diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7e9f849630b89620a0d435b5805020784ba17a99..4d1db9708ec0d41af620f3cdf5e2e9b3bf5bae36 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ docs:
 
 # run tests
 tests:
-	python -m unittest
+	python -m unittest ${test_filter}
 
 # check static typing
 check:
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 87cdb16eba1345ff81fd1d4305348dc8794fb658..b25fa858e80bd91fde03db7594b516183a8d382a 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -62,10 +62,14 @@ Development
 
     make check
 
-* Run unit tests with::
+* Run all unit tests with::
 
     make tests
 
+* Run only some unit tests with::
+
+    make tests test_filter=tests.documents.test_block.TestBlock.test_fromraw
+
 Documentation
 -------------