Movies like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee (1977)
The best movies like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee (1977) are The Photograph (2020), The Bang Bang Club (2011) and Nothing Like a Dame (2018). If Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Cameraman (1928)7.8/10 from 460 votes
- NewestDandelion (2025)Released 2025
The Photograph (2020)
When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, hurt, angry and full of questions. When Mae finds a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box, she soon finds herself delving into her mother's early life -- an investigation that leads to an unexpected romance with a rising journalist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bang Bang Club (2011)
In the early to mid '90s, when the South African system of apartheid was in its death throes, four photographers - Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and João Silva - bonded by their friendship and a sense of purpose, worked together to chronicle the violence and upheaval leading up to the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president. Their work is risky and dangerous, potentially fatally so, as they thrust themselves into the middle of chaotic clashes between forces backed by the government (including Inkatha Zulu warriors) and those in support of Mandela's African National Congress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNothing Like a Dame (2018)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCameraperson (2016)
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWoody Allen: A Documentary (2011)
An intense portrait of the iconic filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian and musician Woody Allen: his life, family and friends; his writing and directing habits, and his relationship with performers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHigh Art (1998)
When Syd, a young editor at an influential art magazine, becomes involved with her neighbor, a drug-addicted lesbian photographer, both seek to exploit each other for their respective careers while slowly falling in love with each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFinding Vivian Maier (2014)
Vivian Maier's photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she'd collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof's discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
In 1958 New York Diane Arbus is a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband, a photographer employed by her wealthy parents. Respectable though her life is, she cannot help but feel uncomfortable in her privileged world. One night, a new neighbor catches Diane's eye, and the enigmatic man inspires her to set forth on the path to discovering her own artistry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirlfriends (1978)
A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWorking Girls (1987)
A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLee (2024)
The true story of photographer Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMilius (2013)
The life story of ‘Zen Anarchist’ filmmaker John Milius, one of the most influential storytellers of his generation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHester Street (1975)
A Russian emigre prides himself on the way he's molded himself into a real Yankee in the USA, though the world he lives in, New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is almost exclusively populated by other Jewish immigrants. When his wife finally arrives in the New World, however, she has a lot of assimilating to do.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIf Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)
In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cameraman (1928)
A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016)
An intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty featuring Debbie Reynolds, Todd Fisher, and Carrie Fisher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Blonde, bouncy Buffy is your typical high school cheerleader. But all that changes when a strange man informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisRavenous (1999)
After arriving at his new, remote Army outpost, Capt. John Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide – a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrozen River (2008)
A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
Four young women continue the journey toward adulthood that began with "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now three years later, these lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLisbon-Province (2010)
A nurse takes care of a patient in her house. Maria do Céu has been a nurse for more than forty years, working at an old Hospital in Lisbon. She was sixteen, when she arrived to Lisbon, coming from a small village in Alentejo. At the Hospital, she reads the file of an old patient who was also her friend. The file is then closed. Maria do Céu returns to her village, where she sings at the people’s house choir.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Prince of Tides (1991)
A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDandelion (2025)
In 1970s Los Angeles, rebellious queer teen Margaret gets thrown out of yet another foster placement and finds herself in the company of a mysterious social worker who's tasked with finding her a new home before the break of dawn. At odds and forced to travel the city together, Margaret realizes that running may not be her only option.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Petey & Ginger (2012)
When the global economy collapses the only true victors are those that weren't invited to the boom. Petey plays in a band and works in a pornography warehouse; Ginger works the night shift in a bar. From opposite coasts of the country, the two provide their personal takes on individual vs. collective crisis, together weaving a narrative that exposes a wasteland of shattered economic dreams, unfulfilled social promises and a bleak reality that only music and friendship can float freely above.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
A botched store robbery places Wonder Woman in a global battle against a powerful and mysterious ancient force that puts her powers in jeopardy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Mind the Wall (2001)
Germany 1982: The country is divided into two parts. Nele, coming from West-Germany, travels to East-Germany where she meets Captain, singer of a band. They fall in love with each other, but the regime "takes care" of their relationship, meaning: They can not see each other again. Germany 1990: The country is reunited. Nele starts searching their lost love...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee?
The closest matches to Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee are The Photograph (2020), The Bang Bang Club (2011) and Nothing Like a Dame (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee?
Start with The Photograph (2020), the closest match to Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee.
What is the highest-rated movie like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee?
The Cameraman (1928), rated 7.8/10 by 460 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee?
Dandelion (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee?
Yes: The Photograph (2020), The Bang Bang Club (2011) and Nothing Like a Dame (2018).
How are movies similar to Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James VanDerZee, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.