Symphony in Black (1935)
- Original title
- Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life
- Directed by
- Fred Waller
- Genre
- musical film
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 9 min
- Rating
- 6.8 of 10 from 18 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A short musical film from 1935 featuring Duke Ellington's composition A Rhapsody of Negro Life. It includes Billie Holiday's screen debut and shows scenes of African American life set to Ellington's orchestral score.
jazz-infusedhistoricartisticmusicalpioneeringculturally significantshortorchestral
What happens
Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life is a 9+1⁄2-minute musical short produced in 1935 that features Duke Ellington’s early extended piece, "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". The film, Billie Holiday’s screen debut, was directed by Fred Waller and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Symphony in Black represents a landmark in musical, cultural, and entertainment history as well as significant progress in Ellington’s own biography. It is a member of the first generation of non-classically arranged orchestral scores and perhaps most importantly, one of the first films written by an African American describing African American life to reach wide distribution. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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Bright Lights (1935)
Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet (1951)
An All-Colored Vaudeville Show (1935)
The Old Plantation (1935)
Sweet Music (1935)
To Beat the Band (1935)
Thanks a Million (1935)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.