In this early silent film from pioneering director Oscar Micheaux, kindly Sylvia Landry (Flo Clements) takes a fundraising trip to Boston in hopes of collecting $5,000 to keep a Southern school for impoverished black children open to the public. She then meets the warmhearted Dr. Vivian (William ...

Robeson plays Zinga, a black dockworker in England with a great baritone singing voice. He is discovered by an opera impresario, and is catapulted into great fame as an international opera star. Yet he feels alienated from his African past, and out of place in England. By chance, he is informed t...

Two-Gun Man from Harlem is a 1938 American low-budget western directed by Richard C. Kahn. It was produced by Merit Pictures, distributed by Sack Amusements and featured an all-African-American cast.

Cast:
Herb Jeffries as Bob Blake/The Deacon
Marguerite Whitten as Sally Thompson
Clarence B...

The Blood of Jesus is a 1941 American race film written, directed, and starring Spencer Williams. It was also released under the alternate title of The Glory Road.

In a small rural village with an African American population, a church group is holding a riverside baptismal service, and one of ...

Go Down Death takes place in an African-American community where the criminal boss Big Jim Bottoms (Spencer Williams) runs a successful juke joint. The arrival of a new preacher (Samuel H. James) to the town results in many of Big Jim’s customers leaving the juke joint in favor of attending churc...

Minnie the Moocher (1932) is a Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures.

The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of "St. James Infirmary". Then Betty Boop gets into a fight w...

The Duke Is Tops is a 1938 American musical film released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later released in 1943 under the title The Bronze Venus, with Lena Horne given top billing. The film was one of a number of low-budgeted musicals (or "race movies") ...

A newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl's father. "Son of Ingagi" is allegedly the first science fiction-horror film to feature an all-black cast. Even if the film had no merit (which it does), this alone would make it worthwhile as a historic...

Old-time musical star Schyler Jarvis, now wealthy, is dying; his last act is a visionary plan for the future happiness of his son, swing bandleader Louis Jarvis, and Honey Carter, daughter of his long-lost love. But crooked lawyer Talbot has a nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Jarvis money...

In this 1948 film written by Fredrico Fellini, African-American John Kitzmiller become the first international black action hero.

Without Pity (Italian: Senza pietà) is a 1948 Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada from a script by the director himself, Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli, fr...

In 1915, the Biograph Company in an unprecedented move gave Bert Williams the authority to produce, write, direct, and star in two Biograph films, the "Natural Born Gambler" 1915, and "Fish" 1916, making him the first Black-American to have full control and produce his own films for a general aud...

In an unprecedented move for its day in 1915, Biograph Company executives hired actor Bert Williams to star, produce, direct, and write his own films, having full control, the first time a Black-American ever had such control given by a mainstream movie company. The two films made for Biograph we...

Charleston Parade (1927)
Sur un air de Charleston (original title)
17min | Short, Sci-Fi | 19 March 1927 (France)

Shot in three days a surrealist Jean Renoir, this surreal, erotic silent short shows a native white girl teaching a futuristic African airman the Charleston dance.

Directed by Clarence Brown
Produced by Clarence Brown
Written by Ben Maddow
Starring David Brian
Claude Jarman Jr.
Juano Hernández
Music by Adolph Deutsch
Cinematography Robert Surtees
Edited by Robert Kern
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date:November 22, 1949 (United States)
Running ...