Black Civil Rights Films DVD

Synopsis

A compilation of ten films on the Black Civil Rights Movement in America, made between 1937 and 1971.

Language

English

Country

United States

Year of release

2004

Year of production

1937-1971

Subjects

Social Studies; History; Politics & government

Keywords

civil rights; archive films; United States of America; public information films; racial equality

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 0

Price

$9.99

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

150 minutes

Year

2004

Sections

Title

Close Harmony

Synopsis

Made in 1942. A film sponsored by General Motors where, in the midst of this attempt to show the positive need for good labour/management relations in America’s burgeoning arms industry, use is still made of the tired old alienating "step ‘n fetch it" character Black Americans and the American public have had to put up with for generations.

Duration

11 mins

Title

Integration Report

Synopsis

Made in 1960. Madeline Anderson’s landmark documentary on the use of organized resistance as a force of social change in Montgomery, Alabama, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C.. Features 1959 and 1960 footage of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins and boycotts, as well as on the great leaders of the movement, including Martin Luther King. Maya Angelou sings, too.

Duration

20 mins

Title

Henry Browne, Farmer

Synopsis

Made in 1942. The UD Department of Agriculture shows how a Black Georgian farmer does his part for the war, with his farm, his family and the service of his Tuskegee fighter pilot eldest son.

Duration

11 mins

Title

Negro Colleges in Wartime

Synopsis

Made in 1944. The US Office of War Information’s celebrated exposition of the teaching and training of Black Americans for war, science, industry, agriculture, husbandry, meteorology, medicine, engineering and technical trades at black colleges.

Duration

8 mins

Title

Palmour Street

Synopsis

Made in 1957. The Georgia Department of Public Health had the Southern Educational Film Production Service produce this film on the social and mental health of a poor black community in Gainesville through the lives of one particular extended family. Given the sponsor and producer, and the fact that it was made during the dark early days of the civil rights movement, one might expect a patronizing propaganda piece, but instead the Rev. William Holmes narrates a heartwarming story tinged with tragedy and extolling hope - but one still can catch the occasional soft bigotry in parts. A veritable time capsule of the black experience in the American south.

Duration

22 mins

Title

Poverty in Rural America

Synopsis

Made in 1965. The milestone Great Society era film depicting the real problem of the poor in America in general while demonstrating a palpable reticence to directly address the issue of race in particular.

Duration

28 mins

Title

Teddy

Synopsis

Made in 1971. Through the eyes of a young man called Teddy, the film looks at such issues as school, church, drugs, war, race, revolution, the Black Panthers and the Police as he tries to find himself and his relationship to his community and society at large.

Duration

16 mins

Title

Plantation System in Southern Life, The

Synopsis

Made in 1950 by Coronet Films. This film attempts at length to make certain the viewer realises the bare contrast between the plantation system of the antebellum south and the economic and social realities of black and white society one hundred years later. Nowadays, we can easily accept the comparison as proper, but in 1950 it was quite provocative to declare this openly.

Duration

10 mins

Title

We Work Again

Synopsis

Made in 1937. A remarkable document of how the New Deal in general, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in particular, set about trying to put African Americans back to work. From the agrarian heartland to Harlem, from the typing pool to Orson Welles’ Macbeth, blacks could count on the liberal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s democratic leadership to give to them what the republican elephant had stampeded from their memory - a chance at a better, more equitable way of life.

Duration

11 mins

Title

What about Prejudice?

Synopsis

Made in 1959. Centron Corporation’s exposition of what life is like for a minority schoolboy (whose race is never identified) in the midst of a society at odds with him. His heroic actions make his white schoolmates question their prejudices and hatreds.

Duration

11 mins

Distributor

Name

MediaOutlet.com

Email

service@prosperohouse.com

Web

http://www.mediaoutlet.com/ External site opens in new window

Address

PO Box 1432
Bayonne
NJ 07002
USA

Notes

Specialises in US archival moving image and sound material, particularly vintage radio and public service films and broadcasts that have been digitally restored. Formerly known as Earthstation.com. Sale on multi-region DVD or CD.