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Pioneers Of African-American Cinema
''Pioneers of African-American Cinema'' (2015) is a digitally restored anthology collection of independent Black cinema from the first half of the 20th century. About Known as " race films," this category of film was made outside of the Hollywood system, and is notable for its exploration of issues of "class, gender, and politics within the Black community." The most important of these filmmakers was groundbreaking auteur Oscar Micheaux, whose films '' Within Our Gates'' (1920), with "its head-on confrontation of racism and lynching,''"The Symbol of the Unconquered'' (1920), about black homesteaders struggling for survival against the Ku Klux Klan on the Midwestern plains," and ''Body and Soul'' (1925), featuring legendary performer Paul Robeson's debut as an escaped prisoner, are all included. Directors Spencer Williams, Richard Maurice, writer and ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston, and film-making couple James and Eloyce Gist are all represented, too, however, as are a variety ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Bowser
Pearl Bowser (born 1931) is an author, collector, television director, film scholar, film director, producer, filmmaker, independent distributor and film archivist. Along with her peers Mel Roman and Charles Hobson, Bowser researched and curated “The Black Film” retrospective at the Jewish Museum in 1970. This prompted a new wave of public interest into “exhibiting, producing, and engaging with African American cinema beyond borders”. Most of her exalted career was spent traveling the globe in order to cultivate audiences for marginalized filmmakers. An example of her efforts, and also her most groundbreaking work, manifested in her research on “early-1900s Black film pioneer Oscar Micheaux”. This research can be seen in her book on the first ten years of the career of Oscar Micheaux, an African-American who directed 40 "race pictures" between 1918 and 1940. She is thus credited for having helped rediscover some of Oscar Micheaux's rare surviving films. She is the founder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UCLA Film & Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archive screens over 400 films and videos a year, primarily at the Billy Wilder Theater, located inside the Hammer Museum in Westwood, California. (Formerly, it screened films at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus). The archive is funded by UCLA, public and private interests, and the entertainment industry. It is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives. The Archive is a division of the UCLA Library. As of January 2021, its collection hosted more than 500,000 items, including approximately 159,000 motion picture titles and 132,000 television titles, more than 27 million feet of newsreels, more than 222,000 broadcast recordings and more than 9,000 radio transcription discs. History The Archive hosted virtual screen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hot Biskits
''Hot Biskits'' was an independent comedy short film released in 1931. It was written and directed by Spencer Williams and was his first film. Glen Gano was the cinematographer. The 10-minute race film was a made by Dixie Comedies Corp. of Hollywood, California. A 16mm print of the film is preserved at the Library of Congress. The film portrays a miniature golf competition between two rivals. The film was rediscovered in the Library of Congress Archives after 80 years. The film's cast is all African-American. Williams' next film, '' The Blood of Jesus'', was made 10 years later. ''Hot Biskits'' was included in the crowdfunded 2015 Kino Lorber boxset '' Pioneers of African-American Cinema''. Cast * Thurston Briggs *Spencer Williams See also *African American cinema African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. They are an example of Black film. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Flying Ace
''The Flying Ace'' is a 1926 black-and-white silent drama film directed by Richard E. Norman with an all-African-American cast. This six-reel film, made by Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Florida, utilized a mix of professionals such as leads Laurence Criner and Kathryn Boyd, and non-professional actors. Films such as ''The Flying Ace'', that used an all-African-American cast and were shown specifically to African-American audiences, were known as "race films". Norman Studios produced feature length and numerous short race films during the 1920s. The untapped black filmgoing market and the plethora of talented performers unable to get work in mainstream films led to the production of race films by Norman Studios. Richard Norman's reason for producing race films was not solely a business decision. Although the studio was filling a niche, Norman was also motivated by the state of race relations at the time and wanted to make a positive impact. In 2021, the film was selected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard D
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong in rule'. Nicknames include "Richie", "Dick", "Dickon", " Dickie", " Rich", "Rick", " Rico", " Ricky", and more. Richard is a common English, German and French male name. It's also used in many more languages, particularly Germanic, such as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Dutch, as well as other languages including Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Finnish. Richard is cognate with variants of the name in other European languages, such as the Swedish "Rickard", the Catalan "Ricard" and the Italian "Riccardo", among others (see comprehensive variant list below). People named Richard Multiple people with the same name * Richard Andersen (other) * Richard Anderson (other) * Richard Cartwright (other) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Tishomingo Blues", and many others. Biography Spencer Williams was born in Vidalia, Louisiana, United States. He was educated at St. Charles University in New Orleans. Williams was performing in Chicago by 1907, and moved to New York City about 1916. After arriving in New York, he co-wrote several songs with Anton Lada of the Louisiana Five. Among those songs was " Basin Street Blues", which became one of his most popular songs and is still recorded by musicians to this day. Williams toured Europe with bands from 1925 to 1928; during this time he wrote for Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Williams then returned to New York for a few years. At the end of the 1920s, Williams was tri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances. In 1915, Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers College. While at Rutgers, he was twice named a consensus College Football All-America Team, All-American in football and was the class valedictorian. He received his LL.B. from Columbia Law School while playing in the National Football League (NFL). After graduation, he became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance with performances in ''The Emperor Jones'' and ''All God's Chillun Got Wings (play), All God's Chillun Got Wings''. Robeson performed in Britain in a touring melodrama, ''Voodoo'', in 1922, and in ''Emperor Jones'' in 1925. In 1928, he scored a major success in the London premiere of ''Show Boat''. Living in London for several years with h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Body And Soul (1925 Film)
''Body and Soul'' is a 1925 race film produced, written, directed, and distributed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Paul Robeson in his motion picture debut. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot An escaped prisoner seeks refuge in the predominantly African-American town of Tatesville, Georgia, by passing himself off as the Rt. Reverend Isaiah T. Jenkins. He is joined in town by a fellow criminal, and the pair scheme to swindle the phony reverend's congregation of their offerings. Jenkins falls in love with a young member of his congregation, Isabelle Perkins, even though she is in love with a poor young man named Sylvester, who happens to be Jenkins’ long-estranged identical twin brother. Jenkins steals money from Martha Jane, Isabelle's mother, and convinces the young woman to take the blame for his crime. She flees to Atlanta and dies just as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Symbol Of The Unconquered
''The Symbol of the Unconquered'' (also known as ''The Wilderness Trail'') is a 1920 silent "race film" drama produced, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux. It is Micheaux's fourth feature-length film and along with ''Within Our Gates'' is among his early surviving works. ''The Symbol of the Unconquered'' was made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and released by Micheaux on November 29, 1920. A print of the film is extant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The film is based on the way perceptions of race shape human relationships.''The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20'' by The American Film Institute (1988). Plot Eve Mason is a "white-skinned" African American who inherits a large amount of land after the death of her grandfather Dick Mason, an old prospector. She leaves her hometown of Selma, Alabama for the Northwest to settle in a place called Oristown. Upon arrival she decides to stay in the Driscoll Hotel but its owner, Jefferson Driscoll, a self-hating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Within Our Gates
''Within Our Gates'' is a 1920 American silent film by the director Oscar Micheaux that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of blacks to cities of the North and Midwest, and the emergence of the " New Negro". It was part of a genre called race films. The plot features an African-American woman who goes North in an effort to raise money for a rural school in the Deep South for poor black children. Her romance with a black doctor eventually leads to revelations about her family's past and her own mixed-race, European ancestry. The film portrays racial violence under white supremacy, and the lynching of black people. Produced, written and directed by Micheaux, it is the oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director and has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by a Black director. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Race Film
The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produced. Of these, fewer than one hundred remain. Because race films were produced outside the Hollywood studio system, they were largely forgotten by mainstream film historians until they resurfaced in the 1980s on the BET cable network. In their day, race films were very popular among African-American theatergoers. Their influence continues to be felt in cinema and television marketed to African Americans. The term "race film" is sometimes used to describe films of the period aimed at other minority audiences. For instance, the 1926 film ''Silk Bouquet'' (also known as ''The Dragon Horse'') starred the Asian-American actress Anna May Wong and was marketed to Chinese-American audiences. Financing and production African Americans produce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, such as documentary films, classic films from earlier periods in the history of cinema, and world cinema. In addition to theatrical distribution, Kino Lorber releases films in the home entertainment market and has its own streaming services for its digital library. History 1977–2008; Founding as Kino International Kino Lorber was founded as Kino International in 1977 by Bill Pence. It was then purchased by Donald Krim who at the time worked for United Artists as the head of the nontheatrical department. It began by importing and releasing international films that may have not otherwise reached the market in the United States. One of the first films imported under Krim was ''Ballad of Orin''. In 1977, the company acquired rights to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
