America – Garrett Bradley (2019)

Shown here in a single film, America is in fact twelve short films with, in between, morcels of a film called Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1914). This film is believed to be the oldest surviving film with Black actors, Bradley’s film is an all-Black silent film that refers to parts of Black history that I was not able to identify but are, as cited by the MoMa, the murder of the jazz bandleader James Reese Europe or the founding of baseball’s Negro National League, amongst others. Lovely images, all in black and white.