Frederick Douglass Film Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Frederick Douglass Film Company was an early American film production company in Jersey City, New Jersey.[1][2] It was established in 1916, soon after the pioneering Lincoln Motion Picture Company,[3] by prominent African-American business and professional men from New Jersey.[4] The intent of the founders was to counter anti-African-American films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and to improve race relations.[3] It was named after the African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.[5]
Its first film, The Colored American Winning His Suit, debuted at the Majestic Theatre in Jersey City on July 14, 1916, to an "interracial audience of over 800."[6] The film is a love story about a lawyer[7] and was hailed by The New York Age as "the first five-reel Film Drama written, directed, acted and produced by Negroes."[4]
It only produced two more films, in 1917 and 1919.[3]
Filmography
- The Colored American Winning His Suit (1916), written by Reverend Dr. W. S. Smith
- The Scapegoat (1917), based on the short story "The Scapegoat" by Paul Laurence Dunbar[3][8]
- Heroic Negro Soldiers of the World War (1919),[2] directed by William S. Smith[9]