The Pittsburgh History Series is an ongoing series of hour-long documentaries that highlight various parts of our city's history. Since 1988, these documentaries have captivated local audiences by mixing memories, old films, [mementos], home movies, snapshots and new interviews.
Actor Glynn Turman makes his Broadway debut at 12 years old in the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” opposite Sidney Poitier and becomes a silver screen legend for six decades.
“This classic award-winning documentary is the first definitive treatment of the origins and rituals of the Black Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans, It features two tribes: The Yellow Pocahontas led by Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana, and The White Eagles, led by Big Chief Gerald “Jake” Milon. The first part of the film reveals the sociocultural history of the Mardi Gras Indians, their costume prepartion, music, songs, dance and gatherings for a ritual practice. The second part is a sunrise to sunset visual account of the processions and street culture of the Black Indians on Mardi Gras Day. The film was screened for a full week in the New York Whitney Museum’s New Filmmakers Series. also was a finalist in the Cine Golden Eagle Awards and was screened at the Margaret Mead Film Festival. International festivals/screenings include: The Pompedeau Centre in Paris; London; Berlin; West Africa.”
Comedy short (only fragments remain at LoC)
FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD is a feature documentary about the Black food justice movement. Family-friendly, funny, and moving, this 60-minute film connects the legacy of slavery, land loss, and climate change to our fight for food security.
A documentary exploring the issue of racial identity among African-Americans through the lens of skateboarding.
A 1975 documentary short about how children perceive themselves in terms of their surroundings, family, and ethnicity.
An African-American family in Georgia works to save money for a power saw. Includes depictions of timber harvest techniques and process. Film made in 1952 by the United States Information Service and intended for foreign audiences.
"Golds" follows Mercy, a young boy who lives in a poor neighborhood with his ill mom who can not afford the medical attention she needs. Mercy comes up with a creative way to raise money for his mom.
In the old American South, a black teen with a white adoptive family becomes curious about her roots after hearing birds for the first time.
A gritty look at two friends differing viewpoints as they react to a video one of them has made.
Full of nostalgia and charm, Kid Rock is an exposé of a young black man, Tadros Eyob’s journey into rock climbing in British Columbia.
Film commissioned by the Chicago-based publisher of Negro Digest, Ebony, Tan, and Jet to encourage advertisers to reach out to African American consumers. The Secret of Selling the Negro depicts the lives, activities, and consumer behavior of African American professionals, students, and housewives. A Business Screen reviewer noted that the film focused on the “bright positive” aspects of the “new Negro family.” The sponsor issued a companion booklet offering the “do’s and don’ts of selling to the Negro.”
A chilling anthology of three trap genre stories including a polyamorous relationship that’s not quite right and a funeral that becomes a bloodbath.
Colors explores the bonds of a young family living in the Bronx. They are displaced after unforeseen circumstances take the family to unexpected places. Despite the challenges they face, they find joy, hope and each other.
African American soldiers throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries faced discrimination and segregation, yet many still chose to fight for their country.
An oral history documentary of people of color at Miami University during its Public Ivy period—from 1970 to the early 2000s.
A romantic comedy about a man's wife that has a closet secret literally. When James begins to work for the company that rents Closet Spaces, he finds out what his wife has going on behind his back.
Birth of a MURDERER: A Black male college student falls haplessly in love with a white coed and discovers she isn't how she appears. Slowly but surely, he begins to unravel and the result is both shocking and perplexing.
Ben Caldwell’s Medea, a collage piece made on an animation stand and edited entirely in the camera, combines live action and rapidly edited still images of Africans and African Americans which function like flashes of history that the unborn child will inherit. Caldwell invokes Amiri Baraka’s poem “Part of the Doctrine” in this experimental meditation on art history, Black imagery, identity and heritage.