Carlton Moss (February 14, 1909 – August 10, 1997) was an African-American screenwriter, actor and film director. Moss directed the documentary ''Frederick Douglass: The House on Cedar Hill''.

Biography

Moss was raised in both

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and Newark. He attended

Morgan State University Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a Public university, public historically black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically bla ...

, where he formed an acting troupe called "Toward a Black Theater". In 1936 he was one of a triumvirate of African-American theatre artists who led the Negro Theatre Unit of the

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal ...

after the departure of

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanians, Romanian-born British Americans, British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publ ...

. Houseman recommended Moss for the position, later describing him as "skillful, progressive, educated and sensitive to every changing breeze of Harlem opinion." Moss directed a successful production of ''

The Show-Off ''The Show-Off'' is a 1924 stage play by George Kelly about a working-class North Philadelphian family's reluctance to accept their daughter's suitor Aubrey Piper, an overly confident Socialist buffoon. The play has been revived five times on B ...

'' (1937), its first presentation under the new leadership, at the Lafayette Theatre. Later he wrote '' The Negro Soldier'' for

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind Frank Capra filmography#Films that won Academy Award ...

, a 1944 propaganda film encouraging racial harmony among

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

soldiers and specifically encouraging African-American men to enlist. After this film he became an important figure in independent cinema of

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s. In 1944 Moss went to Europe and made the film ''Teamwork'', a documentary about the work of an African-American quartermaster unit known as "The Redball Express". He had the chance to work with

Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...

on '' Pinky'' but left the project, as he felt it demeaning to blacks. He later taught as a guest lecturer at

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

in Nashville and as a professor at the University of California at Irvine in the Comparative Culture Program, and made educational films about African-American history.Black Film Center
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Filmography

* ''The Negro Soldier'' (1943) * ''Teamwork'' (1944) * ''Frederick Douglass: The House on Cedar Hill'' (1953) * ''George Washington Carver'' (1959) * ''Black Genesis: The Art of Tribal Africa'' (1970) * ''Portraits in Black: Paul Laurence Dunbar: America's First Black Poet'' (1972) * ''The Afro-American Artist'' (1976) * ''Portraits in Black:

Two Centuries of Black American Art ''Two Centuries of Black American Art'' was a 1976 traveling exhibition of African-American art organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It "received greater visibility and validation from the mainstream art world than any other ...

'' (1976) * ''Portraits in Black: The Gift of the Black Folk'' (1978) * ''All the World's A Stage'' (1979) * ''Drawings from Life: Charles White'' (1980) * ''Forever Free'' (1983)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Carlton 1909 births 1997 deaths African-American film directors Film directors from New Jersey Morgan State University alumni Writers from Newark, New Jersey Federal Theatre Project administrators Male actors from Newark, New Jersey 20th-century African-American people