30 Black filmmakers also took to the silent screen in defiance of the racist depictions of African Americans in the highly canonized THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), which marked a milestone in the beginning of featurelength filmmaking. Though Black independent filmmakers were not working as prolifically as women, the 1920s marked “boom years” for African Americans who were “scrambling to embrace a powerful new medium,” as noted by Larry Richards, whose comprehensive filmography of African American films lists a preponderance of short subjects over features (1998: 5). During the 1920s, theaters opened in Black communities, empowering audiences as consumers of African American culture as it was captured on film. Referring to Black spectators, for example, Edwin Bradley contends that “the short subject became an avenue for exposure that could not be offered for them in the feature-length picture” (Bradley 2005: 79). People of color also worked predominantly in front of the camera at the time, though onscreen representations often observed deeply racist stereotypes that were routine in popular culture. As such, it is critical for academics and scholars to consider the films in order to understand their significance. Early film history demonstrates the foundational roles played by diverse content creators, at a time when their stories had an enormous impact on audiences. As Mahar notes: Movies were arguably the most influential cultural medium in the world during the silent era. In the 1910s and early 1920s, when female filmmakers were most active, motion pictures had yet to compete with radio or television for the attention of the masses. In 1928, at the close of the silent era, sixty-five million Americans visited movie theaters every week, a number representing more than half of the country’s population (2006: 6). Such viewers were mainly poor and working class and, as Steven J. Ross observes: The political content of films and the places in which they were shown were far more open and unpredictable during the first two decades of the new century than at any subsequent time… [B]y creating a common link between millions of working people who were often divided by ethnicity, religion, race and gender, movies emerged as a vehicle capable of expressing a new public identity dominated by working class sensibilities (1998: 12). With uniquely detailed accounts of early American short films, the AFI Catalog is committed to exploring not only the power of storytellers from diverse communities, but also the ways in which audiences saw their worlds reflected on the big screen. To accomplish its goal of bringing short films into the canon of American cinema, AFI partnered with the not-for-profit association, the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), which supplies its members with unique identifiers for a wide range of audio-visual works, including films. AFI’s membership provided the Institute with access to EIDR’s collection of over 45,000 short film records of American pictures released from 1893 to 1933. Although EIDR’s associated metadata – including release year, country of origin, duration, production company, director and up to four cast members (if known) – is sparse, the company also enabled access to data from other EIDR registrants, including the First Century of Cinema (FCOC), which helped to enrich the film records. Over the course of the three-year project, AFI and its academic advisors have put together a substantial list of 6,000 shorts that showcase the work of traditionally underrepresented filmmakers, as well as significant performers who got their starts in short productions. The list has informed the selection of films that will be documented, by way of data about the
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