film

Actors dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia for scenes in 1915's The Birth of a Nation.

Arts

100 Years Later, What's The Legacy Of 'Birth Of A Nation'?

3:45pm May 01, 2015

by NPR Staff

D.W. Griffith's film premiered in Los Angeles a century ago Sunday. In many ways, the movie — three hours of racist propaganda — was the beginning of Hollywood.

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Arts

King Of Condensed Films: Meet Chuck Workman, The Oscars' Montage Master

9:20am February 21, 2015

by Neda Ulaby

It's a classic element of the Oscars telecast: that sequence of clips paying tribute to film industry greats. Chuck Workman created them for 20 years, and likens his craft to making a fruitcake.

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Historian Peniel Joseph says criticism of the film Selma as historically inaccurate is misguided, and that the movie correctly portrays African-Americans as the drivers of the civil rights movement.

'Selma' Backlash Misses The Point

1:42pm January 12, 2015

by Peniel Joseph

Historian Peniel Joseph says Selma is the first major film about civil rights history that properly honors the contributions of the movement's African-American foot soldiers.

Scene still from Bert Williams Lime Kiln Field Day Project. Bert Williams, Walker Thompson (standing center), John Wesley Jenkins (seated right). In a concession to white audiences, Williams, the lead, wore blackface, but the other black characters did no

Arts

Rare Silent Film With Black Cast Makes A Century-Late Debut

11:17am November 07, 2014

by Walter Ray Watson

A 1913 romantic comedy starring black actors is finally hitting the big screen, after decades in the Museum of Modern Art archives. It's paired with an exhibit called 100 Years in Post-Production.

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