Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage

1928
4m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A 2018 compilation of Zora Neale Hurston's registers of activities in American black communities from the rural South, it possesses a highly anthropological value. Shot in 1928-29, the colle... Read allA 2018 compilation of Zora Neale Hurston's registers of activities in American black communities from the rural South, it possesses a highly anthropological value. Shot in 1928-29, the collection includes children's games, capers and dance, a baseball crowd, a baptism and portrai... Read allA 2018 compilation of Zora Neale Hurston's registers of activities in American black communities from the rural South, it possesses a highly anthropological value. Shot in 1928-29, the collection includes children's games, capers and dance, a baseball crowd, a baptism and portraits of a beautiful black young woman and a tall man with an axe. The images are enhanced by... Read all

Director
- Zora Neale Hurston

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

177

YOUR RATING

Director
- Zora Neale Hurston

4User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

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User reviews4

6.5177

Featured reviews

10EdgarST

Fine compilation

A 2018 compilation of Zora Neale Hurston's registers of activities in American black communities from the rural South, it possesses a highly anthropological value. Shot in 1928-29, the collection includes children's games, capers and dances, a festive baseball crowd, a baptism and portraits of a beautiful black young woman and a tall man with an axe. The images are enhanced by the score composed by Renée Clark Baker.

Michael_Elliott

Interesting Bit of History

Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage (1928)

Author and sometimes filmmaker Zora Neale Hurston filmed this three minutes worth of footage that was shot of a logging community in Loughman, Florida. Honestly, it's pretty hard to actually "rate" this movie since it's basically just a bunch of clips of men logging but it's certainly of historic interest considering who made it plus it gives us a chance to see some black people at work during a time when there's not too much footage of it. This three-minute film was included on Kino's Pioneers of African-American Cinema and it's certainly worth watching as a curiosity piece.

planktonrules

I think I would have preferred this as a silent.

"Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage" is historically important...so I am glad it exists and has been preserved. However, I must also point out that Ms. Hurston's singing (which accompanies this silent film) is hard on the ears. It is a look and listen to the style of the rural south of the day...so it's important...but also painful. As she sings you see preserved footage of black workers on the railroad and lumber industry in Florida...not traditional fieldwork as the title would suggest. Interesting but a film most likely of interest to ethnographers and other academicians. Difficult, if not impossible, to rate.

6gbill-74877

A little window into the past

The three minutes we see of rural life amongst an African American logging community in the south is pretty limited, but it was fascinating to think that this was among Zora Neale Hurston's trips to collect folk tales, and more importantly, to interview the last surviving African brought over in the last slave ship to America, which was the Clotilda in 1860. (I highly recommend the book Barracoon that came from it, which will put you right on the porch with the 86 year old Kossola (Cudjo Lewis), listening to him tell his life story.) Oh, if only that had been captured on film! But it was nice to hear Hurston's voice, singing a couple of songs, while looking back at workers, all now long gone.