Highlights from the Academy Museum's Black Cinema Exhibit: Lena Horne's "Stormy Weather" Dress, Nicholas Brothers Home Movie

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures celebrates 73 years of black cinematic art with the new exhibit titled Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971.

Curated by Doris Berger and Rhea Combs of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery at the Academy Museum, the first exhibition of its kind presents seven galleries exploring the representation of black people in cinema, from portraits of icons like Ruby Dee and Nina Mae McKinney to the home videos of the Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway.

"It's really exciting for us to be able to help expand the conversation around American cinema, essentially, by highlighting these important contributions from black filmmakers as well as performers and other craftsmen. and technicians," Combs said. Variety.

Since 2017, Berger and Combs have acquired an extensive collection of costumes, scripts, drawings, and other historical materials for "Regeneration" by digging through multiple archives at the Margaret Herrick Library in London. Academy and even while traveling to Berlin and Paris.

Co-curators have located myriad never-before-seen pieces, including a sequined evening dress worn by Lena Horne in 1943's 'Stormy Weather' and a copy of the rediscovered 1939 film 'Reform School' , which they restored in time for the exhibition.

Through "Regeneration", Berger and Combs aim to capture the nuances of black performance and filmmaking from the beginning of the film industry through the rise of the era of Blaxploitation in the early 1970s.

"I really hope this creates the opportunity for public dialogue and intergenerational dialogue," Combs says. "Yes, it's entertainment, but it's also an art form – that's why we also wanted to include visual art in the exhibition – which has a social force that brings the past closer to the present."

One ​​that got away: a military jacket Josephine Baker wore when she worked as a spy for the French Resistance. The garment was "in such poor condition [and] could not be saved," says Berger.

They found the object in the south of France. “It was really sad to see that a piece sometimes gets lost in time, and sometimes it's too late to preserve it,” Berger says.

The exhibit opens with two versions of an 1898 "Something Good - Negro Kiss" music video, featuring Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown, arguably the first example of on-screen affection by black actors.

“Regeneration” covers a vast and complicated history of black cinema, with seldom-seen excerpts from racing films – a collection of films from the 1910s to 1940s that were produced for black audiences – to a section dedicated to artists vaudeville artists like Bert Williams and George W. Walker, both of whom used Blackface at times in their careers.

"We don't shy away from [Blackface], and we recognize that minstrel is kind of a formative part of American performance art, if you will," Combs explains. "We recognize it as a popular art form, but we also understand that it has reinforced a lot of racist stereotypes. And so, we're trying to complicate that by featuring someone like Bert Williams who used [Blackface], but then exploited it by allowing himself to become one of the most popular artists – but also worked with other African American artists and performers and costume designers. They created their own ecosystem."

The Accademia Museum hosted an event on Wednesday evening to celebrate the opening of the exhibit, with a special tap-dancing performance by the Nicholas brothers' granddaughters, Cathie and Nicole (aka the Nicholas sisters). The duo performed the "Lucky Numbers" routine from "The Black Network", with a clip of Fayard and Harold Nicholas in the 1936 musical short playing in the background.

Those present at the opening included Ted Sarandos, Bill Kramer, David Rubin, Janet Yang, Jason George, Symone, Tiffany E. Barber, Edgar Arceneaux, Firooz Zahedi and Beth Rudin DeWoody.

Earlier today, filmmakers Charles Burnett and Ava DuVernay spoke at a press preview of the exhibit, alongside Academy Museum Director and President Jacqueline Stewart.

“It is truly a pleasure to gather here today to celebrate the long and underappreciated tradition of black cinema in this country,” Stewart said during the press preview. "For a long time, the early history of black cinema was shunned. Scholarship in this field was largely unknown to most moviegoers. And so...