This is a really interesting story that also points to a complex gap between streaming (the Criterion Channel has been very inclusive of Black directors) and physical media, which is still clearly considered a mark of prestige and/or canon-building. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/20/movies/criterion-collection-african-americans.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Arts

For all the talk about physical media dying, one takeaway of this story is its value. When a director's work is released on DVD/Blu, it feels permanent in a way that streaming never can. It allows people to own a piece of art, in their home, on their shelf. That still matters.

I'm sure people have dozens of nominees for inclusion, but I would love to see a complete box set of John Singleton's nine features, and Sidney Poitier's first two as director, Buck and the Preacher and A Warm December, and Kasi Lemmons's Eve's Bayou, and Dee Rees's Pariah.

Last pt: The reality that Black performers did pioneering work before many Black directors were allowed to also matters. Claudine is coming in October; Lady Sings the Blues and Sounder ought to follow. Defining canonical work solely by directors can also be a form of exclusion.