Native Land (1942)
The Picture with the Most Exciting Story of Our Time!
80 min
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.
- Release date
- May 11, 1942
- Country of origin
- United States
Cast
- Paul Robeson as Narrator
- Paul Robeson as Vocalist
- Fred Johnson as Fred Hill, farmer
- Mary George as Hill's Wife
- John Rennick as Hill's Son
- Amelia Romano as Young Girl in Cleveland
- Houseley Stevenson as White Sharecropper
- Louis Grant as Black Sharecropper
- James Hanney as Mack, union president
- Howard Da Silva as Jim - informant
- Art Smith as Harry Carlyle
Crew
- Leo Hurwitz · Director
- Paul Strand · Director
- Leo Hurwitz · Writer
- Ben Maddow · Writer
- Paul Strand · Writer
- Leo Hurwitz · Producer
- Paul Strand · Producer
- Marc Blitzstein · Composer
- Paul Strand · Cinematographer
- Lionel Berman · Editor
- Leo Hurwitz · Editor
- Bob Stebbins · Editor