To celebrate Black History Month, we are streaming Joanne Burke's Documentary "Fighting For Respect. African American Soldiers in WW1 France". The film captures the plight of African American soldiers who fought in WWI, receiving the Croix de Guerre military decoration from France, while still fighting discrimination and hatred at home in America.

The film (in English) will be available for streaming from February 23 6:00 PM through March 6 at 11:00 PM EST. All registered people will receive free access to Vimeo to watch the film (no Vimeo account needed). You can watch the trailer here.

On Thursday, March 3 at 6:30 PM we will host associate director Julia Browne to discuss the documentary. This conversation will be on Zoom and all registered people will receive a join link.

We are making this streaming and discussion free for everyone so that more people can understand this important part of Black History. Your donation will help us cover the cost of the film’s copyrights and the speaker’s fee. Thank you for your consideration.

About the speaker

Julia Browne pioneered Black heritage tourism in France in 1994. She was born in Britain, raised in Canada, and resided in France for fifteen years. In Paris, she founded the heritage education company Walking The Spirit Tours-Black Paris & Beyond while a student at the Sorbonne’s Center for African American Studies. Her Afrocentric tours and customized itineraries have introduced countless travelers, students, and educators to the rich but lesser known influence of Black history and culture in Europe, the UK, Washington DC, and Canada.

Julia is also an award-winning broadcaster and a captivating speaker. She is the associate producer Blue Lions Films' documentary Paris Noir – African Americans in the City of Light and Fighting For Respect – African American Soldiers in World War 1 France. Since 2016 she has been invited to speak on France's Black history at cultural organizations American Embassy Washington DC, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture, film festivals, educational institutions and special screenings in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

About the film

USA/FRANCE / 2021 / 54 MIN / DOCUMENTARY / ENGLISH

"Serving in France, three-quarters of the 200,000 soldiers ended up far from the battlefields - relegated to labor battalions performing brutal menial and low-level duties. While at the same time, the 'luckier' ones gained invaluable training while 'loaned' to the flagging French Army where they proved their mettle on the Front, many earning medals of distinction.

Regimental bands accompanied those combat units and kept up the morale of the troops right there on the frontlines and in concerts - spreading encouragement and African-American culture through their own music - jazz.

Convinced that their much-praised heroism overseas would translate to civil rights at home, the returning veterans and their communities instead became the target of unspeakable violence waged by white supremacists during the fiery Red Summer of 1919.

The complexity of this gripping story is retold through rare archival film footage, letters written home from the Front, live walks through former battlefields and incisive commentary from academic experts including Tyler Stovall (Fordham University), Chad Williams (Brandeis University), Adriane Lentz-Smith (Duke University), Jennifer Keene (Chapman University). In addition, the focus on the experiences of several distinguished soldiers provides thought-provoking insight as to how African American participation abroad advanced the fight for equality, respect and freedom in the United States."

Text by Julia Browne. Source: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/8966008/new-african-americans-ww1-france-documentary-available.

About the filmmaker

Joanne Burke is a film and video director-producer-editor with long years of experience. From the late 1960s to 1986 she was a top documentary film editor in New York, with more than twenty long-form documentaries for CBS, NBC, PBS and HBO on social, political and cultural themes to her credit. Burke was also the editor on “The Anderson Tapes” for director Sidney Lument, and served as a co-editor on “Gimme Shelter” a film about the Rolling Stones produced by Albert and David Maysles and Charolette Zwerin.

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