Film 16

Film 16 is not a traditional narrative but a profound ethnographic excavation, capturing the vibrant pulse of All-Black towns in 1920s Oklahoma. Directed by the Baptist minister Solomon Sir Jones, the footage serves as a silent witness to the daily lives, religious ceremonies, and architectural pride of communities in Clearview, Okmulgee, Muskogee, and beyond. Jones moves his camera through the streets of Wewoka and Holdenville, documenting a middle-class reality that mainstream cinema of the era—obsessed with caricature—deliberately ignored. This is a visual ledger of residences, clergy, and social gatherings that reframes the American West as a site of Black autonomy and prosperity. It is a collection of moments that, when stitched together, challenge the historical erasure of the rural Black experience during the interwar years.