Author of Cuban descent, Alberto Insùa (1885-1963) publishes in 1922 El negro que tenía el alma blanca (literally, The Black Man Who Had a White Man's Soul), a sentimental novel the success of which led Spanish filmmaker Benito Perojo (1894-1974) to direct a silent film version of it in 1926. The exteriors were shot in Spain, while studios in Paris were used for the interiors. Perojo called upon the renowned young singer Concha Piquer (1906-1990) to play the role of Emma, and Egyptian actor Raymond de Sarka, wearing dark make-up, to play the jazz dancer. El negro que tenía el alma blanca was released in France in 1927 under the title, Le danseur de Jazz, to take advantage of the fame of The Jazz Singer, released the same year! The film proved to be a great success, just like the sales of the book (40 editions and more than a million copies sold!). Perojo shot a second sound version in 1934, and Alberto Insùa wrote a follow-up to the story, in which Emma, married to a white man, is haunted by the spirit of Peter Wald&hellip

At the time of this film, Europe witnessed the rise of negritude, an ideological and literary current which defended black culture. It marked the advent of jazz and music hall revues featuring black artists. In 1925, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) danced the Charleston in the Revue nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Her success nevertheless fell within a colonialist and paternalistic vision of society. Although ironically wearing dark make-up at the beginning of the film, Emma (Spanish society) struggles against a mitigated feeling of attraction and repulsion connected with the colour of Peter's skin and his celebrity (modernity).

The admirable dreamlike sequence reveals all the ambiguity of the desire which Emma represses, and her racist fears.  Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón (1871-1929) was in charge of the special effects. Like many of his special-effect films present on the website, he employed superimposition to insert dreamlike characters into the décor of the room.

Whether it had or not the intention to condemn the racism from which the hero suffers, this work appears to us today as the reflection of many racist stereotypes with regard to Blacks. Viewed in the historic, social and cultural context particular to colonial Spain of the 20s, it raises today the question of how we view these images of the past, and confronts our current values and codes with those contemporaneous with the work. The interest of this film resides in the memory of an era, just as much as in its faculty today to give rise to and support discussion.

The original music for this film was composed by Sylvia Filus in 2011 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique &ndash Society of authors, composers and music editors).