16mm Films Relating to the African American Experience

UO Libraries | 16mm films | African-American themes

The Sky is Gray / FILM Md109

Chicago : Perspective Films, 1980

2 reels, 47 min. : sd., col. ; 16 mm.

CAST Olivia Cole, Cleavon Little, James Bond III.

NOTES Executive producer, Robert Geller; director, Stan Lathan.

Based on the story of the same title by Ernest Gaines, about a young Black farmboy's dawning of awareness about himself and society.

Almos' a Man / FILM Md114

Chicago : Perspective Films, 1977.

1 reel, 39 min. : sd., col. ; 16 mm.

NOTES An adaptation of the story of the same title by Richard Wright.

CAST LeVar Burton.

NOTES Executive producer, Robert Geller; director, Stan Latham.

Faced with the prospect of working to pay for a mule he has accidentally killed, teenage farmworker, armed with vague notions of manhood, escapes from the farm.

Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience in the Creation of Drama / FILM Md38

Harold Mantell. Made and released by Films for the Humanities, 1975.

35 min. sd. color. 16 mm.

NOTES Producer and writer, Ralph J. Tangney; narrator, Claudia McNeil

Traces the artistic growth and vision of the black playwright Lorraine Hansberry, largely in her own words and in her own voice. Describes the author's childhood in Chicago, student days at the University of Wisconsin, work as a journalist in Harlem, life as a housewife in Greenwich Village, and success on Broadway.

The Speaker : A Film about Freedom / FILM Md45

Chicago : Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, 1977

1 reel, 42 min. : sd., col. ; 16 mm

A dramatization about a high school current events committee which invites a university professor to speak on a theory of genetic inferiority of Afro-Americans. Controversy develops and spills over into the community and parents and community leaders advise the student committee to reconsider. When the Committee refuses, the school board president cancels the speaker. Intended to evoke discussion of constitutional protection of speech on controversial and unpopular topics.

Amos and Andy : Check and Double Check / FILM Md62

[South Bend, Ind. : released by Niles Film Products, 197-, made 193-]

1 reel, 25 min. : sd., b & w ; 16 mm.

CREDITS: Amos, Freeman Gosden, Andy, Charles Correll, "Kingfish", A.J. Calhoun, Sapphire; music, Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra.

The first Amos and Andy television show.

Watts Library Reaches Out / FILM Mb164

Board of Library Commissioners of the city of Los Angeles. Released by ACI Films, 1973.

19 min. sd. color. 16 mm.

Describes the community outreach program of the Watts Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library which includes children's story and craft programs, festivals, tricycle races, workshops, and other activities.

Malcolm X: Struggle for Freedom / FILM Mb169

Grove Press Film Division, 1967. Made by Lebert Bethune.

22 min. sd. b&w. 16 mm.

NOTES Narrator, Betaudier; photographer, John Taylor; editor, Elspeth MacDougall.

Portrays Malcolm X at a time when his views were changing to include the world situation with regard to the race problem. Includes interviews filmed during Malcolm X's trip to Europe and Africa shortly before his assassination in the United States, interspliced with scenes of African rebellion.

Free / FILM Mb291

San Francisco : Multi Media Resource Center, 1970.

1 film reel (12 min.) : sd., col. ; 16 mm.

NOTES Filmmaker, Laird Sutton; sound, Linda Cunning.

A young black couple with an active sexual pattern make love in a country setting; music only.

J. T. / FILM Mc148

[S.l.] : CBS-TV. Released by Carousel Films, 1970.

2 reels (51 min.) : sd. color ; 16 mm.

NOTES Based on the novel of the same title by Jane Wagner.

A dramatization in which, through his devotion to an old wounded alley cat, a lonely boy learns what is real and important in life.

Booker T. Washington / FILM Mc162

[S.l.] Emerson Film Corp. Released by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, 1951.

18 min., sd., b&w, 16 mm.

NOTES Collaborator, John H. Franklin.

Portrays the hardships of Booker T. Washington's life, his problem in building Tuskegee Institute, and his struggle to free the Negro people from ignorance, poverty, and fear.

The Inheritance / FILM Mc184

New York : Harold Mayer Productions and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, AFL-CIO ; made by Harold Mayer Productions,1965.

2 reels, 58 min. ; sd., b&w ; 16 mm.

NOTES Producer and director, Harold Mayer ; writer, Millard Lampell ; narrator, Robert Ryan ; music, George Kleinsinger ; editor, Lawrence Silk.

Presents a view of America as seen through the eyes of its working people. Uses still photographs as well as silent film and newsreel footage, accompanied by folk songs and popular music, to show conditions since 1900 as found in the sweat shops, coal mines, and weaving mills, and as evidenced in the labor struggles of the thirties and the civil rights movement of the sixties.

The Quiet One / FILM Mc32

[S.l.] : Film Documents : Released by Athena Films, 1950.

2 reels (67 min.), sd., b&w, 16 mm.

NOTES Producer, Janice Loeb; director, Sidney Meyers; screenplay and editing, Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers; commentary and dialogue, James Agee; narrator, Gary Merrill; music, Ulysses Kay.

CAST Donald Thompson, Clarence Cooper, Sadie Stockton, Estelle Evans, Paul Baucum.

A documentary account of the rehabilitation at the Wiltwyck School of an emotionally disturbed Negro boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.