Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Pioneers of African American Cinema

Verdict: Not Guilty

8m 45s

Directed by James Gist and Eloyce Gist • 1933 • United States

In this surreal filmed pageant—presided over by a horrific skull-faced jailer in a nun’s habit—a woman faces the throne of judgment and must account her iniquities to earn God’s mercy.

Up Next in Part 2: Shorts and rarities

  • Heaven-Bound Travelers
    15:22
    Heaven-Bound Travelers

    Heaven-Bound Travelers

    Directed by James Gist and Eloyce Gist • 1935 • United States

    Presented here are the only identified fragments of James and Eloyce Gist’s little-known follow-up to HELL-BOUND TRAIN: HEAVEN-BOUND TRAVELERS. A man wrongfully accuses his wife (Eloyce Gist) of adultery and banishes her (and their da...

  • The Darktown Revue
    18:29
    The Darktown Revue

    The Darktown Revue

    Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1931 • United States
    Starring Tim Moore, Andrew Trible, Amon Davis

    As a filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux was something of a firebrand, but his attitudes and methods were anything but predictable—often leveling criticism at certain strata of the African American community. H...

  • Hot Biskits
    10:07
    Hot Biskits

    Hot Biskits

    Directed by Spencer Williams • 1931 • United States
    Starring Thurston Briggs, Spencer Williams

    Virtually unseen for more than eighty years, Spencer Williams’s first film is a one-reel comedy short in which a rivalry between two men is played out in a high-stakes game of mini golf.

×