Six Highlights From the Black Film Archive - The New York Times

Maya Cade, who founded the archive in August 2021, discusses a film she loves from each decade from the 1920s through the 1970s.

Next week, the Black Film Archive — a living register of Black cinema — will officially turn six months old. Its roots, though, stretch back much farther, to the time its founder, Maya Cade, was studying journalism at Howard University. There, she edited the arts section of the student newspaper, The Hilltop.

“While I was exploring my intimate definitions of Blackness, in this fully Black space, for the first time, I was able to see possibility in Blackness and not just a burden,” Cade said. “That really has shaped how I see films, how much care I want to put in the Black Film Archive.”

The archive, which now contains around 200 pieces, currently showcases works made from 1915 to 1979 that are available to stream online. And Cade, an audience development strategist at the Criterion Collection, has received simultaneous distinctions from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for her work on the project.

We asked Cade to select a favorite film from various decades of the archive, which she framed as “looking at Black fame across time.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

‘Hallelujah’ (1929)

King Vidor was an established, esteemed Hollywood director who set out to make a sound film that portrayed the Black religious experience. And the film, I think, though it relies on familiar stereotypes of Blackness — like the content worker, the jezebel, people who are overly consumed with religion — I think the film is essential because of the showcase of Black performers’ wide-ranging skills, and specifically allowed Nina Mae McKinney to establish a prototype of what Black women could be onscreen.

Donaldson Collection/Getty Images

‘The Green Pastures’ (1936)

This film explores the Black religious experience. It’s told through a series of fables to a Sunday school class. The film recalls the miraculous events of the Bible through vignettes. And though the film is tinged with stereotypes, I think the film is listed here, again, because it’s a showcase of the talents of the standout, all-Black cast.

I think something that’s special that happens when Black people watch films is, we can often grab hold of what we see in our experiences. And I think that this film is a good exemplification of that. Even if we’re troubled with the overall message of the film, we have this ability to grab hold to what we think is redeemable and treasure that.

‘Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940’ (1940)

I am a very big fan of Zora Neale Hurston. I was almost named Zora. I think, even though Zora Neale Hurston is best known for her role-shifting novels as an author, she had many gifts. I’m often revisiting her widely available films, though she had more than the two or three that are constantly discussed. And I think this film was special because there aren’t many films of this decade where Black people are allowed to be insiders.

She is a filmmaker, but she’s acting as an insider among the people she filmed, which I think is quite special. And she is observing the religious practices of the South Carolina Gullah people in this short. And I think that this short is a showcase of her most celebrated skill, which we all know her for, which is daring to see the fullness of Black life without translation.

‘The World, the Flesh and the Devil’ (1959)

I’m intrigued by this film a lot. This is the era of Sidney Poitier, it's the era of the integrationist picture, but I am also reflecting on “The World, the Flesh and the Devil,” as a film that kind of moves like a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode, and has Harry Belafonte at the center of a post-apocalyptic, just barren world. And in this world, he meets two other — white — people, and they’re seemingly the last people in existence.

And even with that being true, Harry Belafonte has to navigate the pre-established race and sexual politics of the day, which, I think is really fascinating: If you think about what I am calling an integrationist picture, where you really have this stock image of what Black men could do in films, this has a different kind of plotline, which I am deeply, deeply intrigued by.

Richard C. Miller/Donaldson Collection, via Getty Images

‘A Man Called Adam’ (1966)

I think that this film is special because it has Sammy Davis Jr. in a dramatic role as a drunken trumpet player who is plagued with the racism he faces while performing, his bad health, his God-awful temper. But I think the film is very special to me because of the way it showcases struggling with the necessity of working while trying to formulate your own ideological freedom.

So if I’m thinking about a film during the Civil Rights era, I think this is just a different way into that era of films. And I think Cicely Tyson is also great as the one person who believes in him despite his struggles. And it has Ossie Davis and Louis Armstrong; it’s just really cool.

‘Claudine’ (1974)

I just consider “Claudine” to be an overall triumph. Diahann Carroll as the title character is a mother of six and domestic worker just trying to figure out the world. And I think the film is irresistible in the way that it looks into what it means to love — whether that’s yourself, your family, your budding romance in a world of the impossible choices that Black people are faced with.

This film represents really the fullness of the archive: It has joy, it has pain, it has love, it has loss, heartache, it has the hardships Black people face. And it’s really special to me because it offers a glimpse into these issues without looking down on people for facing them.

Geoffrey Haggray for The New York Times

Adblock test (Why?)