The Scar of Shame and Mercy the Mummy Mumbled
Attend:
| Free with general admission |
*General museum admission is FREE for residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.
Location:
Lecture Hall
5200 Woodward Ave
Detroit, MI 48202
United States
The Scar of Shame was one of only three feature films produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1926 and produced silent romantic melodramas that featured all-Black casts and were shown to Black audiences. Harry Henderson plays a classic pianist and Lucia Lynn Moses a would-be cabaret singer; star-crossed lovers kept apart by the class divisions between educated strivers and the working poor who succumb to poverty, alcoholism, and crime.
The ambition of The Scar of Shame was to present realistic Black characters with no resemblance to Hollywood stereotypes, and to depict the ways in which middle-class Blacks in the 1920s struggled to create new American identities without abandoning their community.
This screening will include Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), a silent short from the Ebony Comedies series produced by the General Film Company. It will be presented with a live musical score composed and performed by saxophonist Mike Monford. (82 min.) Free with museum admission.
This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Black History Month at the DIA is generously supported by Arn & Nancy Tellem.
The Scar of Shame was one of only three feature films produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1926 and produced silent romantic melodramas that featured all-Black casts and were shown to Black audiences. Harry Henderson plays a classic pianist and Lucia Lynn Moses a would-be cabaret singer; star-crossed lovers kept apart by the class divisions between educated strivers and the working poor who succumb to poverty, alcoholism, and crime.
The ambition of The Scar of Shame was to present realistic Black characters with no resemblance to Hollywood stereotypes, and to depict the ways in which middle-class Blacks in the 1920s struggled to create new American identities without abandoning their community.
This screening will include Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), a silent short from the Ebony Comedies series produced by the General Film Company. It will be presented with a live musical score composed and performed by saxophonist Mike Monford. (82 min.) Free with museum admission.
This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Black History Month at the DIA is generously supported by Arn & Nancy Tellem.