Classic Religious "Race / Black Films" on DVD!

Title

Description

Duration

The Blood Of Jesus (1941)

The Blood of Jesus is a classic example of the "race Film” genre of films by African-American directors and casts, geared exclusively for an African-American audience. This film, is a morality tale about a woman who is accidentally shot to death by her husband. Facing death, she must choose between Hell, represented as urban life, and Zion, represented as pastoral America, and between Satan and God. The climax comes when she makes her decision at the foot of the cross and wakes up to singing of her church choir. Intended to promote a Black Southern Baptist ideal of a virtuous rural life, the film was a major success and the most popular hit in its genre.

56:44

Go Down, Death! (1944)

Religious race film from Spencer Williams of "Amos N' Andy" fame. A bar owner (Spencer Williams) attempts to discredit the new preacher with whom he is feuding by framing him with a photograph showing him drinking with women with bad reputations. The bar owner's adoptive mother, a member of the minister's church, supports the preacher and gets the photographic prints. When the bar owner struggles with his mother for the prints, he accidently kills her. After the preacher's funeral sermon, the bar owner's conscience drives him to his death.

53:55