The McCelvey Center in York, S.C., will launch a Southern film series starting later this
month.
The first film, “Hallelujah!,” (Sunday, Jan. 24 @ 3 p.m.) is one of the earliest talkies to star Nine Mae McKinney, an African American actress from Lancaster, S.C.
The center also will screen “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Sunday, Feb, 28 @ 3 p.m.) and “Key Largo” (Sunday, March 28 @ 3 p.m.).
HALLELUJAH! (1929) was the first major Hollywood production with an all-black cast and one of the first talkies, said Michael Scoggins, historian with the Cultural & Heritage Museums of York County. Produced by Hollywood legend King Vidor, it follows a poor but spiritually gifted family of African American sharecroppers in 1920s Mississippi as they find tragedy, salvation, downfall and redemption.
“ HALLELUJAH! is certainly a product of its times, but it still holds up extremely well, even today,” Scoggins said. “A classic!”
IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Date: Sunday, Jan. 24
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: McCelvey Center, 212 E. Jefferson St., York, S.C. (803.684.3948)
Cost: $5 general admiaaion / $3 for members
