The Black Kino Fist: Black life as depicted in film history

The Scar of Shame (1927)

"Perhaps the most important accomplishment of the black-cast films of the 1920s-40s is the window they offer contemporary viewers into the mores and lifestyles of middle-class African-American life. In spite of the often crude cinematic techniques -- essentially due to the limited funds and facilities that were available to filmmakers in this market -- these films remain undeniably fascinating. The Scar of Shame (1927) is particularly intriguing among black-cast films because of its obvious ambition. Not satisfied to be merely a Hollywood-derivative drama with black actors, it endeavors to explore the delicate and often painful divisions that existed within African-American society of the day (a rift that was termed the "twoness" of black culture by educator and activist W.E.B. DuBois)."

- Bret Wood for TCM




Status: Available online from various sources.

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