Oscilloscope Laboratories Tabs Aug. 11 For The Home Entertainment Launch Of Director Horace B. Jenkins' Lost Film • Cane River

There is a line from director John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that gets right to the heart of the amazing story about a lost film, the man who made it and how it finally came to light.   The quote, “When the legend becomes fact … print the legend.”

The film, the legend, is Cane River and it will be available from Oscilloscope Laboratories on Aug. 11 as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

On a Friday afternoon, the third of December in 1982 to be exact, a 42-year old man dropped dead of a heart attack on the streets of Manhattan.   His first feature-length film, Cane River, was being scheduled for a New York City premiere after the first of the year.  With his death, it never happened.   That was 1982.

The filmmaker in question was Horace B. Jenkins, who had won Emmy Awards for his segment work on Roger Fisher’s PBS series, The Advocates as well as Sesame Street, he was also a producer of the PBS series, Black Journal, plus he did the 1978 documentary titled Sudan Pyramids: A Zandi's Dream.

In 1982, he did something unusual, with the financial backing of an influential black family, he assembled an all-black crew and cast … and filmed Cane River on location in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.   It was his first stab at writing and directing a dramatic narrative, which is perhaps best described as something of a “Romeo and Juliet” tale that goes to the heart of black culture and class distinctions.  

To the outsider, Peter Metoyer’s (played by newcomer Richard Romain) relationship with Maria Mathis (Tommye Myrick, also in her film debut), is just that, an attractive young black couple in love.   But to their respective families, their love is as toxic as the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.

To this point, Rhea Combs, the curator of film and photography at the National Museum of African American History, noted that this is not the type of film that Hollywood would make … (which have) “been riddled with stereotypes and some pejorative images.”

Indeed, put Jenkins’ film in context of its time.   Hollywood had spent almost the entirety of the 1970s churning out Blaxploitation films — Shaft, Across 110th Street, Hammer, Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, Dolemite, Disco Godfather — action, violence, sex, drugs … subtlety was not an attribute.   Jenkins even had a gig as a script and continuity technician on the 1973 film production of Shaft in Africa, so he knew all about Blaxploitation … Cane River would not be one of those.

 

Once the film was completed it had an audience screening and then, upon Jenkins’ death, Cane River dropped out of sight.    Skip ahead to 2013 and shuttering of the DuArt laboratory, where producer Sandra Schulberg and her IndieCollect organization suddenly found itself in possession of nearly 4,000 negatives.   Yes, Cane River was one of these.

Teaming up with the Academy Film Archive, the DuArt find was put in safe keeping … and once there, curator Ed Carter took a look at the film and with some detective work, a little help here and there, he was able to identify the filmmaker and subsequently made contact with the film’s editor, Debra Moore (her first film … subsequent film editing work included assignments on Jake and the Fatman, Diagnosis Murder and more).

From the DuArt rescued materials they had the original 16mm A & B roll film negatives, plus two sets of 35mm negatives, which didn’t match.   Once assembled into the “best cut” possible, a 4K digital scan was completed and the film finally was screened again for selected audiences in 2018, including at the Oprah Winfrey Theatre of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.   

Oscilloscope Laboratories picked it up for theatrical exhibition and home media.   The film made its official theatrical debut on Feb. 7 of this year, 37 years after Jenkins’ death.   Legend, fact, legend, fact … “When the legend becomes fact … print the legend.”  

What an amazing journey.   Finally, Aug. 11, audiences, film buffs, consumers, the curious, you name it, will be able to see Cane River … for virtually all of them, this viewing opportunity will be for the first time, ever.

Bonus features include an archival television interview with writer/director Horace B. Jenkins (circa 1981), a newly-minted video session with actors Richard Romain and Tommye Myrick, a second newly-prepared video session with Sacha Jenkins, the son of Horace B. Jenkins, and the Ebertfest (2019) post-screening Q&A session.