Independent filmmaker Dante James recently completed writing and directing, Harlem in Montmartre, A Paris Jazz Story, which tells the story of the jazz age in Paris between the First and Second World Wars, and explores a fascinating yet often neglected era of African-American cultural history.  After the peace treaty was signed in Versailles, many black Americans remained in Europe rather that return to the brutal segregation and racism of America.

Over the next two decades they created an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris’s hilly Montmarte neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others have faded into history. 

Inspired by the book by William Shack and utilizing special performance footage of a jazz band that evokes the spirit, look and sound of the times along with rare archival material, from both France and America, this remarkable performance documentary features key figures such as James Reese Europe, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Ada Bricktop Smith, Eugene Bullard, Django Reinhardt and many more. 

The film will air in the Fall of 2009 as part of the PBS series GREAT PERFORMANCES.  A preview of the film will be available on this site soon.

The 2008 production release of The Doll, a twenty-minute dramatic short film, is set in the early 1900s and tells the story of Tom Taylor, the black proprietor of the Wyandot Hotel Barbershop.        read more