences with the Department of Veterans Affairs as he struggles to reintegrate into society following social and financial neglect on their part. In a 104-minute-long cinematic story, Golden Globe Award winner John Boyega delivers a captivating and heartfelt performance that brings to life the hardships and attempts at redress Brian endured before taking matters into his own hands. Breaking showcases some of the most alluring performances by John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Levya, and Michael K. Williams, and beautiful cinematography among recent films while forcing viewers to confront the harsh realities of many veterans living in the narrative shadows of American patriotism.