From Love Jones and Barbershop to contemporary narratives echoing Chicago’s influence—like Ryan Coogler’s recent film Sinners—the city serves as a vibrant inspiration and setting for landmark Black cinema.
Chicago’s cinematic legacy isn’t confined to the screen; it’s etched into the city’s very fabric. From the poetic rhythms of Hyde Park to the resilient spirit of the South Side, these neighborhoods have long served as both backdrop and anchor for Black storytelling. Walking through these places isn’t just revisiting a scene—it’s stepping into a living narrative that still pulses beneath the city’s surface.
You don’t need a map to feel it—but if you want to trace where these stories were filmed, you can start right here.
Begin your tour at Sanctuary Café, immortalized in Love Jones, where poetry slams captured a defining moment in Black artistic expression during the 1990s. While the original café is no longer operating, the surrounding Hyde Park community continues to celebrate spoken word and art in spaces that carry the same creative energy. Nearby bookstores and coffee shops make it easy to imagine Nina and Darius slipping into conversation on any given night.
Next, head to the South Side, where Barbershop was filmed. The original shop at 79th and Exchange may be gone, but the culture it reflected is very much alive. Other local barbershops carry that legacy—spaces where conversation, laughter, and neighborhood rhythm still fill the room. One such place is Smooth Kutz, located inside Vanessa Billion Hair Studio at 6546 S. Cottage Grove Ave.
For horror fans, Cabrini-Green offers a sobering walk through history. While much of the original development has been replaced, the neighborhood’s layered past still shows up in architecture, murals, and public housing memory projects. Candyman may have amplified the fear, but the real story is one of community, displacement, and survival.
Films like Chi-Raq, Cooley High, and even The Last Black Man in San Francisco—whose creator was shaped in part by studying Chicago’s Great Migration—carry the city’s imprint even when the camera isn’t pointed here. Its influence is felt across genre and generation, stitched into the rhythm of love stories, the urgency of protest, and the silence after loss. You don’t always need the skyline to know where the story begins.
Planning your own Black cinema walking tour? Consider incorporating outdoor screenings. Parks like Jackson, Washington, and Douglass Park offer ample green space—and all you need is a laptop, an iPad, and a blanket. For those who prefer the indoors, pair your movie night with takeout from local favorites like Luella’s Southern Kitchen, Virtue in Hyde Park, or Oooh Wee Sweet Tea. Food, like film, has always brought our stories to life.
And if you’re in the mood for live performance, jazz enthusiasts shouldn’t miss Orbert Davis’s tribute to Miles Davis at Studio5. On Friday, May 9, 2025, at 8:00 p.m., the Orbert Davis Sextet will perform in celebration of what would have been Miles Davis’s 99th birthday. The concert takes place at Studio5 Performing Arts Center in Evanston and will also stream live via WDCB for Chicago Jazz Live. The tribute is more than a concert—it’s a reminder of the city’s role in shaping global music.
Through sound and image, street corners and stages, Chicago continues to define itself as a cultural landmark for Black cinema. To walk its neighborhoods is to step inside a living archive—one frame at a time.