Comedy short (only fragments remain at LoC)
“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.”
Two years after the riots and deaths at Attica, New York, a community day was organized at Greenhaven, a federal prison in Connecticut. The event was documented by People's Communication Network, a community video group founded by Bill Stephens, for cablecast in New York City, marking the first time an alternative video collective was allowed to document an event inside prison walls. Seventy-five-year-old Queen Mother Moore speaks of her support of Marcus Garvey in New Orleans and her involvement with African-American education in Brooklyn.
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.
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.
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.
In California's Bay Area, a painful memory lingers of the Port Chicago disaster of WWII, when hundreds of the Navy's first Black Sailors perished, and the White officers in charge were protected by the chain of command.
A 1975 documentary short about how children perceive themselves in terms of their surroundings, family, and ethnicity.
Portable Channel, a community documentary group in Rochester, New York, was one of the first small format video centers to have an ongoing relationship with a PBS affiliate (WXXI). Portapakers interviewed Sinclair Scott, a member of the negotiating team that went into Attica when the prisoners' rebelled at the federal prison in September 1971.
African American soldiers throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries faced discrimination and segregation, yet many still chose to fight for their country.
This musical comedy with an all-black cast imagines what television entertainment will be like in the near future.
Chronicles over four centuries of African American influence on the development of the modern-day United States. Before Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, St. Augustine, FL had built a multicultural colony of free and enslaved men and women. This small colony would eventually set the stage for the first Underground Railroad in the late 1600s. Then, 300 years later, be the epicenter of events that would lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama's story has just begun. The Obamas have remained quite busy with their new life of activism which includes their issue-oriented production company, Higher Ground, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2020. Mrs. Obama's autobiography, Becoming, has become the best-selling memoir of all time and even won a Grammy following the publication of her book. Get lost in the incredible journey of this modern-day First Lady's story in the making...
Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first Black woman to have her paintings exhibited in the White House (2009). Yet she did not receive national attention until she was 80.
A chilling anthology of three trap genre stories including a polyamorous relationship that’s not quite right and a funeral that becomes a bloodbath.
A little-known story of the Indian Wars involves the role of the Buffalo Soldiers in the conquest of the Apache tribes.
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.
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.”
To many African Americans, soul food is sacrament, ritual, and a key expression of cultural identity. But does this traditional cuisine do more harm to health than it soothes the soul?
In The Singer: A Montford Point Marine, the enthralling journey of Henry Charles Johnson, one of the first African Americans in the U.S. Marine Corps, unfolds. Lured by the dignified Marine uniform and the allure of the G.I. Bill, he's abruptly thrown into the bare, segregated world of Camp Montford Point, a far cry from the lush expansiveness of Camp Lejeune he'd imagined. The harsh realities of Southern segregation strike a jarring contrast to his accustomed diversity of Manhattan, escalating further with hostility from drill instructors. Undeterred, his resolve is galvanized by the dream of donning the Marine uniform and the prospects following discharge. Post-discharge, Johnson immerses himself in New York's music scene, enchanting audiences with his soulful, Sinatra-esque timbre. This riveting narrative portrays the unmatched fortitude of the Montford Point Marines, representing a crucial African-American, American, and globally relevant human experience.