Dr. Cara Caddoo, CRRES Affiliate in The Media School and the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of History, recently discovered the earliest surviving footage from a Black film company in American history. The film, "The Trooper of Troop K," was produced on October 16, 1916 by the Lincoln Motion Picture company. The Library of Congress points out that many silent films have been lost and that materials shot by Black filmmakers before 1920 are even harder to come by.
As Dr. Caddoo puts it: