Morning Bath (1896)
*** (out of 4)
This film is certainly dated by today's standards and is somewhat controversial but I find the thing to be fairly harmless. We see a black mother washing her child in a bucket with soap all over him. That's it but some view this as showing black folks in a negative way but I'm not sure why. To me the film is rather innocent and it appears the mother is having fun showing off in front of the camera, although at the same time it's easy to see the baby doesn't appear to like taking baths. I think this film is important for several reasons including the fact that we see actual black people and not white actors in blackface. There aren't too many films like that from this era so that should be kept in mind.