Black Cinema Treasures: Lost and Found

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University of North Texas, 1991 - African Americans in motion pictures - 242 pages
Alerted to the existence of a cache of old films in a Texas warehouse in 1983, Jones, a professor of cinema and video and founder-director of the Southwest Film/Video Archives, saved them from disintegration. The 22 rediscovered films were made by black producers, directors, and writers for exclusively black audiences from the 1920s to the early 1950s. They provide one of the best sources for knowledge of the black self-consciousness in America during those years. Director and actor Ossie Davis' foreword and Jones' overview of the history of black filmmaking discuss the "authenticity and awkwardness" of the films, compare them with Hollywood-made all-black-cast films of the 1930s, and explain their social significance. Brief biographies and filmographies of the pioneers of black filmmaking--Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, William Alexander, and George Randol--are included as are film synopses and frame blowups. ISBN 0-929398-26-2: $29.95.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION
13
SOME PIONEER BLACK FILMMAKERS
25
THE TYLER TEXAS BLACK FILM COLLECTION
43
Copyright

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About the author (1991)

G. William Jones was professor of cinema and video in the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Founder/Director of the Southwest Film/Video Archives there, and founder of the USA Film Festival in Dallas.

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