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"Black folks have been making movies since making movies began. It didn't start with Spike, it didn't start with Singleton,
and it certainly didn't start with "Superfly!"
Pam Thomas, Producer, "MIDNIGHT RAMBLE"
Introduction
And so begins the presentation conducted by Pam Thomas, filmmaker, educator, producer and director of Black Folks Make Movies,
who, along with Bestor Cram of Northern Light Productions, Boston, produced the award winning documentary, "MIDNIGHT
RAMBLE: Oscar Micheaux & the Story of Race Movies," a film for the PBS documentary series, The American Experience.
History
Beginning in 1910 and continuing through World War II, a little known independent film industry flourished in this country
producing more than 500 movies, made primarily by Blacks for Black audiences. Known as "race movies" these films were a direct
response from the Black Community to segregation in the mainstream film industry. Race movies grew out of the Black Community's
desire to use the newly-invented motion picture technology to provide alternatives to demeaning stereotypes of Black Americans
prevelent in American popular culture.
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