SMU Releases Tyler Black Film Collection, Offers Content Online
A collection of films originally created for African American audiences during segregation were recovered from a warehouse in Tyler Texas and brought to Southern Methodist University’s G. William Jones Film & Video Collection of the Hamon Arts Library. They are now available online.
By Peter Simek
In 1983, a collection of films originally created for African American audiences during segregation were recovered from a warehouse in Tyler Texas and brought to Southern Methodist University’s G. William Jones Film & Video Collection of the Hamon Arts Library. Now, after restoration and digitalization, the library is offering those films to the public. From the release:
Beginning with films produced and directed by African Americans for the segregated audiences of the 1930s and ‘40s, to white Hollywood’s depiction of black life in 1943, to the blacksploitation films of the 1960s and ‘70s, SMU library collections provide a unique look at black film history.
So far only one of the recovered films is up in its entirety, The Blood of Jesus. But the library plans to continue to add to the online collection.
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