african-american directors series: the blood of jesus (spencer williams, 1941)

The Blood of Jesus was the first "race film" added to the U.S. National Film Registry. Wikipedia describes race movies as "films produced for black audiences, featuring black casts.... They are historically significant due to their ability to showcase the talents of actors who were relegated to stereotypical supporting roles in mainstream studio films." The most recognizable name from The Blood of Jesus is writer/director Spencer Williams, who also played a leading role in the film, and who later appeared as Andy in the TV series Amos and Andy. The movie had a budget of $5,000 and was a financial success. It deserves its place in the National Film Registry.

I'm not sure why I was surprised, but The Blood of Jesus is a religious film. While it is a drama, not a documentary, it preserves elements of the religious life of African-Americans in the South. The community shown in the movie is centered on the shared religion, with spirituals and hymns an almost constant accompaniment to the scenes. It is also a film by and for believers.

I'm a non-believer, so I wasn't convinced by the film's message. And, putting aside its clear historical significance, it was a hard movie to get through, even though it ran for less than an hour. Williams was the only professional actor, and it shows. He was also learning to direct on the job, and given his limited budget, he gets more points for just pulling off the movie than he does for the art of what we see. Still, its emergence in the 1980s after being considered lost was an important moment for film history scholars, and scholars of African-American culture in general.

The print I saw was pretty bad ... The Blood of Jesus would be a good candidate for restoration. It looks and sounds like a film in the public domain, so there is no telling how it looked in 1941. You can watch the whole film on YouTube, among other places.