- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter uses Ingagi and The Silent Enemy, both independent films released in 1930, to examine the intersections of race and religion in the context of American documentary film conventions. The filmmakers claimed documentary status for their films, despite the fact that both were largely scripted and contained staged representations. Many audience members and critics nevertheless took their representations of the religious practices of Africans and Native Americans to be truthful and invested in the films’ authenticity because their visual codes, narratives, and advertising confirmed accepted stereotypes about race, religion, and capacity for civilization. Examining these two films in the context of the broader history of documentary representations of race and religion—from travelogues, adventure, ethnographic, and expeditionary films through more recent productions—this chapter explores how the genre has helped to shape and communicate ideas about race and religion.
Keywords: documentary, film, travelogue, representation, race, religion, authenticity, Ingagi, The Silent Enemy
Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author most recently of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index
