''Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940'' is a 1940 short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

which shows religious services taking place in a South Carolina

Gullah The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...

community. The documentary film was directed by Zora Neale Hurston. In 2005, ''Commandment Keeper Church'' was selected for the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Zora Neale Hurston

References

External links

*''Commandment Keeper Church'' essay by Fayth M. Parks at

*''Commandment Keeper Church'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 315-31

* 1940 films American short documentary films United States National Film Registry films 1940s short documentary films 1940 documentary films Black-and-white documentary films American black-and-white films Documentary films about South Carolina Christianity in South Carolina May 1940 events 1940 in South Carolina Gullah culture Beaufort, South Carolina Works by Zora Neale Hurston 1940s American films {{short-documentary-film-stub