The Early African American Film project is an online scholarly database constructed by undergraduate and graduate students apart of the Digital Humanities Program at UCLA. The project aims to build a comprehensive archive of early African American silent race films– the films produced from 1910-1930 for African American audiences. The project collects and organizes information on the early films, actors, production companies, and other components related to this film history. While only a few of these early films survive today, the research work done by the EAAF project and other media scholars helps highlight the importance of this filmmaking community, and how these race films functioned to articulate the narratives of African American identity in the 20th century.
The project pulls content from a number of primary and secondary sources. The Early African American Film database is grounded in records and documents chronicling the films of the era, as well as the people involved. The dataset was formulated using information from major archives, including the George P. Johnson Negro Film Collection, the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum, the UCLA Film and Television Archives, and so on. Central secondary sources include a number of essays and publications examining this moment in Black American film history.
The dataset is made accessible via a downloadable Airtable database embedded on the website. The project also uses Zenodo, a research data repository that allows researchers to deposit datasets online. Zenodo is linked to the software-sharing platform Github, which allows scholarly users to interact, modify, and alter data. Github also works to compile and track the transformation of data, even crediting all contributors.
The content is organized and methodized, materializing in the form of various data visualizations. One such data visualization is the network graph. In the network graph, the circles represent individuals, while lines refer to connections between the individuals. The network graph allows users to visualize associations between actors, directors, producers, and all those involved in a given project. Another visualization tool utilized is the time map. The time map offers a clear depiction of trends seen throughout early African American race film history. This includes where African American production companies were based, the year founded, and etc. The project also features histograms created using plot.ly. The histogram visualization shows the number of race films premiered per year, allowing viewers to note peak years of production, or a decline in output.
Nice job, Troyese!
I thought you introduced the project very clearly because you not only talked about its topic and aims, but also included other significant details, such as its contributors and how the research brings light to this filmmaking community. I enjoyed reading your blog because you broke the project down into sources, processes, and presentations. It was well-organized and easy to follow.
You have a really thorough and concise introduction of UCLA’s Early African American Film Project. I appreciated that you described how the programs worked in creating the databases and visuals on the site. Your description of every aspect of the DH project is very detailed and shows a lot of attention and time spent reverse engineering it. Thanks for sharing!
Great breakdown, both in terms of technical aspects and in broader questions of the importance of this particular archive.