Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking [Paperback]

In the early 1900s, so-called race filmmakers set out to produce black-oriented pictures to counteract the racist caricatures that had dominated cinema from its inception. Richard E. Norman, a southern-born white filmmaker, was one such pioneer. From humble beginnings as a roving home talent filmmaker, recreating photoplays that starred local citizens, Norman would go on to produce high-quality feature-length race pictures. Together with his better-known contemporaries Oscar Micheaux and Noble and George Johnson, Richard E. Norman helped to define early race filmmaking. Making use of unique archival resources, including Norman's personal and professional correspondence, detailed distribution records, and newly discovered original shooting scripts, this book offers a vibrant portrait of race in early cinema.

Read aNorman Studios interviewwith author Barbara Tepa Lupack

Race relations and filmmaking in early 20th-century America

Finalist, 2013 Richard Wall Memorial Award (Theatre Library Association)Winner, 2015 Jacksonville Historic Preservation Award

Barbara Tepa Lupack has written extensively on American literature, film, and culture. She has authored or edited more than 20 books and taught at universities within the United States and abroad.

Thoroughly researched and crisply written. . . The first book-length work on Norman, Lupack's monograph clearly delineates the Norman Company's importance . . . [Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking's] most profound contribution lies, perhaps, in how it illuminates the fraught economics of race filmmaking . . . .

Lupack's book provides a wealth of archival information about this vibrant moment in film history . . . . [This] is a solid contribution to regional film studies and race film business practice, and will appeal to scholars, students, and film-buffs alike.