That's Black Entertainment

1989 film by William Greaves
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
60 minutes

That's Black Entertainment is a 1989 documentary film starring African-American performers and featuring clips from black films from 1929–1957, narrated and directed by William Greaves.[1] The clips are from the Black Cinema Collection of the Southwest Film/Video Archives at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.[2] It is 60 minutes long and was distributed by Video Communications of Tulsa, Oklahoma.[2]

Film clips included

The film contains more than 29 clips,[1] including:

  • Paul Robeson (in Song of Freedom)[3]
  • Bessie Smith (in St. Louis Blues)[1]
  • Eubie Blake, Nina Mae McKinney, and The Nicholas Brothers (in Pie, Pie Blackbird)
  • Lena Horne (in The Duke Is Tops)
  • Nat 'King' Cole and Moms Mabley (in Killer Diller)
  • Sammy Davis Jr. and Ethel Waters (in Rufus Jones for President)[1]
  • Cab Calloway (in Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party)
  • Ethel Waters (in Carib Gold)

Not only musical clips were shown, but dramatic clips as well, like Murder in Harlem (1935),[3] Juke Joint (1947),[3] Four Shall Die (1940), and Souls of Sin (1949).[3] The film also includes clips from white films stereotyping blacks, including D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and a blackfaced Bing Crosby in Crooner's Holiday (1932).[3]

Appearances

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Documentary offers look at early black films". The Jackson Sun. 1990-06-08. p. 37. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Nichols, Peter (1990-01-14). "Home Entertainment/video: Fast Forward; Another Disk Revolution In the Offing?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Film bonanza adds a chapter to black history". The Atlanta Constitution. 1990-02-19. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  • That's Black Entertainment at IMDb


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