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by drfuchs 2184 days ago
In the first half of the 1900's, there were "race films" from Black-owned studios that were actually financed like this. The studio would create a trailer that they'd then show to theater-owners. Exhibitors who liked the trailer would pay an advance against the box office, and if enough signed on, the film would get made and distributed to them. Kind of like authors getting an advance on a book they're writing.
1 comments

Do any of them (films or trailers) survive? I've never heard of black-owned studios and I'd like to know more.
Some do, but not many. Wikipedia has a good entry for “race film”, and http://dhbasecamp.humanities.ucla.edu/afamfilm/ looks like a great resource. Also check out https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6845-black-cinema-at... and https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/short-... and other Google hits on “black cinema”.
Thanks, I appreciate the links.