Black Movies: From Then To Now
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Lincoln Motion Picture Company
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William D. Foster
, the grandfather of HistoryMaker and nonprofit chief executive
Badi Foster
, started black filmmaking in Chicago’s South Side in 1913, with his production of the popular short comedy,
The Railroad Porter
.
1
In his interview with The HistoryMakers in 2003, Foster spoke of his grandfather, “
Will Foster was one of the first black movie producers. He was ubiquitous in terms of music, publishing, newspapers, Bronzeville Chicago…He was advance agent for Williams and Walker minstrel shows. He worked the national campaigns for old man Pullman. He was the manager of
Roscoe Simmons
, who was
Booker T. Washington's
nephew, a great orator. He would smuggle diamonds and horses from Mexico, and drank a pint of gin a day.”
[Badi Foster, THMDA, 1.1.4.]
.
2
In 1910, he established the Foster Photoplay Company in Chicago, widely regarded as the first independent African American film company which produced mostly slapstick comedies starring black vaudeville performers, while other film companies quickly followed suit.
3
By the 1920s, there were more than thirty black film companies that were producing films for black audiences including the Lincoln Motion Picture Company run by
George and Noble Johnson
. Pioneering African American director,
Oscar Micheaux
, picked up where Foster left off, founding Micheaux Film & Book Company in Chicago in 1918. According to leading black film scholar,
Jacqueline Stewart
of the University of Chicago, “
Race films by maverick African-American directors such as Oscar Micheaux and
Spencer Williams
laid the groundwork for later black filmmaking
.”
4
Animator
Floyd Norman
, who launched his own film company, Vignette Films, Inc. in 1966, recalled, “
Oscar Micheaux
was an entrepreneur who was actually making and marketing African American films in the 1930s. He had his own production company...handled his own distribution throughout the country, because his films were only shown at African American theaters in certain cities across the country. So, we were by no means the first to embark, on an African American enterprise like this.”
[Floyd Norman, THMDA, 1.4.3.]
.
5
As we all tune in to the Oscars this Sunday, we celebrate the historic advancements of African Americans in film. And in light of the discovery of the first known African American kiss on-screen, we are reminded of the importance of preservation. The clip,
Something Good-Negro Kiss
, which was filmed in Chicago in 1898, was unknowingly purchased within a batch of silent films from a Louisiana collector by University of Southern California archivist
Dino Everett
, and was later identified with the help of University of Chicago professor
Allyson Nadia Field
. Not only do the circumstances of this discovery make it even more special, but its origins in Chicago hearken back to a rich history of African Americans in film, one that claims its roots in the Second City.
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SUPPORT FROM OUR READERS!!
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"I've enjoyed your newsletters the past couple of years and while reading...I began to think of my own family history. I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts with my seventeen brothers and sisters. My mother emigrated to the U.S. from Barbados shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century. She came to find a better life through a job. She followed her sister and a cousin to New York City, didn't like New York, and was advised to go to Springfield, because she had cousins there. She came, met my father, fell in love and got married. She had left two children in care of an aunt in Trinidad, West Indies, married my father whose wife died leaving him with four children and then proceeded to have thirteen more children. We have been having a family reunion every year for the past fifty-eight years!"
- A. Hall
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2019-2020 Fellowship Opportunities!!
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The HistoryMakers is excited to offer three (3) fellowship opportunities open to faculty and students!
Application Deadline:
Friday, March 1, 2019
Eligibility:
Applicants must be currently enrolled graduate students who have passed their general examinations, or current faculty at one of
The HistoryMakers
subscribing institutions. Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or unconditional permanent residents. Applicants need not have special expertise in African American history.
Fellowship Duration:
April 2019 – September 2019
Award Amount:
$7,500
Description:
The HistoryMakers
– the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive – invites applications for one of
four $7,500 Academic Research Fellowship awards
created from funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for the period of Summer 2019 (April–September 2019). Submission is open to: 1) faculty at all stages of their careers,
and
2) graduate students who have passed their general examinations. Applicant’s work must use or be inspired by content from
The HistoryMakers
Digital Archive.
The HistoryMakers
Academic Research Fellowship awards will be awarded to faculty or graduate students pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients will produce articles, websites, blogs, digital materials, lesson plans and syllabi, conference presentations/papers, and/or other scholarly resources in the humanities. Award funds are meant to enable recipients to set aside time for writing; and provide funding for research, travel, and project support. The fellowship awards are expected to culminate in the realization and presentation of the proposed work, as well as its presentation. Finished products generated by awardees will be featured on
The HistoryMakers
website, and will compete for inclusion in
The HistoryMakers
20
th
Anniversary Celebration at the Library of Congress (November 6-7, 2020).
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Application Deadline:
Friday, March 1, 2019
Eligibility:
Institutional access to
The HistoryMakers
Digital Archive is not required, it will be made available for awardees. Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or unconditional permanent residents. Applicants need not have special expertise in African American history.
Fellowship Duration:
April 2019 – September 2019
Award Amount:
$5,000
Description:
The HistoryMakers
– the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive – invites applications for one of
two $5,000 Digital Humanities Fellowship awards
created with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for the period of Summer 2019 (April–September 2019). Submission is open to individuals or groups of faculty at all stages of their careers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Applicant’s work must use or be inspired by content from
The HistoryMakers
Digital Archive.
The HistoryMakers
Digital Humanities Fellowship awards will be awarded to digital humanities scholars pursuing interpretive research projects that require digital expression, analysis, and/or digital publication. Projects must advance a scholarly argument through digital means and tools, and should incorporate visual, audio, and/or other multimedia materials or flexible reading pathways to address issues in African American history, the digital humanities, or general humanities, Project proposals should articulate an active distribution plan for sharing results. Stand-alone databases and other projects that lack an interpretive argument are not eligible. Award funds are meant to provide research, travel, and project support. The fellowship awards are expected to culminate in the realization and presentation of the proposed work, as well as its presentation. Finished products generated by awardees will be featured on
The HistoryMakers
website, and will compete for inclusion in
The HistoryMakers
20
th
Anniversary Celebration at the Library of Congress (November 6-7, 2020).
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Application Deadline:
Friday, March 1, 2019
Eligibility:
Applicants must be currently enrolled students or faculty members at one of
The HistoryMakers
subscribing institutions (see below). Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or unconditional permanent residents. Applicants need not have special expertise in African American history.
Fellowship Duration:
April 2019 – November 2019
Award Amount:
$5,000
Description:
The HistoryMakers
– the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive – invites proposals for one of
two $5,000 Creative Study Fellowship awards
created from funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for the period of
April–November 2019
. Submission is open to both established and emerging artists (faculty and students) at all stages of their careers. Applicants work must use or be inspired by content from
The HistoryMakers
Digital Archive.
The HistoryMakers
Creative Study Fellowship awards will be awarded to composers, choreographers, performance artists, visual artists, writers or other kinds of artists or humanists working in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction),
performance
(theatrical productions, documentaries, monologues),
visual/conceptual arts
(painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic art, experience-based art), and poetry, to enable recipients to set aside time for writing; provide research, travel, and project support. The fellowship awards are expected to culminate in the realization and presentation of the proposed work, as well as its presentation. Finished products generated by awardees will be featured on
The HistoryMakers
website, and will compete for inclusion in
The HistoryMakers
20
th
Anniversary Celebration at the Library of Congress (November 6-7, 2020).
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"I'd Rather Be A Could-be If I Cannot Be An Are; Because A Could-be Is A Maybe Who Is Reaching For A Star. I'd Rather Be A Has-been Than A Might-Have-been, By Far; For A Might Have-been Has Never Been, But A Has Was Once An Are."
-
Robert James,
bank executive
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2. Badi Foster (The HistoryMakers A2003.021), interviewed by Amy Billingsley, January 25, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, Badi Foster shares stories of his ancestors including matriarch Sarah Dixon and early black filmmaker William Foster.
5. Floyd Norman (The HistoryMakers A2007.321), interviewed by Jacques Lesure, November 5, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 3, Floyd Norman remembers founding Vignette Films, Inc.
Video: USC School of Cinematic Arts, Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive.
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