Herbert Lee Waters (1902–1997) was an American photographer and filmmaker. Waters was born in Caroleen,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. He worked as a studio photographer in

Lexington, North Carolina Lexington is the county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term ...

. Waters also created over 252 short films that make up a series, ''Movies of Local People'', depicting life in small towns in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Waters arranged screenings of the short films at local cinemas. They were usually played before the feature film of the screening. Waters made the films profitable for himself through admission prices and contributions from local businesses that wished to appear in the films. The films, produced between 1936 and 1942, provide insight into American life during the Great Depression. The subject matter of the films includes footage of school children, people at work, athletic events, scenes from city streets, and other everyday activities. Notably, in making his movies Waters often set up his camera in Black communities as well, and hi
Chapel Hill, NC films
feature Black residents only. Waters produced ''Movies of Local People'' primarily on 16mm black and white reversal film, using color film, typically Kodachrome, on occasion. He shot most of his films at 16 frames per second, and did most of his editing in camera. A collection of Waters' films is housed at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. A number of the films have been digitized and are available i
Duke Digital Collections
Further information can be found in th
Duke Libraries Guide to H. Lee Waters
In 2004, 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 ...

selected Waters' film of

Kannapolis, North Carolina Kannapolis () is a city in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord and northeast of Charlotte and is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The city of Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984. Th ...

for inclusion in the

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 ...

as representative of his work and genre.

References

Artists from North Carolina 1902 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American photographers People from Caroleen, North Carolina Film directors from North Carolina {{US-film-bio-stub