That's Black Entertainment
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David Arpin
| That's Black Entertainment | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Directed by | William Greaves |
| Written by | G. William Jones |
| Produced by | Norm Revis Jr. David Arpin |
| Distributed by | Video Communications |
Release date |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
That's Black Entertainment is a 1989 documentary film starring African-American performers and featuring clips from black films from 1929–1957, narrated and directed by William Greaves.[1] The clips are from the Black Cinema Collection of the Southwest Film/Video Archives at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.[2] It is 60 minutes long and was distributed by Video Communications of Tulsa, Oklahoma.[2]
The film contains more than 29 clips,[1] including:
- Paul Robeson (in Song of Freedom)[3]
- Bessie Smith (in St. Louis Blues)[1]
- Eubie Blake, Nina Mae McKinney, and The Nicholas Brothers (in Pie, Pie Blackbird)
- Lena Horne (in The Duke Is Tops)
- Nat 'King' Cole and Moms Mabley (in Killer Diller)
- Sammy Davis Jr. and Ethel Waters (in Rufus Jones for President)[1]
- Cab Calloway (in Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party)
- Ethel Waters (in Carib Gold)
Not only musical clips were shown, but dramatic clips as well, like Murder in Harlem (1935),[3] Juke Joint (1947),[3] Four Shall Die (1940), and Souls of Sin (1949).[3] The film also includes clips from white films stereotyping blacks, including D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and a blackfaced Bing Crosby in Crooner's Holiday (1932).[3]
