Native Land

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

Mary George

Hill's Wife

John Rennick

Hill's Son

Amelia Romano

Young Girl in Cleveland

Houseley Stevenson

White Sharecropper

Louis Grant

Black Sharecropper

James Hanney

Mack

Howard Da Silva

Jim

Art Smith

Harry Carlyle