Topsy and Eva

Director: Del Lord

1927 / 80min / DCP

“To this day, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s controversial 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the most frequently filmed American book, even though no one has dared in 35 years. In this feature from the tail end of the silent-era, several key characters are revisited, including the notorious Uncle Tom, played by trailblazing black producer and actor Noble Johnson. Despite being the first black contract player in Hollywood history, only in Topsy & Eva did the ethnically ambiguous performer play a black character, an opportunity for which he stopped producing his own race films, such as the long-lost The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition (1916). Nearly all the other black characters, including the titular Topsy (Rosetta Duncan), are white performers in blackface in this startling racist, brazenly comedic farce of a sequel to the abolitionist lit classic. Directed by a Canadian helmer, Del Lord, mostly known for his three dozen Three Stooges shorts, two additional sequences were filmed by Johnson’s occasional collaborator, D.W. Griffith.”—Brandon Harris

With live score accompaniment from Axel Tosca