Film Record: Alexander Black: Grandfather of Picture Plays

Frame scan from Alexander Black: Grandfather of Picture Plays via the Pacific Film Archive.

Identifier:

• b18371247 (Source: UC Berkeley Library Web Catalog)

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

Alexander Black

Malcolm Black

Country of Production:

United States

Languages:

English

Duration:

00:11:38

Length:

1 reel

Format:

16mm

Colour:

Kodachrome

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

Pacific Film Archive list of titled amateur films

Description:

"A family collaboration between Alexander Black and his son Malcolm, this film frames an excerpt from Adolph Zukor's 1919 Paramount Screen Magazine film The evolution of the picture play, made on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Black's first picture play performances, with 1938 Kodachrome footage of Alexander Black addressing the camera and reading a 1919 letter from Zukor affirming Black's status as a cinema pioneer." UC Berkeley Library.

Resources:

The film is discussed in the brochure "Alexander Black: Cinema Pioneer" from the Pacific Film Archive, Nov. 22, 2009. This film was preserved and is held by the Pacific Film Archive.

Subjects:

• Artists
•      Motion pictures
•           Moviemaking

Genre:

• Biographical (Nonfiction)

Form:

• Short

Repository:

Alexander Black Collection, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Screenings:

• Screened on the program "Alexander Black: Cinema Pioneer" at the Pacific Film Archive on Nov. 22, 2009: Berkeley, CA

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