Black and White

Based on “Black and White,” a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Mayakovsky is often called the loudspeaker of the Bolshevik Revolution. Yet he was also a most talented poet, whose works are widely quoted even today. As a graphic artist, he was one of the founders of the Okna Rosta (Rosta Windows) a massive media publicity blitz which used posters to spread word of the Revolution via the Russian telegraphic agency. The animation in “Black and White” is based on his drawings. In 1922, Mayakovsky received special permission to travel to America. En route he stopped in Cuba where Americans controlled the sugar and tobacco industries. “Black and White” tells the story of Willie, the shoe shine boy, who makes the fatal mistake of asking the White Sugar King Mister Bragg, “Why should white sugar be made by a black man?” Only fragments of the film were found, without restorable sound. It was decided to underscore the fragments with excerpts from “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child,” recorded by Paul Robeson in 1949 at the Tchaikovsky Theatre in Moscow. The son of an American slave, Robeson was an athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist. He spoke fluent Russian. Although he never officially joined the Communist party, he supported the USSR politically which brought him to the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and ultimately probably cost him his American career. In 1952 Robeson was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. He translated the Soviet national anthem into English. His rendition, also recorded in Moscow in 1949, underscores the end credits of this episode.