Joanne Burke, dir. When African Americans Came to Paris. 2012. Six films, 4–8 minutes each. English. New York. Blue Lion Films. $100.00.

Abstract

Joanne Burke, dir. When African Americans Came to Paris. 2012. Six films, 4-8 minutes each. English. New York. Blue Lion Films. $100.00.When African Americans Came to Paris, by the award-winning documentarian Joanne Burke, gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of several African American figures who sought opportunities in Paris during the Jim Crow era in the United States. DVD consists of six videos that intersperse archival film footage from Paris at the time and photos from and about the subjects of each section. Each section also features commentaries from various scholars. In the end, the viewer comes away with a brief introduction to several important historical and cultural figures.The first video, 'W.E.B. DuBois and the 1900 Paris Exposition, focuses on Du Bois's exhibition of African American life in the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1900. Called The Exhibit of the American Negro, the show, which was very popular among the visitors to the exposition, included hundreds of photos of urbanized, educated African Americans in the South only thirty-five years after the abolition of slavery. video discusses how the exhibit, although shut out of the official U.S. pavilion, was able to be viewed a short distance away thanks to the efforts of Du Bois and his crew to find an alternative space.The second video, Henry Ossawa Tanner: An Artist in Exile, tells the story of the artist whose famous painting The Banjo Lesson is known the world over. Scholarly commentary is interspersed with images of Tanner's work and a voiceover that describes the obstacles and physical violence that he faced in the United States because of racial prejudice. It is contrasted with the freedom he found in Paris and the accolades that he received as he neared the end of his life.The third video discusses the 369th Infantry Regiment, a black army unit that fought in France in World War I. Although American blacks who enlisted in the army did so out of a sense of patriotism, the white-run army employed them mainly as manual laborers. It was only when France became desperate for Fighters that black men were allowed into combat. Once allowed onto the battlefield they spent more time at the frontlines than any other American outfit and fought so fiercely that the Germans gave them the nickname Hellfighters. Nevertheless, when they returned home they faced an increase in bigotry and violence.The fourth video takes as its subject Lt. James Reese Europe, a little known American musician and war hero who was the first African American officer to lead troops in combat in World War I. He was also New York's leading black orchestra conductor, who regularly performed at Carnegie Hall, and a businessman who organized small bands. He and his band performed internationally and made several musical recordings. Though a rising star, his life was tragically cut short at the age of thirty-nine. …