Native Land

Overview

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.

Cast

Paul Robeson

Narrator

Fred Johnson

Fred Hill

N/A

Mary George

Hill's Wife

N/A

John Rennick

Hill's Son

N/A

Amelia Romano

Young Girl in Cleveland

Houseley Stevenson

White Sharecropper

N/A

Louis Grant

Black Sharecropper

N/A

James Hanney

Mack

Howard Da Silva

Jim

Art Smith

Harry Carlyle

Robert Strauss

Frank Mason, grocer

John Marley

Thug With Crowbar