Your Favorite Filmmaker Presents...
Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940
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.
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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...
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The Scar of Shame
Frank Peregini • United States • 1929
A woman is rescued from her abusive father by a composer.
When a young woman escapes from her abusive father, she is rescued by an aspiring composer, but encounters opposition from his class-conscious mother. This edition of THE SCAR OF SHAME includes four...