Movies Like Hitch: A Portrait of a Black Leader As a Young Man

If you liked Hitch: A Portrait of a Black Leader As a Young Man (1972), a movie directed by Irving Jacoby, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
★ 7.6/10
Three friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles navigate a neighborhood plagued by violence, unemployment, and crime, each responding differently to the harsh realities of street life. As tragedy strikes close to…
2
Good Hair (2009)
★ 6.5/10
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, GOOD HAIR visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the…
3
McQueen (2018)
★ 7.4/10
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own…
4
Menace II Society (1993)
★ 7.5/10
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
5
28 Up (1985)
★ 7.5/10
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
6
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 (2026)
★ 7.2/10
An inside look at the years of effort and craft that went into the final installment of the Duffer Brothers' generation-defining series.
7
The Hate U Give (2018)
★ 8.1/10
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds…
8
Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2009)
★ 6.6/10
With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.
9
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
10
Fuck (2006)
★ 6.4/10
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
11
Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life (2017)
★ 6.4/10
This compelling Documentary moves beyond the spotlight and past the attention-grabbing headlines to give pop superstar Chris Brown a chance to tell his own story. New interviews with the international phenomenon reveal…
12
Hoop Dreams (1994)
★ 7.6/10
Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school…
13
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
★ 6.6/10
Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted.
14
The Jazz Singer (1927)
★ 6.1/10
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the…
15
21 Up (1977)
★ 7.4/10
After another 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! and 7 Plus Seven. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives…
16
Tongues Untied (1990)
★ 6.7/10
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs…
17
Eli (2019)
★ 6/10
A boy named Eli with a rare autoimmune disorder is confined to a special experimental clinic for his treatment. He soon begins experiencing supernatural forces, turning the supposedly safe facility into a haunted…
18
Skin (2009)
★ 6.4/10
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
19
Bound by Honor (1993)
★ 8.2/10
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known…
20
Shaft (1971)
★ 6.4/10
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.