ISSN: 1094-902X
Volume 2, Number 2 (Spring 1999)

Film Resources for African-American Religious History

This filmography, bibliography, and list of web links is intended to help scholars in African-American religious history begin to think about a variety of ways of using film in both teaching and research.  Please feel free to use the feedback form to suggest additional film titles to be added to the list.

Documentaries:

• Africans in America (WGBH, 1998)
• Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (Blackside, 1987)
• Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-mid 1980s (Blackside, 1990)
• Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker (Icarus/ First Run, 1981)
• Huie's Sermon (Werner Herzog, 1980)
• I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts (Blackside, 1999)
• Malcolm X: Make It Plain (Blackside, 1994)
• Say Amen, Somebody (George T. Nierenberg, 1983)
• Sermons and Sacred Pictures: The Life and Work of Rev. L. O. Taylor (Lynne Sachs,1989)

Race Movies:

These are films that were produced for black audiences.  Often the filmmakers were black, but many of the movies were made in conjuction with white producers and/or directores.  Race films were produced from the 1910s through the end of World War II and exhibited in a variety of contexts including segregated movie theaters, churches and schools.  The films listed below contain religious themes.

• The Birth of a Race (John W. Noble,1919)
• Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1919)
• Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux,1924)
• The Black King (Bud Pollard,1932)
• Sunday Sinners (Arthur Dreifuss, 1940)
• The Blood of Jesus (Spencer Williams, 1941)
• Go Down, Death! (Spencer Williams, 1944)
• Dirty Gertie From Harlem, USA (Spencer Williams,1946)

Hollywood Films:

A wide range of Hollywood films have portrayed African-American religiosity, usually in ways that conform to negative stereotypes.  Such films built on earlier literary templates for representing African Americans and built upon them in

• Hallelujah! (King Vidor, 1929)
• The Green Pastures (Marc Connelly, 1936)
• Tales of Manhattan (Julien Duvivier, 1942)
• Cabin in the Sky (Vinente Minnelli, 1943)
  

Recent Films:

• Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991)
• To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett, 1990)
• Sankofa (Haile Gerima, 1993)
• Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997)
• The Apostle (Robert Duvall, 1997)

Other Film Resources:

• Black Americans and Silent Film at The Silents Majority, an online journal of silent film
• Midnight Ramble (on African Americans in film, 1920s-1940s)
• Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University
• A Separate Cinema (black cast movie posters)
• The Oscar Micheaux Film Society
  Devoted to African American Film History and Preservation
• Movie Review Query Engine

Where to Buy:

• 125th Street Cinema
• Best Video
• Facets Multi-Media

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