The Origins of film: the African American cinema

Volume one of a three disc anthology of restored early silent American films (1900-1926) from archival prints held in the Library of Congress’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. This volume focuses on early African American Cinema. “Within our gates”: one of the earliest silent films directed by an African American is this melodrama about the efforts of a black woman with a tragic past to raise funds for a school for black children in the South. The film dealt with provocative issues of the time, such as overt racism, lynching, and the sorry state of education for the black community. Micheaux’s use of a mixed race cast allowed for a more complicated exploration of such issues than all-black “race movies” or Hollywood studio productions. “Scar of shame” was one of the few silent films made specifically for black audiences known to have survived. The story concerns an uneducated dark-skinned girl who forces an upright middle-class piano teacher into marriage. While it follows many of the conventions of Hollywood social melodrama and was produced, written and directed by whites it is recognised for its projection of an authentic black point of view and for its accurate portrayal of black social mores, particularly of the caste, class and colour divisions amongst middle class blacks and of the tensions between middle class and street life. In “Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake” the entertainers of the title perform two songs. A booklet containing notes about the filmmakers, the restoration process, the context in which the films were made, and synopses is included.