The Proud Valley

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The Proud Valley
The Proud Valley DVD cover
Directed by	Pen Tennyson
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	Alfredda Brilliant Louis Golding Herbert Marshall
Starring	Paul Robeson Edward Chapman Simon Lack Rachel Thomas
Distributed by	Supreme Distributing Company
Release date(s)	April 6 1940 (UK)
Running time	1 hr. 16 min.
Language	English
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IMDb profile

Proud Valley is a 1940 Ealing Studios film starring Paul Robeson. Filmed on location in the heart of the coal mining region of Wales, Proud Valley documents the hard realities of Welsh coal miners’ lives. Robeson’s part is based on the real-life adventures of a Black miner from West Virginia who drifts to Wales by way of England, searching for work. After two years of refusing offers from major studios, Robeson saw an opportunity, when he agreed to appear in this independent production, to strive to “depict the Negro as he really is—not the caricature he is always represented to be on the screen.”

With Proud Valley, Robeson may have best succeeded in that aim. His character, David Goliath, initially wins the respect of the very musically oriented Welsh people through his singing (as did Robeson in real life). He shares the hardships of their lives, and becomes a working class hero as he helps to better their working conditions and ultimately, during a mining accident, sacrifices his life to save fellow miners.

In Proud Valley, Robeson depicts a kind of Black hero never seen in Hollywood, one who fuses his political and artistic sensibilities in the image of a Black working man who achieves kinship across boundaries of race and nationality. Years later, Robeson would remark that, of all his films, this was his favorite because it showed workers in a positive light.