The mission of The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture to identify the global significance of the creative contributions pioneered by an international diaspora of Blackness
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Showing posts with label 1910s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1910s. Show all posts

Thursday, February 16, 2017

A Man's Duty (1919) [Lost Film]

Starring:
Storyline
Lincoln Motion Picture Company. Wealthy man about town, Richard Beverly, and Hubert Gordon are rivals for the affections of Myra Lewis. A drunken binge, contrived by Hubert to embarrass Richard in public, winds up with Richard spending the night in a bordello with a girl named Helen. Learning of the trick the next day, Richard, seeking revenge, engages Hubert in a fight. Hubert hits his head on a rock when he falls down after being hit by Richard. Richard, thinking that he has killed Hubert, flees to a distant city where he spends his time drinking booze all day. It is there that Richard meets Merriam Givens .... Hoping to clear himself of his disgrace so that he can marry Merriam, he writes home and learns that, although Hubert survived the accident, the prostitute Helen is pregnant as a result of their night together in the bordello. Richard confides in Merriam who tells him that the child she has raised is not hers and the he should return home to marry Helen. Upon Richard's return, he learns that Hubert, who has married Myra is really the father of Helen's unborn child. Richard summons Merriam to marry him. 

**This film is considered lost until notified otherwise.**  

Monday, January 9, 2017

The Law of Nature (1917) [Lost Film]

Starring:
Storyline
Lincoln Motion picture Company. A beautiful eastern society girl is the governess of the children of a wealthy cattleman whom she eventually marries. The lure of bright lights, dances and cabarets prove irresistible for her, so she, with her husband and children, returns east. The humiliation she suffers because of the crudeness of her rancher husband in society and the persistent attentions of a former admirer lead to innumerable complications which result in her husband and children returning to the west. Cast aside, alone, deserted, homeless, ill, she finally realizes her folly and the inevitable consequences of the violation of 'Nature's Law'; she returns west to her husband and children. The regeneration complete, she succumbs to the will of God.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Homesteader (1919) [Lost Film]



The  Holton Signal (Holton, Kansas, United States of America) · 13 Mar, 1919

The  Holton Signal (Holton, Kansas, United States of America) · 13 Mar  1919

The Wichita Beacon (Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas, United States of America)  8 Mar, 1919





Starring:
Storyline
Agnes Stewart (Iris Hall), a Scottish girl who has come to South Dakota with her father, takes refuge in an isolated house during a blizzard. Hearing cries outside, she rescues Jean Baptiste (Charles D. Lucas), a black man who was in danger of freezing to death. Baptiste, who owns the house, falls in love with Agnes but despairs of overcoming the social barriers that prevent their union. He returns East to his people and marries Orlean (Evelyn Preer), the daughter of preacher N. Justine McCarthy (Vernon S. Duncan), a vain man who soon takes offense at Baptiste's refusal to praise him. Enlisting the aid of Orlean's sister Ethel (Inez Smith) and brother-in-law Glavis, McCarthy (Trevy Woods) begins a campaign of persecution against Baptiste that Orlean is too weak-willed to battle. Finally Orlean goes insane, kills her father, and commits suicide. Baptiste returns to South Dakota and meets Agnes, who has discovered that she is really black. The two find happiness together at last.

This 1919 silent drama was based from the novel The Homesteader by author Oscar Micheaux and also directed by him. It is believed to be the first feature-length film made with a black cast and crew, for a black audience, and thus the first example of a race movie, which makes it all the more tragic for fans of silent cinema that The Homesteader still remains a lost silent film.

**This film is considered lost until notified otherwise**

Monday, October 3, 2016

The Realization of a Negro's Ambition (1916) [Lost Film]



The  Oregon  Daily  Journal  (Port land,  Mult nomah,   Oregon)  ·     6  Aug  1916,   Sun  ·     Page  32

The  Bost on  Globe  (Bost on,   Suf f olk,  Massachuset t s,   Unit ed  St at es  of   America)  ·     2  Jul  1916,   Sun  ·     Page  48

The  New  York  Age  (New  York,   New  York,   New  York)  ·     10  Aug  1916,   Thu  ·     Page  6

Salt   Lake  Telegram  (Salt   Lake  Cit y,   Ut ah,   Unit ed  St at es  of   America)  ·     12  Jul  1916,  Wed  ·     Page  11

Starring:

Storyline
Lincoln Motion Picture Company. James Burton, a young Negro graduate from Tuskegee, as a civil engineer finds no satifaction working on his father's farm and heads west. Unable to find a job because of his color, he is despondent. He chances upon a runaway two-horse rig and risks his life to stop it. Unknowingly, he saved the daughter of an oil company owner. Out of gratitude he's given a job as head of oil expeditions. He convinces the owner to let him drill on his father's farm and surrounding farms. After a round of trickery and romance he strikes oil and is soon wealthy. He buys a home and gets married. The last scene shows James in later years, with ambition realized: home and family, a nice country to live and nice people to live by and enjoy it with him. 

Sunday, October 2, 2016

The Green-Eyed Monster (1919) [Lost Film]




Starring:

Information (pbs.org)
Richard Norman (Norman Film Manufacturing) made a number of silent feature films between 1915 and 1928. "The Green Eyed Monster," a film with an all African-American cast, was released in 1919. 

"The plot deals with the eternal triangle, two men in love with one girl, but the undercurrents bring in the interesting factor of two rival railroads and their fight for supremacy. Before the Government assumed chaperonage over the arteries of travel and transportation and when two roads ran on different routes to the same specific point, there was a rivalry between them as to which should carry the Government Fast mail. In order to ascertain the fastest of these, a race is run - and it was by winning this race that the hero also won the hands of his sweetheart. $10,000 worth of railroad equipment was used and an $80,000 train wreck is part of the story." -Herald Films



Norman produced a number of versions of his film "The Wrecker" (which he also called "The Green Eyed Monster" and "The Man at the Throttle") from 1916 to 1919, which had essentially the same plot as the 1919 version of "The Green Eyed Monster." Norman traveled across the Midwest and Florida to various towns, cast the local white citizens in starring roles, and filmed the same script over and over again. The townspeople were invited to view the movie at the local theater, which presumably enticed a large, paying audience to watch themselves, their friends and family up on the silver screen. 
 

Saturday, August 13, 2016

A Reckless Rover (1918)














Starring:
  • Sam Robinson



Storyline
Chased from his apartment by a policeman, ne'er do-well Rastus Jones (Sam Robinson) finds refuge in a Chinese laundry, where he wreaks slapstick havoc and has a memorable encounter with an improperly-filled opium pipe. A Reckless Rover pays homage to the slapstick tradition by introducing its own rendition of the Keystone Cops in its grand finale. While the comedy series would suffer attacks by the Chicago Defender for perpetuating racial stereotypes (one factor in their decision to cease production), the buffoonery in the Ebony Comedies was little different from the clowning one finds in the work of their fair-complected contemporaries.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915)


















Starring:


Storyline
Two African-American men find three tickets to a talent show. Instead of returning the tickets to the person that dropped them, they decided to go to the show accompanied with a female friend. While watching the show, they are entertained by the talented actors, but their shenanigans gets them kicked out of the theater. Inspired by the talent of the actors from the show they were kicked out of, they decided to start their own talent show. But there is a problem...they're not very talented.  

This film was restored by Kino Lorber which was archived in the Library of Congress and released in a 5 disc box set: Pioneers of African American Cinema.