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

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 ...

. He worked as a studio photographer in

Lexington, North Carolina Lexington is the county seat of Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town had a population of 19,632. It is located in central North Carolina, south of Winston-Salem, North Caroli ...

. 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 Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. 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 a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

selected Waters' film of

Kannapolis, North Carolina Kannapolis () is a city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Cabarrus and Rowan County, North Carolina, Rowan Counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord, North Carolina, Concord and northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina, ...

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 (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

as representative of his work and genre.

References

External links

*''Kannapolis'' at the

Duke University Libraries Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes. The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public docum ...

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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