Black and White
About Black and White
Drawn from Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem, the cartoon shows Black workers in the American sugar fields, in chains, behind bars, and in an electric chair, with a white man whipping or guarding them. Willie, a shoeshiner, asks a rich white man why sugar so white must be made by a black man, and tells him to do it himself. The man hits him. The film ends on Lenin's mausoleum and the line, "Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!" Konstantin Eggert reads the text. Paul Robeson sings "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child."
Cast & crew
More about Black and White
Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Leonid Amalrik directed. Iosif Sklyut and Aleksandr Kovalenko wrote the script from Mayakovsky. Grigori Gamburg composed the score.
Themes
Background
A 1932 Soviet cartoon about Jim Crow labor in the sugar fields, made from a Mayakovsky poem and closed on Lenin's tomb.
Music
Grigori Gamburg wrote the score. Paul Robeson sings "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Eggert narrates.
Notes
- The English article spells the poet Maykovsky. The poem is Vladimir Mayakovsky's "Black and White.
- The short argues in titles and narration rather than through a Disney-style character personality, which the article sets against the American studio practice of the time.
Scenes
- Willie asks the white man to make the sugar himself and is struck.
- The last shot is Lenin's mausoleum.
Influenced by
- Vladimir Mayakovsky, "Black and White
Quotes
Why must sugar — so white — be made by a black man?
Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!
