Previously unavailable footage of the Civil Rights Movement will soon be released in a collection digitized by the Amistad Research Center. Shot in the late 1960s, primarily in the Deep South, the Ed Pincus Film Collection offers an honest and raw account of civil rights organizing. Over 85 hours of content will launch on the Louisiana Digital Library in late 2021.
The Ed Pincus Collection demonstrates a turning point in American history. It documents the Freedom Democratic Party and NAACP’s early attempts to organize through meetings, protests, and voter registration. It brings both emotion and sincerity, including personal and community-wide reactions to racial violence. The collection also offers a window into everyday life for Black Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, including scenes from streets, barbershops, and restaurants.
Observational filmmaker, Ed Pincus, began documenting civil rights history in the 1960s. After studying philosophy and photography at Harvard, Pincus combined his interests in images and the human condition and turned to documentary filmmaking. Using the model of direct cinema, or fly on the wall filmmaking, Pincus began filming the Black community of Natchez, Mississippi. In Natchez, Pincus captured historical events like the formation of the self-defense group, Deacons for Defense and Justice. Some of this footage eventually became the feature length documentary, Black Natchez (1967), and the short, Panola (1970).
The Ed Pincus Collection also includes unreleased footage from Pincus’ return to Natchez in 1967, following the murder of NAACP Treasurer, Wharlest Jackson. This footage was intended to be released as a follow-up to Black Natchez but was never completed.
Ed Pincus donated his collection to The Amistad Research Center in 2002, but until recently, this collection could only be viewed in person with the aid of an archivist. The digitization of The Ed Pincus Collection allows this remarkable footage to be seen by a wider audience, including the people of Natchez, Mississippi.