In the 1930s there were around 300 “race” movies produced. These movies were in direct opposition to the Hollywood mainstream movies from the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Clara Bow.

These silent movies were black produced and black acted! They were made from the blood, sweat, tears and money of the producers often to try and represent the black community in the light it deserved. They were made for black audiences and the creators toured the country showing them to people.

Sadly, many of them don’t exist anymore. The tapes wore out, they were pushed out of existence. There were adventures, romances, politic-driven, comedies, and much more!

Not too much was known about them until recently.

It has taken around four months for seven dedicated UCLA to collate and document these 300 movies produced from 1909 to 1930, put them in a database with their proper credits. Of course many don’t exist but actually some still do!

You can watch one in full below! And find out more about the project and see the database here.