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The Bootleg Files: Paradise in Harlem

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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