Lost Chaplin Film Found!

Click the image to read the Chicago Tribune article about an English film collector who lucked up on a piece of cinematic history. Morace Park paid $5.68 on Ebay for an unmarked film tin containing what turned out to be an obscure Chaplin short produced as a morale-boosting World War I propaganda piece.  Here’s hoping one day we’ll see similar articles about long lost Norman films found!

NSSFM, Stage Aurora announce Richard and Oscar: Filmmaking in Black and White

Richard Norman and Oscar Micheaux live and on-stage? Well, sort of. The Norman Studios Silent Film Museum and Stage Aurora Theatrical Co., Inc. announce Richard and Oscar: Filmmaking in Black and White, a new stage play that examines the unlikely friendship of two of the nation’s most innovative early filmmakers.

Norman, a white man from the South, and Illinois-born Micheaux, widely regarded as the father of African-American filmmaking, both played starring roles in breaking the industry’s color barrier by producing films featuring black actors in positive, non-stereotypical roles. But the two approached this goal from very different backgrounds with very different results.

“Both Richard Norman and Oscar Micheaux were trailblazers, artistic visionaries who defied the mainstream filmindustry,” says Stage Aurora founder Darryl Reuben Hall, who is writing and directing the play. “Richard and Oscar explores the relationship between these two giants through shared humor, laughter and anger of race relations; financial and economic challenges; and the vibrancy of the era.”

Richard and Oscar will hit the Jacksonville stage in 2011.

Share Your Stories

Do you have a family story about Jacksonville’s silent/classic film era? Did your grandfather tell you a great tale of witnessing movies made in Northeast Florida? Or do you own an artifact from the First Coast’s early film days? If so, we want to hear from you! Send your stories to info@normanstudiossfm.org.