Blood of Jesus, from Richard Murray's Corner, of Movies That Move We

[richardmurray]

 

 

From Movies That Move We 
Richard Murray's Corner 
Episode 1
The Blood of Jesus
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, wherever you are listening. I am Richard Murray and this is the first episode in the series in Movies That Move We, I call Richard Murray's Corner. 
The goal of this series is to provide a talk on the oldest Black Cinema, cinema defined as film. I define , I define, you may concur or not, Black Cinema as films that have a majority of Black control or involvement in all aspects of creation. So , in this series, when I say Black Cinema I do not include things like video recordings of Porgy and Bess, a white written story. Or a film like the WIZ whose script was written by schumacher , based on a play whose stage script was written by William Brown , another white person, while both stage or film were primarily financed by twentieth century fox. And for the record I support the WIZ stageplay or film. The point is not to criminalize or oppose multiracial collaborations in film, but to focus on all or nearly all Black collaborations in film in the past. I have learned in my experience that White produced art involving Black people is usually different than Black produced art involving Black people.  I use "Shuffle Along" in opposition to "Porgy and Bess".  Here is the talk to the film, the WIZ ,on Movies That Move We < https://www.facebook.com/687782856/videos/10158170810782857/ >  I end with, this irregular timed series will focus on said Black Cinema. Old as possible and as much Black involvement as possible.
...
I begin, not with an Oscar Micheaux film but with a work entitled the "Blood Of Jesus" ; Written/Directed/Co Produced by Spencer Williams,  the other producer was a white jew named Alfred N Sack who owned theaters and had distribution deals. Remember, all films outside of private made autodocumentarian films involving one subject made by produced or crafted by the same person are collaborative art projects, always. You need other people to work on the film or produce it / to get to theaters/ or to handle distribution , for ninety nine percent of films in all humanity, all the woods together, sequentially why you need so much money on average.
Well, Now I will present the introduction to the film , The Blood Of Jesus . 
00:02:55 Video segment 01
00:04:10
Ok, This movie I chose for various reasons, artistically. The theme of the presence of the Black Christian Community, which at one time was nearly synonomous to the entire Black community in the USA, in films involving Black people is clearly shown here. When you think about shows like Power from Fifty Cent or Sanford and Son or  films like The Five Heartbeats or the Blues Brothers the film heritage of mentioning the Black Christian Community in the USA when a Black character is present is embedded in Black Cinema itself. It isn't a caraciture by White artist applied to Black people. If anything a telling thing is how lesser the quantity of Black Christian references are in modern film involving Black people. 
Alright, onto the next segment
00:05:01 Video segment 02
00:06:59
The link to the film in completion is at the bottom of the transcript, if you want to know why the Black man was running. All I will say is, jesting at the Black Christian culture isn't untold or unheard of in Black Cinema. So,whenever someone Black tells you what shouldn't be done, please refer to this film. Now, another thing, the showing of the shoulder, by Cathryn Caviness playing Sister Martha Ann Jackson, was deemed in 1941 risque. Yes in modern, 2023 , standards this is nothing. But, in 1941 for a woman to show shoulders was deemed by some indecent, or others tawdry. 
Alright, onto the next segment
00:07:44 Video segment 03
00:08:45
Yes, Juanita Riley playing Sister Jenkins knows Ras is lying. But what is most interesting is how muted the Black women treat the Black man who is a criminal. In the 2007 film Pride, the character played by Kimberly Elise reacts so vibrantly when she discovers the character portrayed by Terrence Howard was in an altercation with law enforcement and went to prison. Yes, Ras has stolen. He can't even keep the species of creature he killed the same in his storytelling. But the Black women don't act like the world has fallen, which is a very modern movie trope involving Black characters in cinema. Either we are not breaking the law to live better and overreact at the sight of the law being breaking or we are breaking the law to live better and we are unconcerned with anything... am I my brother's keeper. right? What movie is that from? Hint , Black Director, aided in financing by Clint Eastwood.
Alright onto the next segment
00:09:52 Video segment 04
00:11:16
Remember in First Sunday when Tracy Morgan said, Jesus is looking at me. I couldn't resist. But love the honesty in the action. An old gun, not upkept well cause folk don't have even anything to eat can trigger like that. A pure accident but warranted.
Alright , onto the next segment
00:11:54 Video segment 05
00:12:30
I have seen Christian Heaven depicted in many films, and I can not recall one that had spirits walking up to the gates of heaven from earth. If you pay attention, the spirits are not flying, they are walking... on the clouds, to the gates of christian heaven. I can not verify but this scene was supposedly made from scenes from the 1911 italian film L'iInferno. I watched the italian film, it was very augmented to create this scene. < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Inferno > To the scene construction, don't take it negatively, if you are Black. I think the message is interesting. The message is, even if our spirits when dead do not have wings, we can walk on clouds to get to heaven, and that is alright. I think it is a message about what the afterlife means to many Black people then. The afterlife isn't a place of getting what you never had. The afterlife is a place of being free from enslavement, from restriction, from disability through human involvement. In parallel, the film L'inferno is about punishment. 
Alright, onto the next segment
00:13:49 Video segment 06
00:15:11
The acting by Cathryn Caviness slowly dying at peace is well done,take a look at the full film. But I hope you enjoyed the special effects. The angel is played by Rogenia Goldthwaite, thus she has wings. So, it wasn't that Black Angels didn't have wings, but when Black people go to christian heaven, it is interpreted differently.
Alright onto the next segment
00:15:40 Video segment 07
00:17:23
I know the film is old but I will love if anyone can comprehend for sure the highway of light or life. It looks like a video of an urban city at night. I love how the angel left no nonsense. It is all up to you.  Simple instructions. Right is good, Left is bad. Poor Judas. That name has been criminalized. Satan clearly. 
Judas Green, knowing both my parents mothers, he would had been in trouble the second he said that to them so they clearly evaded his machinations. Doesn't the angel sound like Phyliccia Rashad when she interviews people. 
Alright onto the next segment
00:18:07 Video segment 08
00:21:09
The funny thing about the bar scene, before this segment, outside the nice three individual acts: tap dance/acrobat/singing is not one criminal act is present. It is just Black people hanging out in a bar. Even Sister Jackson, who has been persuaded by Judas Green to join the character, Gambler, is wearing a cross. The second spot where the segment comes from, which is alluded to as farther down, is just that a spot. The heater in the center of the dance floor suggest this is almost a converted shack, not an a urban nightclub. Love the dancing. Notice no necklace with a cross on Sister Green now. On a musical note, it is clear Jazz side Blues were equally deemed temptation music unlike like Gospel in the black community. I think one of the unique cultural elements is how the road to temptation isn't an extremely cruel path. At the end of the day, she is in a spot where women get money to dance and give a little nooky to men. The funny thing is all of these people are spirits. 
Alright onto the next segment
00:22:44 Video segment 09
00:27:17
Interesting perspective how on the crossroads, you have spirits like the gambler, happily engaging in acts of theft and lying. The female thief spirit, just successfully suckered the male spirits. Again, if you think of High John the Conqueror or the Devil's Daughter, I argue, Black people, had created a secular mythology which treated tricking and the ability of devils to do good or be content , less sinful and more a part of life or acceptable. Against the religious fervor of Black Christianity.
Alright onto the next segment
00:28:00 Video segment 10
00:30:09
Very much an interesting painting, the black woman lying at the base of the cross slightly on the right side. Look at the size of those stones used. Let he who is without sin cast the first boulder. We do not see hell in this film or heaven, it can argue purgatory is seen. Which meansthe spirits in the middle are in a limbo. 
Alright onto the next segment
00:31:01 Video segment 11
00:34:06
The Blood of Jesus has the ability to return someone from the crossroads of the spirit world, after proclaimed dead in the living world, but before a soul makes a choice at the crossroads. Like the film Body and Soul < https://archive.org/details/body-and-soul_202107 > , the first film for Paul Robeson, an Oscar Mischeux film, the theme of Black Women traversing between worlds is common. An interesting note, the body wasn't removed immediately after the sheet was put over the head. Which makes sense, people didn't move the proclaimed deceased immediately to the ground or the fire. 
Blood Of Jesus, free to view in completion < https://archive.org/details/blood_of_jesus > 
Happy Juneteenth 2023
A free screenplay for you to enjoy
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-nyotenda
If you are interested in a collection of Black fables
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sunset-children-stories
#moviesthatmovewe #richardmurrayscorner #juneteenth #bloodofjesus #film #screenplay

 

 

[Pioneer1]

Thanks for the old-time flick!

I love seeing those old black-n-white films and photographs of how our people lived back in those days.

The older I get, the more respect I have for them and the more enjoyment I seem to get from them.
I guess because I gain more knowledge and experience to put what I'm watching in proper context and perspective so it makes me appreciate it more.

I remember as a kid they used to feature VERY old Black movies at night on one particular television channel.
I'm talking movies done in the 1920s and 1930s featuring only AfroAmericans!
I believe the above movie was one of them but there was another that I won't forget but don't know the name of it, and this movie actually featured NUDITY!
It was an old black-n-white flick that looked like it was done either in the 20s or early 30s about a man who was cheating on his wife and the wife caught the mistress and beat her up and stripped her of her clothes leaving her naked on the floor.  Her bare breasts were actually exposed!  
I was surprised they even allowed that on public television at that time, let alone in a movie.
Been trying to find the name of that movie and the movie itself for YEARS.

[richardmurray]

@Pioneer1

Well one of the great myths in modernity is the earliest film era. the earliest film era I argue was freer than any film era since. but two things happened. One the back to back European Imperial Wars and the movie codes and machinations by all religious communities in the usa to eradicate early hollywood from memory. 

 

Gay men had orgies back in the 1920s. Some styles of fornication back then will make some of the most pornographic people today puke. The problem today is the past has been taught as some form of christian decency instead of a very wild place under greater cover with greater threat from christian condemnations. Going to the reformation period in england. Alot of fornication went on then. 

 

Today, modernity, people are used to publicity with things. Things happen when you make them public and people join up. But in the past, publicity wasn't how things worked. You needed to be in communities. But once you were in, you were privy to private things that many in modernity haven't done. 

[Pioneer1]

richardmurray 

The orgies and wild sexual escapades don't just go back to the 20s or 1800s but way back pass the Roman and Greek days....lol.
There are historical documents of Roman officials engaging in wild sex parties full of homosexuality and even bestiality where they'd bring animals in.

Among Africans, it wasn't perverted like it was among the Europeans.....but the sexuality was still far greater.

Most African societies before Christianity and Islam was introduced to them promoted sex activities and sex rituals that often involved every adult in the community where people would have sex with eachother in public, in temples of worship, sex by the group, etc....
Nudity was a part of their art.
They even had stories of Deities engaging in sex and sexual practices.

Right up until the 1970s America was headed in the right direction as far as sex in the media and promoting nudity and sexual activities in the movies.
But during and after the Reagan Era....it got perverted.
AIDS and the LGBT agenda took things in the wrong direction to the point that natural sex between men and women is becoming taboo while WEIRD and QUEER sex is becoming more mainstream in this nation.