The Film Scholar Who Tracked Down And Archived Decades Of African American Films

“Seeking visual representations of black people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, [Phyllis Klotman] learned of the existence of a body of work — long scattered, little known and unpreserved — by early black filmmakers. She traveled the country, scouring attics and cellars and museum vaults, assembling a collection of films by and about African-Americans. Many had survived only in fragments.”