African American Culture Films (South)

Miles of Smiles
Miles of Smiles
1982 | 59mins
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Miles of Smiles
1982 | 59mins
Miles of Smiles tells the untold story of the Pullman porters who organized America’s first Black trade union – the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. But this inspiring film…
Louisiana Blues
Louisiana Blues
1992 | 55mins
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Louisiana Blues
1992 | 55mins
A look at Cajun and Zydeco music that was started in Louisiana. Many artists are featured in the film.
Virginia Peanut Story
Virginia Peanut Story
2019 | 58mins
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Virginia Peanut Story
2019 | 58mins
The Virginia Peanut Story tells the rise and fall of the dominance of the Virginia/Carolina peanut industry. Aided by returning Union soldiers after the Civil War, railroads and…
Sacred Soul
Sacred Soul
2021 | 32mins
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Sacred Soul
2021 | 32mins
Eleven groups in eight days. A marathon recording session in a makeshift storefront studio in a 100-year-old building in the tiny Eastern North Carolina town of Fountain. Once the…
Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician
Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician
1975 | 30mins
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Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician
1975 | 30mins
Other Side of Eden
Other Side of Eden
2018 | 59mins
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Other Side of Eden
2018 | 59mins
On a hot July night in 1932 a black tenant farmer in Northern Virginia slipped into his landowner’s home “Edenhurst,” beat him unconscious with a piece of stove wood, and dragged…
Singing Stream
Singing Stream
1986 | 57mins
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Singing Stream
1986 | 57mins
The story of a gifted African American family from the rural South. With interviews and stories, and scenes from daily life, reunions, gospel concerts, and church services, the…
Cajun Country
Cajun Country
1991 | 56mins
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Cajun Country
1991 | 56mins
Alan Lomax's wonderful documentary about the bayous of Louisiana which have combined French, German, West Indian, native American and hillbilly ingredients into a unique cultural…
We Shall Not Be Moved
We Shall Not Be Moved
2007 | 46mins
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We Shall Not Be Moved
2007 | 46mins
During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was supposed to give sharecroppers a chance at land ownership. But for Black farmers in Tillery, North Carolina,…
Cradle is Rocking
Cradle is Rocking
1968 | 12mins
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Cradle is Rocking
1968 | 12mins
George "Kid Shiek" Colar and the Olympia Brass Band are featured in this rare film about New Orleans Jazz, directed by Frank DeCola and photographed by Tom Davenport.
Born for Hard Luck
Born for Hard Luck
1976 | 29mins
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Born for Hard Luck
1976 | 29mins
A film portrait of the last Black medicine-show performer, Arthur "Peg Leg Sam" Jackson, with harmonica songs, tales of hoboing, buckdances, and a live medicine-show performance.
Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues
Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues
1969 | 5mins
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Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues
1969 | 5mins
Shot in 1969, SHOUTIN' THE BLUES is a one shot, one story and one song short film of harmonica great, Sonny Terry. Seated in a motel room on Broadway in Oakland, California where…
Free Show Tonite
Free Show Tonite
1983 | 58mins
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Free Show Tonite
1983 | 58mins
Presents a nostalgic tribute to the American medicine shows of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shows a re-creation of a typical medicine show by veteran performers,…
Toot Blues
Toot Blues
2009 | 1h 14mins
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Toot Blues
2009 | 1h 14mins
Wall to wall blues from unheralded artists. The film gives a glimpse of what is being lost and Tim Duffy's heroic efforts to document the passing.
Chairman Jones: An Improbable Leader
Chairman Jones: An Improbable Leader
2015 | 57mins
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Chairman Jones: An Improbable Leader
2015 | 57mins
Chairman Jones tells the story of James H. Jones through the eyes of his daughter, filmmaker Anna Jones. A farmer who freed himself from sharecropping in the 1950s, Jones became a…

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