Black Film Archive is an online database of Black films released from 1898–1999 that are available to view via streaming platforms. The site was launched by Maya Cade in 2021.

History

Black Film Archive is a curated database of Black films released between 1898 and 1999 that are currently streaming on online platforms like

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

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, and

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. Some of the films are free to view due to

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

laws. The site is inclusive of approximately 250 Black films as of its August 26, 2021 launch. The films range in genre and are organized by decade. Maya Cade, the site's creator, is an American screenwriter and an audience editor for

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

. The genesis for Black Film Archive came in June 2020, after Cade posted a viral

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

thread of classic Black films amid the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

, to provide solace and comfort to others. She then began to research and assemble a database of Black films. She focused on historical selections in part because she has felt disconnected from modern Black cinema. Cade intentionally limited the database to movies released up to 1979 because film studios heavily invested in Black cinema until the commercial failure of 1978's ''

The Wiz ''The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' ...

''. One of her goals for the archive was to introduce cinephiles to unfamiliar and alternative depictions of Black people and Black culture "whether people agree with the portrayals or not." In putting together the archive, she selected films oriented to Black audiences and those with Black leads or Black production teams. Part of her selection process was to determine whether people "need" a particular film and what it offers. Certain films could not be included because they are not currently streaming, such as ''

Killer of Sheep ''Killer of Sheep'' is a 1978 American drama film edited, filmed, written, produced, and directed by Charles Burnett. Shot primarily in 1972 and 1973, it was originally submitted by Burnett to the UCLA School of Film in 1977 as his Master of Fi ...

''.

Selections

Some of the site's selections include: *''

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 ...

'' (1920) * ''

Siren of the Tropics ''Siren of the Tropics'' ( French: ''La Sirène des tropiques'') is a 1927 French silent film starring Josephine Baker. Directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant and set in the West Indies, the film tells the story of a native girl named Pa ...

'' (1927) *''

Carmen Jones ''Carmen Jones'' is a 1943 Broadway musical with music by Georges Bizet (orchestrated for Broadway by Robert Russell Bennett) and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II which was performed at The Broadway Theatre. Conceptually, it is Bizet's o ...

'' (1954) *'' Anna Lucasta'' (1958) * ''

The Cry of Jazz ''The Cry of Jazz'' is a 1959 documentary film by Edward O. Bland that connects jazz to African American history. It uses footage of Chicago's black neighborhoods, performances by Sun Ra, John Gilmore, and Julian Priester and the music of Sun R ...

'' (1959) *''

Shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around wh ...

'' (1971) * ''

The Black Gestapo ''The Black Gestapo'' (also released as ''Ghetto Warriors'') is a 1975 American crime film about a vigilante named General Ahmed, who starts an inner-city "People's Army" to protect the black citizens of Watts. However, when the Army succeeds in c ...

'' (1975) * ''Killing Time'' (1979) In an interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Cade cited these selections as her favorite films of each decade from the 1920s to the 1970s: * '' Hallelujah'' (1929) * ''

The Green Pastures ''The Green Pastures'' is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from ''Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. It had th ...

'' (1936) * '' Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940'' (1940) * '' The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' (1959) * '' A Man Called Adam'' (1966) * '' Claudine'' (1974)

Accolades

Maya Cade has received the following awards and nominations: * 2021 – Special Award, NYFCC * 2021 – Outstanding Achievement by A Woman in The Film Industry (Nominee),

Alliance of Women Film Journalists The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) is a non-profit organization founded in 2006. It is based in New York City and is dedicated to supporting work by and about women in the film industry. The AWFJ is composed of 84 professional female m ...

EDA Awards

References

External links

Official website"Our Favorite Picks from the Black Film Archive"
--''Keep It'' podcast hosts on YouTube.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Film Archive American websites Internet properties established in 2021 Film websites African-American mass media Film archives in the United States African-American films

History

Selections

Accolades

See also

References

External links