
Hell-Bound Train. 1930. USA. Written and directed by James Gist, Eloyce Gist. Digital restoration from a 16mm print preserved by the Library of Congress. DCP courtesy Kino Lorber. 50 min.
With a shared passion for religion, self-taught husband-and-wife filmmakers James and Eloyce Gist made at least three silent films for African American church communities that they brought around the country. Pairing the screenings with sermons, the Gists used cinema as an evangelizing tool. In Hell-Bound Train —which Eloyce reportedly rewrote, re-edited, and partially reshot after her husband filmed it—we move train car by train car as they dramatize various sins of the Jazz Age, such as dancing, drinking, and gambling. An impish devil accompanies our trip to hell. Although Hell-Bound Train has received some visibility in recent years thanks to Kino Lorber’s Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set and a brief stint on the Criterion Channel, this film, one of the few surviving silent films by an African American woman, is still frequently missing from theatrical programs dedicated to early women filmmakers, perhaps due to its low production values and deeply moralizing agenda. The restoration features a recorded score composed and performed by Dr. Samuel Waymon.