Henry Browne, farmer

Movie
Original title	Henry Browne, farmer
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1942
length	10 mins
Rod
Director	Roger Barlow
production	United States Department of Agriculture
music	Gene Forrell
occupation
	Canada Lee : Narrator; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pollard as the Browne family;

Henry Browne, Farmer is an American documentary film directed by Roger Barlow in 1942. The short film sheds light on the everyday work of the African-American farmer Henry Browne.

action

The film shows the hard working life of the African American farmer Henry Browne and his family on a small farm in Georgia . Browne has three children and a wife, all but one of whom are on the farm. They don't own a tractor, just two donkeys, as of this year a cow and several chickens. The fields shed little, but since this year Henry has been growing peanuts as the state wants. With the oil obtained from it, it makes an important contribution to the success of the war. On Saturdays he invites his whole family to his carriage, but this time it doesn't go to the market. Rather, they visit the family's eldest son, who is a pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen . You can watch this while flying.

background

The film was produced by the United States Department of Agriculture . The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 1943 . The film is public domain in the United States and is available in the Prelinger Archives on the Internet Archive website.

The main characters in the film, the Pollard couple, were actually farmers, but in Alabama . The film was shown in more than 1000 cinemas.

criticism

The film is not racist , but it fails to serve its purpose and confirms common prejudices. It was actually supposed to call for more tolerance, but the African American is portrayed as subservient, does what the state tells him to do and lives on a low level of existence. Even at that time you could tell the film had a lack of budget, the sets are more than loveless. Even the journalist who came up with the story later said the film was bland and would not serve its purpose.

Web links

Henry Browne, Farmer in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

^ Academy Awards 1943. Internet Movie Database , accessed February 13, 2013 .
↑ Henry Browne, Farmner. Internet Archive , accessed February 13, 2013 .
↑ L. Herbert Henegan: The Small Farmers Go to War . In: The Crisis . No. 50 , January 1943, ISSN 0011-1422 , pp. 9-28 .
^ Paul Denis: The Negro Makes Advances . In: Billboar . January 2, 1943, ISSN 0006-2510 , p. 28 .
^ Peter C. Rollins: Hollywood As Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context . University Press of Kentucky, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8131-2791-0 , pp. 112 .

[1] Academy Awards 1943. Internet Movie Database , accessed February 13, 2013 .

[2] Henry Browne, Farmner. Internet Archive , accessed February 13, 2013 .

[3] L. Herbert Henegan: The Small Farmers Go to War . In: The Crisis . No. 50 , January 1943, ISSN 0011-1422 , pp. 9-28 .

[4] Paul Denis: The Negro Makes Advances . In: Billboar . January 2, 1943, ISSN 0006-2510 , p. 28 .

[5] Peter C. Rollins: Hollywood As Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context . University Press of Kentucky, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8131-2791-0 , pp. 112 .