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Pen Tennyson: The Proud Valley at The University of West London, Dr William Barry Theatre

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Time 11:00
Date 13/02/16
Price £7

Pen Tennyson directs this early Ealing Studios drama about the charismatic African-American seaman David Goliath (played by Paul Robeson), who washes up in a small mining village in Wales.

In a small Welsh mining town, Emlyn Parry (Simon Lack) leads the local miners' choir. Upon discovering the beautiful singing voice of David Goliath (Paul Robeson), Parry immediately grants him a job in both the mine and the choir. Parry hopes to win a national choir meet on the strength of Goliath's virtuosity, but an unfortunate accident suddenly closes the mine, throwing the entire village into jeopardy.

Just when things seem like they can't get worse, World War II breaks out...

In The Proud Valley, Robeson depicts a kind of black hero rarely seen in Hollywood, one who fuses his political and artistic sensibilities in the image of a Black working man who achieves kinship across boundaries of race and nationality. Years later, Robeson would remark that, of all his films, this was his favorite because it showed workers in a positive and rounded light. Robeson's role was based on the real-life adventures of a black miner from West Virginia who drifted to Wales searching for work. After two years of refusing offers from major studios, Robeson agreed to appear in this independent production, seeing (he told The Glasgow Sentinel) an opportunity to "depict the person as he really is - not the caricature he is always represented to be on the screen".


The Proud Valley (1940) ~ Trailer by FilmGorillas

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