Oscar Micheaux • United States • 1925

A stirring drama with Paul Robeson in dual roles.

Paul Robeson appeared in this film by the enterprising Oscar Micheaux. No other film in the director’s career so vividly represented his cynical view of clergymen as greedy manipulators of the vulnerable. Ro...

Zora Neale Hurston • United States • 1940

Hurston observes religious practices of the Gullah people.

This footage, shot by Zora Neale Hurston in the Sea Island community of Beaufort, South Carolina, observes the religious practices of the Gullah people. The footage is accompanied here by field ...

Spencer Williams • United States • 1941

A surreal, poignant parable.

The first feature by director/actor Spencer Williams, THE BLOOD OF JESUS, is a rural religious parable in which a woman, accidentally shot by her husband (Williams), travels to the crossroads of the hereafter, and faces the te...

Richard C. Kahn • United States • 1939

The NMAAHC holds multiple film copies of THE BRONZE BUCKAROO

The NMAAHC holds multiple film copies of THE BRONZE BUCKAROO. The copy employed for the Pioneers project comes from the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History a...

Frank Peregini • United States • 1929

A woman is rescued from her abusive father by a composer.

When a young woman escapes from her abusive father, she is rescued by an aspiring composer, but encounters opposition from his class-conscious mother. This edition of THE SCAR OF SHAME includes four...

United States • 1915

The Ebony Film Corporation may have been a white-owned company, but African-American producer Luther Pollard used it as a means of getting black faces on the silver screen. Luther often worked in collaboration with his brother Fritz, a star athlete who later became the first...