3.76-Hallelujah with Jonathan Hammond
Update: 2025-09-19
Description
Today's episode is my conversation about the 1929 film Hallelujah. I'm joined by Jonathan Hammond, film director who has multiple shorts on the festival circuit this fall. We talk about many of the problems of the film even though it does include an all African American cast, some interesting images of what life was like at the time in the South, whether or not the film qualifies as a "musical" as we would define it today, and what representation looks like in film both in the past and today.
You can watch Hallelujah on YouTube and be sure to give Jonathan a follow on Instagram @jonohamm.
Other films mentioned in this episode include:
- The Crowd directed by King Vidor
- Weary River directed by Frank Lloyd
- Brokeback Mountain directed by Ang Lee
- The Birth of a Nation directed by D. W. Griffith
- Sinners directed by Ryan Coogler
- Highest 2 Lowest directed by Spike Lee
- High and Low directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Him directed by Justin Tipping
Other referenced topics:
- Daniel Haynes's quote in support of the film
- The Migration of Musical Film: From Ethnic Margins to American Mainstream by Desirée J. Garcia referencing William Fountain's objection to his lines in the film
- "Rediscovering Hallelujah (1929), director King Vidor’s sensitive film with all-black cast" by Bernd Reinhardt
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