REOL Productions

REOL Productions Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	Film production
Founded	1921
Defunct	1924
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Key people	Robert Levy
Products	Silent films targeting African American audiences

REOL Productions Corporation operated as a film production enterprise located in New York City from 1921 until 1924, during the period of silent film cinema. The company created ten motion pictures aimed specifically at African American viewers, focusing on cinematic adaptations of literary works by African American writers. Among these was a film interpretation of Paul Laurence Dunbar's 1902 novel The Sport of the Gods. Leadership was provided by Robert Levy, who also managed the Lafayette Theatre, and many productions featured actors from the Lafayette Players troupe.

The studio's initial film release was The Sport of the Gods.

One notable adaptation was The Call of His People, based on Audrey Bowser’s novel about racial passing, titled The Man Who Would Be White. Although there were intentions to produce a film version of Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition, this project was never completed. REOL Productions discontinued its activities in 1924.

The company's portfolio encompassed melodramatic narratives, at least one comedic work, and two documentary films. Distribution deals were successfully established in cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore.

In 2002, efforts to recover and preserve any existing REOL films were initiated by the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections.

Filmography

• The Sport of the Gods (1921)
• The Burden of Race (1921)
• The Secret Sorrow, featuring George Edward Brown
• The Call of His People (1922), adapted from Aubrey Bowser's novel The Man Who would Be White
• The Jazz Hounds
• The Simp (1921), starring Sherman H. Dudley, Inez Clough, Edna Morton, Alex K. Shannon, and Percy Verwayen
• Ties of Blood (1921)
• The Schemers (1922)
• Easy Money (1922), with Sherman H. Dudley
• Spitfire (1922)

See also

• African American cinema

External links

• IMDb page for REOL Productions