Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940
Pioneers of African-American Cinema • 15m
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 audio recordings by Norman Chalfin, who wrote of the endeavor, “There was no electric power...Illumination was from kerosene lamps.” Because there was no electricity, they could not effectively synchronize sound and image. In 2006, the footage was selected to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Up Next in Pioneers of African-American Cinema
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Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.
Spencer Williams • United States • 1946
Sultry entertainment lands a woman in hot water.
In an unauthorized retelling of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “Miss Thompson”, Francine Everette stars as Gertie La Rue, a nightclub entertainer who arrives at a Caribbean resort to entertain the touris...
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Eleven P.M.
Richard Maurice • United States • 1928
A surreal melodrama with one of cinema's strangest endings.
Produced in Detroit, Michigan by little-known African-American filmmaker Richard Maurice, ELEVEN P.M. is a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to protect an ...
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Heaven-Bound Travelers
Eloyce Gist, James Gist • United States • 1935
A long-lost follow-up to HELL-BOUND TRAIN.
It was only during the HD restoration of HELL-BOUND TRAIN for this collection that film historian S. Torriano Berry realized that among the 35 mixed rolls of film in the Gist collection were the fragments...
