DEFA Offers Free Stream of Paul Robeson Documentary Feb. 18-25

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In celebration of Black History Month and in anticipation of its upcoming streaming and DVD release, the DEFA Film Library is offering the UMass community a free one-week preview stream of the documentary “Paul Robeson: ‘I’m a Negro. I’m an American’” (1989, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff) on their Vimeo platform from Feb. 18-25.

The film is a cinematic homage to Robeson (1898–1976), the Black American singer, actor, civil rights activist who, at the peak of his singing career in the late 1940s, became a political activist and as a result endured years of persecution and isolation in his own country during the hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism. Throughout his life, he advocated at home and abroad for the freedom of the Black community and all human beings. He had a significant impact on the 1960s American civil rights movement and the subsequent social changes by inspiring the use of voices and social positions to speak up against racism and oppression, and in doing so, to strive for a better and more just world.

A streaming link for the film will be available on the DEFA website starting Feb. 18.