African-American movies have been around for a 100 years starting with the successful short comedy, The Railroad Porter filmed in Chicago in 1912. This film also saw the beginning of ‘Race Movies’ that dominated African-American filmmaking for a few decades. In 1929, Hearts of Dixie and Hallelujah were released and they were the first Hollywood funded and produced films with all Black casts. African-American movies were initially only accessible to African-American audiences but that changed over time. Filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux laid the foundations for many African-American movies.
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African-American movies started to enter the mainstream with actors’ like Hattie McDaniel and Lena Horne winning an Academy Award and signing a major contract with a major Hollywood studio respectively. A few decades later saw the birth of the ‘Blaxploitation’ era of African-American movies, which allowed for more African-American filmmakers and movies to enter the mainstream. Although controversial films like Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and Shaft found commercial success and made some African-American movies very popular.
African-American movies have been the training grounds for some of the best African-American directors and actors in the world today. Director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington have found critical and commercial acclaim in mainstream America and the world as a whole. These two men and others have led the way for new and upcoming filmmakers like Cole Wiley and Maba Ba, who are up-and-coming filmmakers with Short Films on Wabona.
Wabona is very much committed to being a home for all African-American filmmakers and African-American movies.
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