The Scar of Shame

The Scar of Shame is a silent film shot in the winter of 1927 and released in April 1929. It is a silent film melodrama featuring black actors and was written for a predominantly black audience.^[1] It premiered from April 13–17, 1929 in the M&S Douglas Theatre in New York City. Its second screening ran from April 15–20, 1929 at Gibson's Theatre, Philadelphia.^[2]

It was produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia, in one of the early examples of race movies, in which an entirely black cast performed a feature film specifically for a black audience. The film was produced and written by David Starkman and was directed by Frank Peregini, both white. It was one of the later silent race movies.

Melodramas were the genre of choice for early 20th-century black filmmakers.^{[citation needed]} This film emerged during a time of great breakthroughs in not only African American film but all art with the Harlem Renaissance when “a new sense of black consciousness emerged” ^[3] likely after witnessing the bravery of African-American soldiers in World War I. This was a collaboration of a “black cast, white crew and interracial production team”^[1] produced by the conspicuously named “Colored Players” who were mostly white, in 1927. The Scar of Shame was one of three films produced by this company, founded in 1926 in Philadelphia.^[4]