Black Moviegoing In 1930s Atlanta Summary

The title of this lecture is “Black Moviegoing in 1930s Atlanta: The Challenge of Researching Reception History”. At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Matthew Bernstein briefed the history of that period. Then, he talked about It Happened One Night, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and Imitation of Life. Afterwards we watched two short film clips of them (Imitation of Life and The Barretts of Wimpole Street). Dr. Matthew Bernstein mainly focused on the film – Imitation of Life, which talks a story about a black mother and a white mother. Also, this is the only one film that shows black people as normal people. In addition, he talked a little bit about The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and analyzed why this film would be popular at that time.