That's Black Entertainment

Emmy Award winning producer/director William Greaves is the host for this excellent overview of films made during the 30s and 40s, which featured all-black casts and painted a decidedly different portrait from the white-audience Hollywood pictures which were rife with stereotypical, often derogatory, characterizations of black life. With Hollywood virtually closed off to the black perspective, there arose an underground film industry which produced some 500 black films for black audiences from 1910-1953. Today, only some 100 films are left in existence. Often made on a shoestring budget during nights and weekends, these works from directors such as Spencer Williams (who made nine feature films), these films played in the 1100 theatres for black audiences during their initial release, and then virtually disappeared. The numerous clips used in the program include: an early singing performance from Lena Horne in Boogie Woogie Dream, the first role for then child actor Sammy Davis, Jr. in Rufus Jones for President, a scene from Dirty Gertie From Harlem, U.S.A. (based on W. Somerset Maugham's Rain), and many others featuring Paul Robeson, Stepin Fetchit, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, and Nat King Cole. Informative and entertaining, the CINE Golden Eagle award winning That's Black Entertainment is highly recommended. (Available from most distributors.)