Ten Minutes to Live
Pioneers of African-American Cinema • 57m
Oscar Micheaux • United States • 1932
An early experiment in sound cinema.
Resisting the stagebound atmosphere of The Exile, Oscar Micheaux found ways to shoot a talking picture on location, without cumbersome and expensive audio recording equipment. He did this by making one of his characters deaf (rendering dialogue unnecessary) and having much dialogue spoken off-camera (so it could be dubbed later). At times, these devices are clumsily executed but they prove Micheaux had a more canny understanding of the medium than he is often given credit for having. Other highlights are a blackface comedy routine by Galle De Gaston and George Williams, and an unexpectedly provocative performance of Duke Ellington’s “Diga Diga Doo” by a bevy of feathered Cotton Club chorines.
Up Next in Pioneers of African-American Cinema
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Ten Nights in a Bar Room
Roy Calnek • United States • 1926
A masterful vision of alcohol addition.
Based on the hugely popular 1854 temperance novel by Timothy Shay Arthur (and William W. Pratt’s 1858 stage adaptation), Roy Calnek’s TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM boasts a masterful performance by Charles Sidney Gilpin as a f...
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The Blood of Jesus
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...
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The Bronze Buckaroo
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...
