BOOTLEG FILES 785: “Paradise in Harlem” (1939 all-Black feature).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On public domain labels.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: An absence of a copyright dooms the film to endless public domain duping.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.
From the 1910s through the late 1940s, there was a distinctive cinema geared exclusively to Black American audiences. These films starred all-Black casts and were distributed only to theaters in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
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