- Loan Terms:
- On Reserve
- Status:
- In
- DVD006164
-
Pioneers of African American Cinema, Disc 1
-
Multiple
-
Kino Classics / Library of Congress, 2016
- Description:
- BluRay - Zone A. viewing copy. 5 videodiscs of 5.
b/w. fullscreen. sound - stereo. - Notes:
- Supplemental features on this disc: excerpts from Reverend Solomon Sir Jones’s home movies (1924-28, 16 min.). Special features on this disc: two excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic fieldwork footage.
- Director:
- uncredited
- Production Co:
- Ebony Film Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1915
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Comedy, African - American Interest, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Music composed and performed by Donald Sosin. Two actors try their hands at stage comedy.
- Director:
- Philips, R.G.
- Production Co:
- Ebony Film Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 12 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1918
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Comedy, African - American Interest, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Music by Alloy Orchestra. A professor of Egyptology seeks a mummy for experimentation.
- Director:
- David, C.N.
- Production Co:
- Ebony Film Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 14 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1918
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Comedy, African - American Interest, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Silent with musical accompaniment. Chased from his apartment by a policeman, a ne’er-do-well takes refuge in a Chinese laundry.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Film Corporation
- Running Time:
- Feature. 79 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1919
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- With a new score by DJ Spooky. The story of Sylvia Landry, a young woman of mixed race who struggles against odds to raise money for the Negro school in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she is a teacher.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corporation
- Running Time:
- Feature. 59 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1920
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- With music by Max Roach. Micheaux portrays the Klan as a gang of common thieves using violence and intimidation to steal a prospector’s valuable property.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corporation
- Running Time:
- Feature. 93 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1925
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- With a new score by DJ Spooky. Paul Robeson plays twin brothers, a predatory minister and an honest working man.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Norman, Richard A.
- Production Co:
- Norman Film Manufacturing Company
- Running Time:
- Feature. 65 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1926
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama
- Notes:
- A rural crime drama revolving around a pair of aviators.
- Alternate Title:
- 10 Nights in a Bar-room
- Director:
- Calnek, Roy
- Production Co:
- Colored Players Film Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 64 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1930
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Adapted from an 1854 temperance novel by Timothy Shay Arthur; Charles Sidney Gilpin plays a father whose life and family are destroyed by his alcoholism.
- Director:
- Perugini, Frank
- Production Co:
- Colored Players Film Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 86 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1929
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest
- Notes:
- A young woman escapes from her abusive father and is rescued by an aspiring composer.
- Director:
- Maurice, Richard
- Production Co:
- Maurice Film Co.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 60 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1928
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Melodrama, Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- A surreal melodrama about a poor violinist who tries to protect an orphan girl from a small-time criminal.
- Director:
- Gist, James; Gist, Eloyse
- Production Co:
- uncredited
- Running Time:
- Feature. 50 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- ca. 1930
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, Religious, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Silent with a new score by Dr. Samuel Waymon. An episodic catalog of the sins of the Jazz Age.
- Director:
- Gist, James; Gist, Eloyse
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- ca. 1933
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, Religious, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Surreal filmed pageant in which a woman faces the throne of judgment before God.
- Director:
- Gist, James; Gist, Eloyse
- Running Time:
- Short. 15 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- ca. 1935
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, Religious, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Follow-up to ‘Hell-Bound Train’: a man who wrongfully accuses his wife of adultery struggles towards redemption.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Film Corp.
- Running Time:
- Short. 18 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1931
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Comedy, Musical, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Traditional minstrel show including a satire of charismatic religions.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Film Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 78 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- tinted b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1931
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama
- Notes:
- Based on Micheaux’s novel “The Conquest.”
- Director:
- Williams, Spencer
- Production Co:
- Dixie Comedies
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- tinted b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1931
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Comedy, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- A rivalry between two men plays out in a high-stakes game of mini golf.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 70 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1932
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama
- Notes:
- The story of a secret service agent who falls in love while on an assignment in Batesburg, Mississippi. The lady they lodge with goes to New York where she becomes mixed up with the number racket and the agent rescues her.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 58 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1932
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- A nightclub patron gets a note saying she will be killed ten minutes later.
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 44 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1932
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama
- Notes:
- Based on the novel ‘The House Behind the Cedars’ by Charles Chesnutt. A woman struggles to decide between a successful light-skinned man and a darker-skinned idealist.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Production Co:
- Micheaux Pictures Corp.
- Running Time:
- Feature. 73 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1938
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Drama
- Notes:
- Based on the novel by T.S. Stribling. The film's subtitle, A Story of the Negro and The South, refers to the young hero's efforts to found a school for black children in a small town in Tennessee in order to “uplift the race.”
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- uncredited
- Production Co:
- Works Project Administration
- Running Time:
- Short. 15 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1937
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Documentary
- Notes:
- Informational short about the role of African-Americans in the recovery years of the Great Depression.
- Director:
- Kahn, Richard C.
- Production Co:
- Hollywood Productions
- Running Time:
- Feature. 58 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1939
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, Western, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Bob Blake, the good cowpoke and his sidekick Dusty fight it out with Bradley in a gun battle intended to avenge the death of Miss Margaret Dennison's father.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Williams, Spencer
- Production Co:
- Amegro Films
- Running Time:
- Feature. 56 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1941
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Drama, African - American Interest
- Notes:
- A religious parable about a woman, accidentally shot by her husband, who travels to the crossroads of the hereafter.
- Director:
- Williams, Spencer
- Production Co:
- Sack Amusement Enterprises
- Running Time:
- Feature. 60 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1946
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest
- Notes:
- Adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham story “Miss Thompson,” about a nightclub entertainer who arrives at a Caribbean resort near a military base until intolerant reformers ban her style of entertainment.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
- Director:
- Bowser, Pearl
- Production Co:
- National Museum of African-American History
- Running Time:
- Short. 33 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- ca. 1978
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Documentary
- Notes:
- An interview with Ethel, Lucia, and Julia Moses about their years in African-American cinema and on the segregated variety stage.
- Production Co:
- Southern Methodist University
- Running Time:
- Short. 6 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1985
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Documentary
- Notes:
- Promotional film hosted by Ossie Davis, reenacting the discovery of a warehouse filled with the vintage film prints that would become the Tyler Texas Black Film Collection at Southern Methodist University.
- Director:
- Norman, Richard
- Production Co:
- Norman Film Manufacturing Company
- Running Time:
- Short. 20 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1923
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Drama
- Notes:
- A nere-do-well man, a beautiful girl, and her one-legged body-guard/family servant are the sole survivors - they think - f a ship wreck and make it to a uninhabited south-seas island. The influence of the girl brings about a reformation of the man in this version of Eden...until three sailors, also survivors, show up, and have designs on the girl. Then a pirates' treasure chest is discovered buried on the beach, and matters become even more tense...and violent.
- Director:
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Running Time:
- Short. 7 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - with soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1928
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- African - American Interest, Documentary, Ethnographic, Silent Cinema, Female Directors
- Notes:
- Excerpt from raw footage.Includes optional audio commentary by Carla Kaplan.
Titles
+ Symbol of the Unconquered, A: A Story of the Ku Klux Klan
+ Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA
+ Moses Sisters Interview, The
+ Tyler Texas Black Film Collection
+ Zora Neale Hurston’s Fieldwork Footage [Excerpt]