Body and Soul

A bold and controversial film by pioneer independent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, Body And Soul marked Paul Robeson's screen debut and was the only motion picture he made with an African-American director.

Robeson plays a hard-drinking thief and vicious womanizer who poses as a pastor in a small southern town. Through this diabolical ruse he preys upon a young member of his flock, not unlike the murderous minister of The Night Of The Hunter. The film's depiction of clergy was deemed so incendiary that at least one prominent black newspaper refused to even mention the film in its column. In fact, Robeson never discussed the film in public, partly because it offered not-so-veiled criticism of the two Eugene O'Neill plays in which he had just starred.

This special Kino on Video edition features a new post-modern jazz score by Honk, Wail and Moan, as well as a prologue discussing Micheaux's battle with the New York Censor Board over the film's controversial content.