A powerful black film movement emerged out of the space created by segregation in the United States.
From 1915 to 1950, black theaters offered screenings in the middle of the night known as “midnight rambles.”
Unjust segregation laws spawned the first cinematic movement outside of Hollywood. These films, shown in black movie houses, were created by black auteurs for black audiences.
“Black Shadows on a Silver Screen,” showing Wednesday at the Creative Alliance, is the first film of a monthlong series showcasing so-called “race films.”
Narrated by veteran actor Ossie Davis, the film explores the movie industry?s black pioneers from 1915 to 1950, including Oscar Micheaux, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker and Baltimore?s Clarence Muse.
Thomas Cripps ?professor emeritus at Morgan State University and an authority on early black cinema ? wrote the documentary in 1975 to tell a “history nobody knew,” he said. When he suggested the film, not even his TV station colleagues believed the black film movement existed.
These race films struck Jed Dietz, the director of the Maryland Film Festival, because they tell unspoken tales. “We?re uncomfortable a lot of the time talking about our racial history because it?s a history of segregation and oppression,” he said.
Instead of ignoring the ugly truths, the series embraces positive outcomes from segregation, such as the great films black artists created in that era, which the average person won?t see, Dietz said.
Black Shadows “tells a lot of about the time and place, and in essence how the artists survived,” said Kristen Anchor, director of Creative Alliance Moviemakers.
“Race films were a labor of love,” Anchor said. “A lot of the actors were making a living in Hollywood, but they were only getting demeaning or nonspeaking roles that didn?t represent their culture.”
Movies made by blacks for blacks entertained audiences, but the “race” moviemakers “had a point of view,” Cripps said. During production, “the guy who fetched coffee also loaded the camera. Everyone shared the work. Everyone had the same goal.
“The important thing is everyone who participated from script to screen was practicing a craft that they handed on,” Cripps said.
If you go
Midnight Rambles “Race Films” ? “Black Shadows on a Silver Screen”
» Venue: Creative Alliance at The Patterson; 3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore
» Times: 7 p.m. Wednesday and Feb. 21 and 28
» More info: 410-276-1651, creativealliance.org
