See this film series: Gotta Dance: The American Movie Music 1929-1953 @ ArtsEmerson

Swing! (1938)

You can see how far Hollywood has come in its depiction of African Americans by comparing the multiply-Oscar-nominated The Help with Hearts in Dixie (1929 | 6:30 pm), screening as part of the ArtsEmerson Gotta Dance: The American Movie Musical 1929-1953 series. Made by whites and starring an all-black cast, Hearts tells the story of cotton-pickers in the Deep South coping with the deaths of loved ones. There's no plucky white girl to bail them out so they must deal with their grief themselves - and do so musically, with traditional spirituals. Also on the program is pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux's Swing! (1938 | 8 pm), an African American version of 42nd Street. They screen on Friday, February 3 in the Paramount Center's Bright Family Screening Room, 559 Washington St, Boston | $10; $7.50 seniors; $5 students | 617.824.8400 or artsemerson.org.