They were older than me, younger than me, whiter, more male…something that kept me one step away from true connection. No matter how much I loved going to the movies, there almost always was a separation from me and the characters in them. This film was hugely validating, like watching the retelling of our own lives. In a darkened theater, with no one but me and my friends in real life watching the Black friends in Love Jones-bigger than life-we were stunned. Before we were given these classic films to enjoy, however, there was Love Jones-the film that ultimately made me want to become a screenwriter. By the late ’90s, we had the choice of some magnificent Black love stories and romantic comedies like The Best Man and Love and Basketball. In fact, most black films at the time acted as a much-needed voice for our pain, focusing on the drug- and gang violence that plagued black neighborhoods at the time. There were few, if any, films of that kind in the mid-’90s.

In my twenties, I remember hearing about a new movie featuring young black people about my age, single, professional, living on the South Side of Chicago. In the run-up to the Writers Guild Awards this Sunday, we asked eight celebrated screen and television writers to name the films that set them on a course to screenwriting stardom.

Movie magic screenwriter crack